Learning From The World.

One of the things that bring me real joy, and is officially now a favourite past time, is watching international or foreign movies.

If you think about it, by the time you hear or know about it, these movies have already undergone a trial by public opinion in their native countries so that you don't have to sift through the rubbish movies in order to get to the good ones. Time saved!

I am not so much interested in being specialised and watching films that no one else would have heard about. What I am interested is in the stories that unite us, and those that set us apart, and the lessons that we all have to teach each other that transcends race, religion or creed. Stories like Roberto Bognini's Life is Beautiful and Jeunet's quirky Amelie comes to mind.

Thanks to the beauty of some of these movies being available on Youtube, I have recently seen two really high quality Indian movies - Kahaani and 3 Idiots. (All subtitled of course. Mere (My) Hindi is very rusty.)

Talk about Indian movies and all you have is the stereotype of 3 hours of catchy music, gaudy costumes and trees galore for the multitudes of Indians who somehow spontaneously break into song and dance several times a day.

Kahaani was a classy departure from that stereotype - an Indian thriller featuring an assured pregnant heroine (played by a classy Vidya Balan) and a gripping storyline which keeps you guessing till the end. The mood and the cinematography was of the highest quality for this movie, despite being made on a shoestring budget.

3 Idiots is still fresh in my mind right now - one of the highest-grossing Hindi movies of all time, both in India and abroad - it follows the life of two guys who enter an engineering college carrying all the hopes and pressures of their respective families, and have their lives changed by a remarkable friend they make in college. Kind of like Dead Poet's Society, but better, and with song-and-dance sequences thrown in for good measure.

The writing was of the highest quality and you just kept being delivered life lesson after life lesson without being preachy in a very entertaining comedy. The casting was perfect and I just can't recommend it enough if you have, oh about 2 hours and 44 minutes to kill. Absolutely worth it.

So in my quest for more excellent foreign films, have you guys seen anything lately that you can recommend?

Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, Japanese, European, South American to name a few - the world has so much to say, and I would like to see it for myself.

Thy Kingdom Come.

It’s been four days here in Ballarat, and I must say that it has been a really pleasant sea change from the city. One hour and fifteen minutes through some of God’s breathtaking flatlands brings you into this old gold-mining town. It is really nice when people who don’t know you catch your eye as they pass you in corridors, offer you a smile and help you with directions if you look sufficiently lost (which I do, very often).

This week has allowed me to travel back to the city to share in a really precious moment with a lovely couple back home in Melbourne. We had all taken time off work and travelled to bid farewell to their 20-week-old twin daughters who were born prematurely and did not survive. Words cannot describe how beautiful the occasion was, how touching the speeches, how apt the celebration of their brief lives and how moved we were collectively as a family, as friends and as a church.

All of us milled around at the start, trying to remember the last time we attended a funeral here in Melbourne. For many of us, it was our first time. As my brother aptly pointed out, we are so much more adept at congratulations than condolences.  

Watching the strength and brave good-natured humour of the parents in these difficult times was an encouragement and testimony to all of us present at the funeral. Our tears flowed freely in our collective grief, the hugs long and sustained. I absolutely lost it when they brought the delicate white boxes carrying the girls out of the room. It was just so final.

It was at moments like these when I have to remind myself that we have a God that is good, but He is not safe. That we are not exempt from the trials that face us all, but carry a hope that this is not the end of the story. 

I looked around at the people gathered there that day and I am reminded that church, despite all its flaws and failings, can be an amazing community that rallies in the time of need, both to multiply your happiness in times of celebration, and to lighten grief by shouldering it with you in times of sorrow.

Like many others there that day, I know our lives were touched and would never be the same. How do we live today in the shadow of the very real power of Death, the final enemy that God has yet to overcome?

The Lord’s Prayer says ‘Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ Pity us as Christians if all the good we do here is to earn some buddy points with Jesus so that our mansion in heaven one day will be bigger than our neighbour’s. We are the bringers of God’s Kingdom here, today, on earth, as it should be in heaven.

Let us live lives of joy, of encouragement, of generosity, of forgiveness. Let us laugh together freely, weep without reservation, live gratefully. Let us choose community over individualism, trust over worry, meaning over purposelessness, love over intolerance. I can personally say it is easier said than done, but I must try.    

Let us bring life where we can, and usher in God’s Kingdom.