Haven't reviewed any movies here lately. But thanks to friends, Kimberly and Jennifer, I have seen two goods ones lately.

The first, Master and Commander is a story of the captain and crew of a British navy ship circa 1805 in pursuit of a French privateer. The crew has been given orders to pursue and capture this French ship and help stem the tide in the Napoleonic Wars. A quintessential man's movie, it nonetheless has a real story that is human and compelling. Capt. Jack Aubry, played by Russell Crowe, is an ambitious captain with a reputation for daring and luck. His men love him because he inspires them to do more than what they believe they can do. But this ambition does not come without a price, in terms of friendship and human life. The film is a masterful study of leadership and friendship and the tensions that are inherent in both. A great captain needs a great crew, a great crew needs a great captain. Yet, there can be sacrifices that are too great -- when does a man's ambition lead him cross over from inspiration to exploitation of those he is supposed to lead? I am a great lover of historical dramas and this one does not disappoint. However, I am not sure whether this movie will make it to be an Oscar contender depending on the lineup of Christmas movies. One warning for the faint of heart -- there is quite a bit of very realistic gore during the battle scenes.

The other movie, Love Actually, is a romantic comedy that tells ten separate but interwined stories. Sometimes heartbreaking, often very funny, sentimental on the cusp at times of being a little syrupy -- the stories demonstrate that even in our modern world that can seem so full of hate and darkness, love is still the dominant drive of the human heart. The film does a great job of evoking that masochistic feelings that constitute falling in love. The characters are at once obsessed with their love interests and at the same time deathly afraid that they will be rejected. Despite the risk, each of the characters risks at least a little to love, experiencing the wonder and joy and pain of love. Sometimes losing, sometimes winning, the people in the stories seem very real and some of the stories are left unresolved in the end, leaving the viewer to wonder what might happen with these stories.

Love Actually would be a movie I would own and watch over and over if it weren't for the nudity and language in the movie. There are a couple of comical sexual situations involving a British loser who goes to Wisconsin to meet the wild women he knows he is destined to be with and a couple that meet while filming a porn movie. While both stories are funny, without them the movie would have been unequivocally my favorite movie this year. It's too bad really, because these stories were not central to the overall storytelling either.

Anyway, in case you were wondering if you should see these movies over the holidays, hopefully my reviews give you something to think about.

I was doing some blog-o-surfing and came across a post from Liz Creech about community and helping each other out. I spoke on hospitality on Sunday for our community so I have been cogitating on this subject for a few weeks. Not sure I exactly said everything I wanted to say on Sunday, so Liz's questions and some comments from others after my talk got the wheels in my head spinning again.

The ultimate problem with fostering hospitality and community in the American church is that the very structure of our modern life presents barriers that we are often unaware of. They are so subtle, so nebulous and so under the radar screen that I think we don't even recognize them. That's why I think we need a revolutionary new way of thinking in our communities of faith.

Consider these three scenarios:

Scenario #1: People are busy. It is a modern day sin to inconvenience someone. It will inconvenience someone if I ask someone to help me. Therefore, I do projects myself and do not ask anyone to help me.

Scenario #2: People are busy. It is a modern day sin to inconvenience someone. If I drop by unannounced at someone’s home, that person might be in the middle of something. That would be an inconvenience. But if I schedule some time to meet with this person, this might be a burden and an inconvenience because I know how busy this person is. Therefore, I never get together with anyone.

Scenario #3: People are busy and have their own financial worries. It is a modern day sin to inconvenience someone. I am dealing with this financial burden, but I cannot ask anyone for help because that would inconvenience them and they might think I am a dolt for not managing my finances better. Besides, charity is for people who are down and out not for us regular middle class types who have access to credit. Therefore, I accumulate a massive amount of personal debt rather than letting people know I have a financial need.

The only love and care we accept willingly is the kind we know we can reciprocate. You give me a Christmas present, therefore I give you one. Never would we want to be beholden to someone.

The sum total of these responses, made little by little over time, is that we never connect to anyone meaningfully. If we never have any true needs, no one can ever minister to us.

Our modern American sensibilities break down community in so many subtle ways. There are some things we just need to recognize. First, damn it, WE ARE NEEDY PEOPLE. PERIOD. Let’s just admit that, okay? We are so wrapped up in looking like we have it together, that we can fool ourselves into thinking this isn’t the case. No man is an island, I don’t care what Simon and Garfunkel say.

Second, WE ARE EMPOVERISHING OUR SOULS by not sharing our needs and plans and asking others to help us. Even social scientists who don’t care a whit about the Scriptures say that we are richer as a society when there is collective action. There is a synergy when two or more people do something in common. Because we are a rich society, we don’t need each other like we used to. (It is not a matter of survival to have our friends and family come and help us build a barn or make a quilt or whatever. Even though we think we don’t need help anymore, though, the unrecognized consequences of this rugged individualism are unprecedented rates of depression, suicide, divorce, and other social maladies.) But the Scriptures are full of commands that can only be practiced within the community of faith. We can’t fully obey God’s commands and be the people we were meant to be without true community and acts of love – both given and RECEIVED.

Third, we are also denying our brothers and sisters in Christ the opportunity to practice charity and community and thereby denying them the chance develop character and Christlikeness and SYSTEMATICALLY DENYING THEM ACCESS TO ETERNAL REWARDS. Have we ever thought about that?

If we are too busy to love one another and practice the one anothers commanded in the Scriptures, then we are just too busy. Let's begin inconveniencinging one another more. In this regard, I am preaching to myself as much as anybody so don’t think I am pointing the finger at anyone. (As my momma used to say, when you point the finger at someone else, remember there are three fingers pointing back at you!)

The only problem with this rant is that I have no other solution (yet) than to say - take the initiative - be vulnerable - invite other people into your life - practice hospitality - do things together rather than alone. But I feel like a salmon swimming upstream on this one. It is so difficult to do in our society. Everything else seems to be pushing the other direction. Maybe if we all joined together and swam upstream at once we could turn the tide. What do you think?

It's funny how the little things in life test our mettle.

My husband is attending a conference in North Carolina. The day he left it was raining buckets and the sump pump decided to quit. Damn and blast it all. Why couldn't it quit working when he was here? Then I could say, "Honey, there's water in the basement. Do you think the sump pump quit working?" And just leave it for him to fix. This is one of those times that I like being a "kept" woman.

This division of responsibilities works very well except when he vacates the premises during times of crisis, leaving me to try and clean up the mess. Very poor planning on his part. Couldn't he have foreseen this was going to happen?

Now, I am being silly in the preceding paragraph, but if truth be told, I have to admit I was irritated by all this. Analyzing this reaction to what was obviously "an act of God" and failure of mechanics that unfortunately happened simultaneously, I have concluded that there is a fundamental urge to blame when things go wrong. There must be a scapegoat - husbands who leave, kids who leave toys and other articles around the basement that must be thrown away when the stupid thing floods, manufacturers who take no pride in creating quality equipment and dupe unsuspecting consumers (the sump pump made by Rhombus Controls was ONLY a year old- so don't buy that one). I suspect that they did all this just to irritate me.

Now you will notice that YOURS TRULY is no where on this list of suspects. This is why I am fundamentally convinced about original sin and human depravity. Not that we are not capable of great good, but underneath it all there still lurk these fundamental urges that have to be resisted and must be transformed by God's grace.

Ah, but in the end, all things work for good. My basement is cleaner that it has been in ages. I threw away some stuff, the water washed away a lot of accumulated dirt, I had to do 18 loads of laundry so I am all caught up on laundry...And today I am going to buy a NEW sump pump. Hope springs eternal.