a soul in grace

My faith has been starving away this season, and it’s sad to me how something as important as faith can be tossed so far in the desert that the desert begins to feel like home. I forget what faith is about sometimes and simple, yet incredible acts of God such as an answered prayer leave me with my jaw dropped.
A simple prayer answered.
I pray but I don’t expect them to be answered. Have I forgotten that our God is faithful? I need reminders that I believe in a loving and great God. I’m reminded of a conversation I had with a wise woman named Jan, about fervent prayer. We were talking about how Jesus prayed on the mountain. “He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.” When we cry out to God with desire and desperate groaning of the spirit, he hears us and he listens. My faith may be starved but I’m resting in his grace tonight.

"The splendor of a soul in grace is so seductive that it surpasses the beauty of all created things." Thomas Aquinas

Feast of Love

"There is a story about the Greek Gods; they were bored so they invented human beings, but they were still bored so they invented love, then they weren't bored any longer. So they decided to try love for themselves. And finally, they invented laughter, so they could stand it."



This is how the movie, Feast of Love begins. I ordered it from Netflix and when it came I couldn't even remember what the movie was about or why I ordered it. As I read through the description, I remembered why it appealed to me.

-set in a "small idyllic Oregon community"- ding!

-"features different lives intersecting at a coffee shop" -ding!

-"explore the depths of love and loss, joy and pain, and everything in between"- ding, ding, ding!!

These are all things I love.

I liked the movie overall. They showed all different kinds of love, from young love to old love, falling in love, falling out of love, adultery, heartbreak, loss of love, birth, death and how they all play out in the lives of the characters. It's pretty well done. Also, pretty depressing. I prefer movies that make my heart flutter and feel all warm and fuzzy, but this has more of a taste of reality. I will warn you though, there are excessive sex scenes and nudity throughout the movie. It makes you think that people meet-have sex and get married within a week of meeting each other because there isn't a real concept of time in the movie... Also, Morgan Freeman is in it and well he's pretty close to God.

I was thrilled when I recognized the coffee house where a lot of the movie takes place, this cute little place on Mississippi Ave in North Portland. I've been there! That was really exciting for me.







Anyhoo, back to the quote. I like it. There is so much depth and joy and pain involved in loving someone that it just makes sense that love requires laughter.