Even though I would never, ever consider myself to be a movie buff they’re some flicks that I’ve watched over the years which have stuck with me for whatever reason. I’ve found that I can watch them over and over again and still find nuggets of the “good message” that I’ve missed in the past. One of those is the very old movie simply entitled Harvey staring the late, great Jimmy Stewart. As most of you remember, the movie is about a seemingly normal fellow (Stewart) who plays a character that is known for his generosity, kindness, and accommodating ways with a quite unusual friend “Harvey” who just happens to be a six foot tall invisible rabbit.
Throughout the movie Stewart faces what most people would consider embarrassing situations because of his relentless claim of realness to his friend, the invisible rabbit. His family just wants him to receive help so they are intent on having him committed to a mental institution. At some point in the movie the term “pooka” is used by the doctor and later looked up in the dictionary by his trusted orderly who finds that a pooka originates from Irish folklore and is an imaginary and mischievous spirit that often takes on the form of an animal. Thus Harvey is a pooka.
My favorite line from the movie (which has many great scenes) is when Stewart is complimented on his kind nature and he responds by sharing the secret to his success in this area. He says (and I can’t remember his words exactly- so be kind) that someone told him long ago that if you want to go very far in life you either have to be very rich or very nice. Then he goes on to say I’ve spend a great deal of my life chasing after the prior (riches) but now the latter (kindness) - and I’ve found that I prefer being kind.
Good stuff, huh?
I got in my van this morning to head out to work and I glanced at the four foot over-stuffed friendly-looking red dragon taking up most of the back seat and thought to myself for whatever crazy reason – my pooka. The dragon came from the concrete area beside the dumpster at my apartment building. I figured someone placed it there because they just couldn’t bear throwing it away considering it is in such great condition. So at five-thirty Monday morning I picked him up, dusted off the frost and carried him across the parking lot. It was one of those scenes my son Ron would always hang his head in embarrassment from when it frequently happened with him around. Now, every time I even consider taking in some vastly useless item of treasure from along side a dumpster area I think of his past reactions. Usually I can’t wait to see him to tell him what I’ve recently rescued from the depths of the trash piles just to get that disapproving look from him. I consider it to be a strangely funny thing between a weird father and his beloved son.
I have great plans for my not so imaginary pooka the red dragon. There is a beautiful little girl named India that comes to evening school each week with her mother that I think would absolutely love having a stuffed dragon friend which is almost the same size as her. Now her mom, (Pam) who is one of my students may not be so excited to see the gift – but hey the smile I expect to see from India will be worth everything.
There’s this fellow Roy from work that I’ve spent the greater part of three years befriending. Not because he and I have a lot of common interests, yet it all started when I decided to offer my friendship to a person who often finds himself to be the butt of jokes and ridicule in the company. Roy’s knack for being a bit arrogant despite his obviously flawed nature easily opens himself up to having fun poked at him by others. Usually he takes it rather well for the most part, but often I see and hear about the resentfulness he has deep down for the guys that ridicule and openly make fun of him. I always tell him to brush it off – it’s not worth getting upset about, but that’s always easier to say than do for all of us - isn’t it?
Roy isn’t a Christian even though I think he understands who God is and how it all works. Roy loves money. He loves things – brand new things (not stuff sitting beside a dumpster). Roy loves his new ski boat, his pick-up truck, his motorcycle, his home, his riding lawn mower, his new washer and dryer, his new furniture, his multiple gold and diamond rings, his golf clubs, his new diamond-studded wristwatch, etc, etc, etc… Roy loves stuff – new stuff, expensive stuff! Most of all Roy loves Roy.
I’ll admit its hard being Roy’s seemingly only true friend at times. For as hard as I try living a humble life he’s happy living one that receives fulfillment through all the things I consider to be shallow and meaningless. I find it to be one thing to own the stuff we all need to get by in our complicated world today, but to live with such a thirst for all the other stuff I consider it to be such a lost way of life when there is so much more out there.
Over the past few years I’ve seen situations that have made Roy cry and he’s most certainly seen the same in my life, especially over the past six months. I try to show him what is important in my life, what values I hold fast to. I try and let him see the importance of how my relationship with Christ is to who I am and what I do and say. Sometimes I think he gets it, but often I just don’t know one way or the other. I think Roy longs to hang out with someone like me just as I like to be around people such as my friends Randy or Ken. Life just seems mo’ better when I’m in their company because there’s a “realness” in their lives that I can see and it reminds me how I want to be also. Please don't get the wrong idea here - I've talked to Roy directly about everything I've written here. He knows that I wouldn't talk badly of him and that I only want the best for him and his family. I really am fond of him as a friend and can always use more Roy's in my life.
Here's the point though - we all have our own pookas – Roy has his desire for worldly treasure, and I have my own fleshly temptations that I struggle with. The apostle Paul admitted he had a pooka or two as well. At some point he confessed in his writing as hard as he tries to do the right thing he often fails and gives into temptation. His pooka became a thorn in his flesh. The things I know I should not do – I do, and the things I know I should do – I do not.
Boy, do I know what he’s referring to with that.
A few months ago I was flipping through the channels one Saturday and stumbled across a movie from 1940 with (you guessed it) a young Jimmy Stewart in it, called The Moral Story. It was an interesting movie where Stewart’s character (again, a soft-hearted fellow) tries to do “good” in a “not-so-good” world. Near the end of the movie he helps some people (including the woman he loves, who doesn’t quite make it) escape Nazi Germany in the middle of winter via a passageway through the snow-covered mountains of Austria. While watching the flick I grabbed an envelope which was laying on the coffee-table and a pen and began jotting down a couple of lines from the movie. I brought the envelope into work with me this morning so I could share something with you. I believe I recall the first item I wrote down was from a scene between the girl (Margret Sullivan) and Stewart – where he responds to something she says by making this declaration – “ It would be unworthy of the love we have for each other for me to be any less than myself.” Now there’s some good marriage advice, huh?
Then at the end of the movie as the credits began to scroll the camera pans out and a view of a gate that separated the property of the home where many of the scenes came and the beginning of the passageway to Austria (freedom) comes into view. The voice of a narrator comes over the screen and speaks these words as I hurriedly scribbled them down as accurately as I could. “And I said unto a man standing at the gate – give me a light so I can go out into the night and find my way. Instead he said to me, go forth into the night with your hand in God’s hand and I declare that it will be better than any light I could ever give you, or any other known way.”
Really good stuff – huh?
I believe in some ways we all walk through the night with our own version of a pooka. And so often we use it as our excuse not to allow God to use us in the way He wants to display His fullness to the Roy’s of this world. We know our sins, our short-comings our pookas so we don’t feel “good enough” to be considered a positive role model in someone else’s life. But that’s exactly why we must – it’s not because of our “goodness” it’s because of His grace and our weaknesses, our pookas. For we must declare with our lives the simple message that if God can forgive us, help us, transform us daily, then surly He can Roy or anyone else.
I think all He really wants us to do is to allow His light to shine through our lives - which will certainly lead them to the passageway of a true and ever-lasting freedom. This week you may just catch me tooling around town at lunchtime with a four-foot red dragon in the backseat, and a goofy friend named Roy in the front - yet I hope what is more obvious to you than the pooka which lives in my flesh – it is the wonderful Savior that lives in my heart. doug
Throughout the movie Stewart faces what most people would consider embarrassing situations because of his relentless claim of realness to his friend, the invisible rabbit. His family just wants him to receive help so they are intent on having him committed to a mental institution. At some point in the movie the term “pooka” is used by the doctor and later looked up in the dictionary by his trusted orderly who finds that a pooka originates from Irish folklore and is an imaginary and mischievous spirit that often takes on the form of an animal. Thus Harvey is a pooka.
My favorite line from the movie (which has many great scenes) is when Stewart is complimented on his kind nature and he responds by sharing the secret to his success in this area. He says (and I can’t remember his words exactly- so be kind) that someone told him long ago that if you want to go very far in life you either have to be very rich or very nice. Then he goes on to say I’ve spend a great deal of my life chasing after the prior (riches) but now the latter (kindness) - and I’ve found that I prefer being kind.
Good stuff, huh?
I got in my van this morning to head out to work and I glanced at the four foot over-stuffed friendly-looking red dragon taking up most of the back seat and thought to myself for whatever crazy reason – my pooka. The dragon came from the concrete area beside the dumpster at my apartment building. I figured someone placed it there because they just couldn’t bear throwing it away considering it is in such great condition. So at five-thirty Monday morning I picked him up, dusted off the frost and carried him across the parking lot. It was one of those scenes my son Ron would always hang his head in embarrassment from when it frequently happened with him around. Now, every time I even consider taking in some vastly useless item of treasure from along side a dumpster area I think of his past reactions. Usually I can’t wait to see him to tell him what I’ve recently rescued from the depths of the trash piles just to get that disapproving look from him. I consider it to be a strangely funny thing between a weird father and his beloved son.
I have great plans for my not so imaginary pooka the red dragon. There is a beautiful little girl named India that comes to evening school each week with her mother that I think would absolutely love having a stuffed dragon friend which is almost the same size as her. Now her mom, (Pam) who is one of my students may not be so excited to see the gift – but hey the smile I expect to see from India will be worth everything.
There’s this fellow Roy from work that I’ve spent the greater part of three years befriending. Not because he and I have a lot of common interests, yet it all started when I decided to offer my friendship to a person who often finds himself to be the butt of jokes and ridicule in the company. Roy’s knack for being a bit arrogant despite his obviously flawed nature easily opens himself up to having fun poked at him by others. Usually he takes it rather well for the most part, but often I see and hear about the resentfulness he has deep down for the guys that ridicule and openly make fun of him. I always tell him to brush it off – it’s not worth getting upset about, but that’s always easier to say than do for all of us - isn’t it?
Roy isn’t a Christian even though I think he understands who God is and how it all works. Roy loves money. He loves things – brand new things (not stuff sitting beside a dumpster). Roy loves his new ski boat, his pick-up truck, his motorcycle, his home, his riding lawn mower, his new washer and dryer, his new furniture, his multiple gold and diamond rings, his golf clubs, his new diamond-studded wristwatch, etc, etc, etc… Roy loves stuff – new stuff, expensive stuff! Most of all Roy loves Roy.
I’ll admit its hard being Roy’s seemingly only true friend at times. For as hard as I try living a humble life he’s happy living one that receives fulfillment through all the things I consider to be shallow and meaningless. I find it to be one thing to own the stuff we all need to get by in our complicated world today, but to live with such a thirst for all the other stuff I consider it to be such a lost way of life when there is so much more out there.
Over the past few years I’ve seen situations that have made Roy cry and he’s most certainly seen the same in my life, especially over the past six months. I try to show him what is important in my life, what values I hold fast to. I try and let him see the importance of how my relationship with Christ is to who I am and what I do and say. Sometimes I think he gets it, but often I just don’t know one way or the other. I think Roy longs to hang out with someone like me just as I like to be around people such as my friends Randy or Ken. Life just seems mo’ better when I’m in their company because there’s a “realness” in their lives that I can see and it reminds me how I want to be also. Please don't get the wrong idea here - I've talked to Roy directly about everything I've written here. He knows that I wouldn't talk badly of him and that I only want the best for him and his family. I really am fond of him as a friend and can always use more Roy's in my life.
Here's the point though - we all have our own pookas – Roy has his desire for worldly treasure, and I have my own fleshly temptations that I struggle with. The apostle Paul admitted he had a pooka or two as well. At some point he confessed in his writing as hard as he tries to do the right thing he often fails and gives into temptation. His pooka became a thorn in his flesh. The things I know I should not do – I do, and the things I know I should do – I do not.
Boy, do I know what he’s referring to with that.
A few months ago I was flipping through the channels one Saturday and stumbled across a movie from 1940 with (you guessed it) a young Jimmy Stewart in it, called The Moral Story. It was an interesting movie where Stewart’s character (again, a soft-hearted fellow) tries to do “good” in a “not-so-good” world. Near the end of the movie he helps some people (including the woman he loves, who doesn’t quite make it) escape Nazi Germany in the middle of winter via a passageway through the snow-covered mountains of Austria. While watching the flick I grabbed an envelope which was laying on the coffee-table and a pen and began jotting down a couple of lines from the movie. I brought the envelope into work with me this morning so I could share something with you. I believe I recall the first item I wrote down was from a scene between the girl (Margret Sullivan) and Stewart – where he responds to something she says by making this declaration – “ It would be unworthy of the love we have for each other for me to be any less than myself.” Now there’s some good marriage advice, huh?
Then at the end of the movie as the credits began to scroll the camera pans out and a view of a gate that separated the property of the home where many of the scenes came and the beginning of the passageway to Austria (freedom) comes into view. The voice of a narrator comes over the screen and speaks these words as I hurriedly scribbled them down as accurately as I could. “And I said unto a man standing at the gate – give me a light so I can go out into the night and find my way. Instead he said to me, go forth into the night with your hand in God’s hand and I declare that it will be better than any light I could ever give you, or any other known way.”
Really good stuff – huh?
I believe in some ways we all walk through the night with our own version of a pooka. And so often we use it as our excuse not to allow God to use us in the way He wants to display His fullness to the Roy’s of this world. We know our sins, our short-comings our pookas so we don’t feel “good enough” to be considered a positive role model in someone else’s life. But that’s exactly why we must – it’s not because of our “goodness” it’s because of His grace and our weaknesses, our pookas. For we must declare with our lives the simple message that if God can forgive us, help us, transform us daily, then surly He can Roy or anyone else.
I think all He really wants us to do is to allow His light to shine through our lives - which will certainly lead them to the passageway of a true and ever-lasting freedom. This week you may just catch me tooling around town at lunchtime with a four-foot red dragon in the backseat, and a goofy friend named Roy in the front - yet I hope what is more obvious to you than the pooka which lives in my flesh – it is the wonderful Savior that lives in my heart. doug
No comments:
Post a Comment