Blood Diamond's Lessons

James and I watched Blood Diamond last night and I thought it was a very sad movie, but also with a good message. I think my favorite one of it was between Solomon and his son Dia.

Dia is stolen away by rebel troops and forced to learn how to shoot, kill, be a soldier. They take his identity away, he it taught to deny his father, hate him... enough to kill him.

Although its not the main part of the story... Solomon is continuously searching for Dia. At the very end of the movie, Solomon finds himself alone in a little cove of jungle on the opposite end of a gun Dia is pointing at him. And there, in that moment, Solomon says the most poignant monologue of the movie to try to stop Dia from shooting him. He reminds him who he is.

He says: "You are dia vandi of the proud mindy tribe, you are a good boy, who loves soccer, and school. Your mother loves you so much, she waits back for you making plaintains and stew with your sister and the new baby. The cows wait for you, and baboo, the wild dog who wants no one but you. I know they made you do bad things, you are not a bad boy, I am your father who loves you and you will come home with me and you will be my son again. "

I feel like sometimes when we go so far off track it is God reminding us the same thing as we point fingers at Him, saying things that aren't true, holding on to false identities, false truths, that this world can give us more than He ever can. And it is in moments of crying out to Him. Being on the brink of turning our backs, forever He looks at us, with deep, wise, sorrowful eyes and says "You are my child. Your family loves you so much. We are waiting for you to come home, we are preparing a feast for you, and everyone is anticipating your return. I know that you've done bad things, but you are not bad. I am you Father who loves you and you will come to me, and you will be my child again."

I love how in this moment, Solomon doesn't care about anything else. Not that he has a gun pointed at him, by the one person he's been searching for. He doesn't care what Dia has done because deep inside he knows exactly who Dia is. How often do we say to God: "its no use, we will continue in our evil ways" as the Israelites did in Jeremiah. And yet God calls us back, over and over and over again.

how awesome is that.

RENT: inspiration in seemingly unethical places

Last night my friend Kevin and I went to see the musical RENT. Its a story about some people living in New York in one of the more shady parts of town. Its about love, both straight and homosexual, about life with HIV/AIDS, and how to live it fully. One song really touched me deeply and reminded me of when my bible study looked at the book of Ruth. Here are the lyrics, the song is called "I'll Cover You":

live in my house
i'll be your shelter
just pay be back with one thousand kisses
be my lover and i'll cover you

open your door
i'll be your tenant
don't got much baggage to lay at your feet
but sweet kisses i've got to spare
i'll be there and i'll cover you

i think they meant it when they said you can't buy love
now i know you can rent it and new lease you are my love one life be my life

just slip me on
i'll be your blanket
wherever whatever i'll be your coat

you'll be my king and i'll be your castle
no you'll be my queen and i'll be your moat
i think they meant it when they said you can't buy love
now i know you can rent it and new lease you are my life one life oh my life

i've longed to discover something as true as the seas
So with a thousand sweet kisses
i'll cover you
with a thousand sweet kisses
i'll cover you

when you're worn out and tired
when you're heart has expired
if you're cold and you're lonely you've got one nickel only
with a thousand sweet kisses
i'll cover you with a thousand sweet kisses
i'll cover you
oh lover i'll cover you
yeah
oh lover i'll cover you

This song really touched me... because when we were studying Ruth we read deeply into the following verse:

"Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a kinsman-redeemer." (Ruth 3:9)

Ruth says this to Boaz after she lays at the foot of his bed and he wakes up to see her there, spreads his blanket over her. The fact that Boaz is her kinsman-redeemer basically means that he is next in line to marry Ruth. The word in hebrew for cover is to signify shelter, or the way a hen wraps her wings around her chicks, or warmth. So when Ruth asks Boaz to spread his garment over her it means more deeply to provide her all of these things.

The song to me says the same thing... the way that love should be is a shelter. God wants to cover us, with his love, with his protection, with everything we'll ever need. And every verse means so much too: "Live in my house, I'll be your shelter", "open your door, I'll be your tenant, don't got much baggage to lay at your feet", "just slip me on, i'll be your blanket, whenever, wherever i'll be your coat", "when you're worn out and tired, when you're heart has expired, if you're cold and you're lonely you've got one nickel only"

How often does God ask us to live in His house, to let Him be our shelter. If we live with Him, we can leave all of our baggage at his feet (even if we have a lot!), we can slip him on when we need comfort from our lives, if we're cold and need something to warms us, when we're tired, when we are at the end of life, when we have no where else to go, when we are poor. He can fulfill our every need.

I guess the only major conflict to this moving song is that it was sung between Collins and Angel (his drag queen 'girlfriend'). But a good song nonetheless, and a good meaning, and a good demonstration of what love is supposed to look like.

Something to talk about...

I'm starting to feel like its been quite a while since I last wrote anything of substance here. Life's been crazy with a lot of new activities that have really taken over. So i thought i'd spend a few minutes this morning laying out what i've been up to.

First, many of you know that I started working with Capernaum, the Young Life for special needs kids in the Spokane area. We had a meeting 2 monday's ago and I had an absolute blast! We had a barbeque and played kick ball and then had a bigger or better scavenger hunt (which my group won by bringing back a car stereo... not very big... but definitely better!) The kids were awesome. We had about 25 in total, ranging from 16 to 38 years old. The 38 year old is one of those that has been coming for years and years and they don't believe in kicking people out of this community, so he's welcome to stay as a "student leader". I think one of the most interesting things is realizing HOW low functioning the kids that I used to work with are. When I think special needs kids my brain goes to thinking of kids who are non-verbal, violent at times, and need constant help with everything. We have a little bit of that here too... an autistic kid who really likes to figure out what you're afraid of so he can sneak up on you pretending to be that thing, a downs syndrome boy who likes to draw pictures of "crime" and "sinners", a little downs syndrome girl who noticed that there was a new girl and rather than introducing herself to me she snuck up behind me, yelled "BOO!" and then proceeded to give me a HUGE bear hug. They are all really precious kids... and I think with time they will grow on me just like my campers did.

Second thing: We had a really big career fair on Saturday that James and I went to. There were 50 recruiters there from all over Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. It was really wild and somewhat overwhelming. As I walked down the aisles of the room there were hoards of people who just wanted to know about me, what i was interested in, what year of school i was in, why I should go there for my clinical rotations, why they would be an excellent place to work... oh, and please take some free stuff and sign up for our raffle. I brought home A LOAD of information packets and also about 15 pens and highlighters, 3 water bottles, 3 chapsticks, a snakes and ladders board game, an athletic bag, clocks, notepads, free music on line, gum, etc. etc. I also signed up for raffles to win things like $25 to starbucks, $50 to barnes and nobel, an ipod (nano, shuffle, and one with all the bells and whistles), digital camera, etc.

It was over-all a very good experience, if nothing more than just to see what's out there, learn about scholarships for signing on with them, hearing about what job-offers are like, realizing how little I need to worry about one when I graduate, and even finding out about a lot of places that would be great choices for clinicals (as long as i don't mind going to Richland or Sedro Wooley)

I'm also playing intramural soccer and its been really fun. I get pretty sore every evening we play because its working such different muscles than i'm used to (and I get really into it so if i get mad i start to throw them elbows and kick things other than the ball). We've been playing 2x/week for 4 weeks now and tomorrow are playoffs, which i'll be missing because i'm going to see....

RENT! with my friend Kevin (aka: Flat Tire... because he likes Fat Tire and he's a cyclist). I'm really excited to go see the musical... I haven't been to one in such a long time that it will be fun to have a night out on the town!

Anyways, that's it for now! I'll try to blog more sooner rather than later!
Ana

BLOOMSDAY!

I ran in the Bloomsday race today... along with about 50,000 other people. It was really fun to get out and run. I did the 12Km course in 1:09:28... so just over a 9 minute mile pace. And I'd like to argue that I ran sub-9's for most of the course because my first two miles were super slow because of all of the people there. I'm hoping next year to do it in under and hour. That would be cool.

This week:
2 tests tomorrow
1 test Wednesday
big project due Friday

its gonna be a long haul.