the help has arrived

Every second, people are talking about the book, The Help.  I remember awhile back, I was at a car repair shop because my sister was having some issues with her car.  While I was in the waiting room, I saw this woman completely engrossed in a book.  As I awkwardly tried to look at the cover without her thinking I was staring, I saw that it was The Help.  I thought, what the crap? Who would want to read a book with two little birds on the front? From the cover, I wasn’t intrigued.  Apparently, I’ve been proven wrong.

Now, this book has become one of the hottest on the market and has maintained its status on the bestseller list for weeks! After hearing my friends and relatives rave about the book, I seriously contemplated buying it.  My real conviction came when I saw the trailer for the movie and was eagerly waiting to see the release date at the end of the trailer.  It’s then that I realized, this MUST be good! So, I ordered it online ASAP. I received it today and I can’t wait to read it tonight.

I’m one of those people though, that has to read a book before I see the movie adaptation.  If I see the movie before reading the book, I won’t read it.  It may be a long shot, but I’m determined to finish this book before it hits theaters next week.  I have work, packing for school, and a ton of other things but I want to finish it as soon as possible.  I miss reading late into the night because I can’t persuade myself to put a book down.  Reading is one of my favorite hobbies and I’m excited to start it back tonight.  When I finish, I’ll give you an update because I have a good feeling about this one 🙂

-B

i’m on a roll

For the past hour and a half, I have been writing and can’t seem to stop.  I’m working on a book and so it’s hard to write when the inspiration isn’t present.  But for some reason, I started typing and the ideas kept flowing.  It’s definitely a tedious process but I’m hoping that in the end, it will be worth the late nights and hard work.

Back to work I go!

-B

know me by another name

I’m a little behind on my movies but I watched one the other day that made me want to buy it immediately after watching.  So, I’m not the type of person who collects movies because there are few movies I’m willing to watch more than once.  This movie, however,  proved to be an exception.

It was The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  Before you start thinking that you’ve wasted five minutes reading the beginning of this post only to hear about one of the Chronicles of Narnia movies, hear me out.  I think this is one you’ll enjoy.

First off, I haven’t read any of The Chronicles of Narnia books but I might have to dive into the series after watching the film.  This film brilliantly infused (knowingly or unknowingly) a myriad of symbols into 113 minutes.  My brain was having a field day thinking of how one thing represented something else and so on.  This movie was my favorite thus far in the series because no matter what religion you are or your beliefs, you feel moved by the storyline.

I’m about to list a few spoilers so if you haven’t seen the movie, don’t blame me.  This is my final warning, so from this point on, you’re reading at your own will. 

The children are brought back to Narnia because they have to find the seven lost lords of Narnia.  Prince Caspian, along with numerous other characters, join the children on their journey aboard the Dawn Treader (the huge ship).  Each lord possesses a sword and when all of the seven swords are placed on Aslan’s table, their combined power will be revealed.

As the voyage progresses, the children find out that each of the lords had succumbed to a power that they couldn’t resist.  After one of the lords was found in a pool of water that turned anything into gold, my mind started connecting dots.  There are seven lords and each died because they wanted something they couldn’t have.  That’s when I said, this must be a symbol of the seven deadly sins.  The gold had to do with greed and as the lords’ remains were discovered, it made sense.  I thought that was cool until Eustace was turned into a dragon.

Ok, so I wasn’t fond of the cousin but did he really have to turn into a dragon? I thought that was a little cruel but if it wasn’t for his dragon transformation, he would not have been able to save Narnia.  He had a greater purpose than he could have ever imagined.  Eustace saw himself as a hideous beast who breathed fire.  What Eustace didn’t know, was that beneath all those scales, a heart of courage was waiting to emerge.  He had a purpose to serve but before, he was too blind to grab hold of it.  As much as Eustace tried to scrap the scales off, he couldn’t do it.  It took the power of Aslan to transform him back into a boy.  That my friends, is the power of God.  Putting that image in freeze frame, I know that a majority of us can relate to Eustace in his dragon form.  We think that our outward appearance is everything.
We think that we can do things on our own, but that’s not the case.  We NEED Christ in order to experience the uncleanliness buried beneath our scales.  Only He can remove our scales and reveal a new creature that embodies what He has envisioned for our lives.

After Aslan turned Eustace back into a human, his outlook on life took a 360 turn.  In one of the scenes at the end of hte film, the children and Prince Caspian ask Eustace what it was like when Aslan turned him back into a boy.  Eustace said a few sentences, but they were profound:

“No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t do it myself.  Then [Aslan] came towards me.  It sort of hurt but it was a good pain, like when you pull a thorn from your foot.”

And to end what has to be my longest post yet, my favorite scene is when the children reach what they think is Aslan’s country.  When they see Aslan appear next to them, Lucy knows that this is their final trip to Narnia.  When Lucy asks Aslan if he’ll visit them in their world, Aslan tells her that he’ll always be watching.  When Lucy asks how, Aslan responds with an intense statement:

“In your world, I have another name.  you must learn to know me by it.  That was the very reason you were brought here to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”

My jaw dropped when I heard this because those string of words contain the reassurance we need to hear.  We were brought into this world so that we can know Christ and serve Him.  It has never been about our wants and preferences.  It will always be about HIM.  We can think of earth as our Narnia – it’s where we face our greatest enemies, but embrace our hopes and dreams.  Bear in mind, it is temporary.  When our time runs out, our life with Christ begins.

There is so much more I want to say but for the sake of your sanity and any hope I have of you reading another one of my posts, I’m going to stop.  Plus, my fingers are about fall off if I type another lengthy paragraph.

If you haven’t seen this movie, please do.  It’s one you’ll never forget.

-B

material overload

I could not be happier that the weekend is only one day away.  I had two tests this week that have left absolutely drained. For my first test, I woke up in the middle of the night on Monday only to find my health communications book resting on me.  If only the material could have transferred from my book to my brain during the night, I would use that method more often.  For the test I had today, my study group and I studied for 4 hours yesterday and our bodies all began to shut down around the same time.  After reading through our notes, quizzing each other with flashcards, and coming up with crazy acronyms to remember everything, we had to come to a stop.  I knew I was done for the night around midnight because I wasn’t processing any of the info we were going over for the last 10 minutes of our session.   Fortunately, I feel confident that I pretty much dominated the test today and walked out (or slightly stumbled because of exhaustion) out of that lecture hall.

Now, I’m relaxing.  Something I haven’t been able to do for this entire week.  Hasta luego!

-B

packed weekend

This weekend has been non-stop, but so much fun!! My little cousin (who I consider to be more of my little sister), celebrated her eighth birthday on Friday. After she and her sister arrived home from school Friday afternoon, she was begging us nonstop to open her presents.  So, after we ate dinner and settled down, her wish came true.  We gathered int he living room and watched her tear open her presents.  Her little sister tried to claim some of her presents too (too cute!) She loved all her gifts and when it came time for me to hand her mine, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  As  I mentioned in a previous post, I made her a scrapbook.  Each page had a picture of either her or us, a Bible verse on the bottom, and an inspirational sentence (or few) that I wrote myself.  I figured that it was something she could always to or just look at for fun and times when everything isn’t going too great.  Thankfully, she realllyyyyy liked it and that night, her mom texted me to tell me that she had fallen asleep holding the scrapbook.

On Saturday,  she had  her birthday party at a dance studio.  All I can say is, it was the cutest thing to watch her and her friends dance, jump on the trampoline, and bounce off the walls from all the sugar they were having.  I was happy to assist in the set-up and the process in general because it’s moments like those I’ll never forget.  I can’t believe she’s already eight because it seems like the other day we were having her birthday party for when she turned seven.  Time flies so make sure you treasure each moment.

-B