"A Mighty Heart"

Bruce and I watched the movie, "A Mighty Heart" this afternoon. It's based on a memoir written by Mariane Pearl. The synopsis on the back of the DVD box reads: "After her husband, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is kidnapped by terrorists, Mariane heads a desperate search for clues in a frantic race against time to locate her missing husband. Directed by maverick filmmaker Michael Winterbottom, A Mighty Heart is a gripping story of faith, hope and courage in the face of tragedy." Angelina Jolie starred as Mariane.

The movie was a little bit hard to follow, but it truly was gripping. I actually felt as if I was sitting around the round table with Pearl and the team of people searching for her husband. Even though I knew what the outcome was going to be, when a tape of Daniel Pearl's viscious be-heading surfaced, I felt emotionally drained. It brought me back to a time this summer when I started reading "A Long Way Gone," a memoir of an African boy forced into the army as a soldier at a very young age. While I knew this hadn't happened in Lesotho, which was where Bruce was at the time, it still scared me to think that he was anywhere near the conflict in Africa. I was reminded of how dangerous certain parts of the world can be. When I talked to Bruce on the phone the next day, he told me to stop reading the book.

When I start thinking about how conflicted so much of the world is, it gets me thinking about Creation and about what God intended for Earth. God saw everthing that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. - Genesis 1:31. Is conflict and war "good"?

It's hard for me to rationalize what is going on because the further along I get into Into to Old Testament, and even the little bit that I'm in Christian Thought, I'm seeing thousands of year of war and turmoil and I wonder what kind of world I'm actually living in: the world of the past, present and future. It's just not fun to think about.

I don't have any amazing insights into the situation. Saying "why can't we all just get along" just doesn't work. There are too many thousands of year of hated, hurt and anger that has built up. I'm not even going to pretend to understand either side. But I do know that I will continue to pray for peace ... peace in my community, peace in the country and peace around the world.

A better world is possible. Let us all bow our heads in prayer.