Mine was a word weekend, filled with messages from movies, conversations with friends, dreams I got to meditate on long without interruption from alarms, electronic and human. And these words soothed and stretched me, made me contemplate my life, what it is and what I want it to be. Words have the power to do that.

The filling started Friday in a packed theater for the power-packed movie Courageous, the new feature film by the Kendricks brothers. I’ll give more of a review of that on Wednesday, but this film challenged my faith and made me want to make the most use of how I fill space with words. Perhaps with a more raw approach so did Higher Ground, the film based on the memoir by Carolyn Briggs that I saw on Saturday.

Vera Farmiga in Higher Ground, picture from the New York Times

Higher Ground detailed the coming to Christian faith story of Corinne, a woman who meditated on words, created images with them, wrote songs, felt alive and free with them. It was others who tried to control her with words and the Word, the Bible itself. When we don’t know for ourselves the freedom found in the Word, bondage is a guarantee. With the Word at our disposal, we, like Corinne, search for something more, something better and turn out bound and empty, discovering what we had was exactly what we needed. When our faith is true, the Word, Jesus Himself, has penetrated our being and given us all we need. Though I love words, I recognize they have no writing power for good and no effect on me for bad when I am filled with the Word and subject to Him.

My One Thousand Gifts List

#251-260
Sitting in the big chair and feeding Justus a banana
My husband’s diligence in getting the car towed and repaired
Christen’s gratitude for me reading to her and her having more gratitude
Justus’ language explosion
Tabitha calling to ask if we needed her to pick up something for us from Target
The labor cost being the lowest at the mechanic we chose (and this was the mechanic Tabitha told us about unsolicited and the only one we could get in contact with)
Not paying as much as initially anticipated to get the car out of the impound lot
Listening to, advising and praying for a friend in distress
Nicole’s heartfelt note about her view of me as a wife, mother, minister and friend (Proverbs 12:17)
My hubby speaking sweet desires to me