December 28 – “Better than the movie”

Today was one of those days that I vaguely recall from way back before the storm.  It was Sunday.  We went to church.  We stopped at McAlister's for a quiet lunch – just the two of us.  We headed back to Omega, anticipating a quiet afternoon.  And it was, much to my surprise.  The Texans won.  The Cowboys lost.  I didn't watch more than a minute or two of either game.  Actually, I started typing my blog entry for the day before and "fell asleep at the wheel."  Well, the wheel was the computer.  But I really did fall asleep while typing.  I guess my day was pretty boring.    We ate some leftovers for supper, and then we watched two movies.  Now, we haven't done that in four months or more, I know.  The last one was the TV, cleaned-up version of Dodgeball.  Very goofy movie.  Grown men and women playing in a national championship game of dodgeball in Las Vegas.  Complete with "ESPN 8" announcers, huge crowds and all.  Loved the cameo appearances by Lance Armstrong and David Hasselhoff.    The other movie was called The Client.  It was based on a book by John Grisham.  The plot premise had to do with two young boys who witness a suicide and get evidence that will put a mob-connected thug in prison for murder.  Will the mob kill them before they can testify?  Will the struggling, recovering alcoholic lawyer help or hurt the case?  Will Tommy Lee Jones get elected governor of Louisiana?  That's the Hollywood version.   I remember the book.  We used to have the book.  We had all of John Grisham books.  Now Ike has them.  Like every book I have ever read that was made into a movie, I liked the book way better than the movie.  The original is always better than the copy, even with all the bells and whistles of Hollywood.  Part of it is that you have to make a real investment of time to read an entire book.  You can't just run over to the theater and sit for a few hours and be done with it.  It's because you get all the nuances of character development in a book that you can't get in movies.  And that's because the Author - the Creator knows the characters better than anybody.  That's what made doing book reports in high school so difficult for me.  How should I know why the main character did what he did?  And the worst one – how should I know what the author meant when he said … whatever?  It would be so much easier if we could just ask the author instead of speculating and guessing.    Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God - Hebrews 12:2   Father, help me to trust you for answers I can't seem to scrounge up on my own.  You are Creator.  You are Author.  You know.  And sometimes it's better that I don't.  Amen.