Inspirational Stuff

I recently watched/read two very inspirational and touching movie/book, Facing The Giants and Tuesdays With Morrie courtesy of the amazing file-sharing download programs like Ares and Limewire, as well as my good friend Ong Lik Pin.
(Of whom, by the way, I will be partnering with to play doubles for tennis competition next week!! Sadly, I was supposed to miss the Peperiksaan Awal Penggal which coincides with the competition, but it turns out I still have to sit for Monday's papers anyway... crap!!)

Movie: Facing The Giants



When I watched this movie a few days ago, I was suddenly reminded how amazing our God is. Although it was a movie, but in real life... God is so much more wonderful, isn't He?
It's a story about a guy by the name of Grant Taylor. He is the head coach of a football team of a Christian school, but his team is a flop and he is about to get sacked.
(Actually, I was often confused about what was happening during their football matches because I didn't know anything at all about the game, but eventually I figured out that the objective was to get to the other side with the ball, and it is good if you bring down the opponent, and you have to kick the ball all the way through the post... XD)
He and his wife, Brooke, want children but they have tried for 4 years unsuccessfully. They are also not very rich, their car battery is broken and the house stinks. It is a very, very hard time for the family, obviously, but they still keep on praying, crying out to God - and God speaks through an elderly man who prays for the school everyday, telling Grant that God shuts door that no one can open and God opens doors that no one can shut, and that God is not through with him yet. Then Grant writes up a team philosophy that everything we do is not for ourselves but to glorify and honour God. Then revival happens after Grant tells a football player, Matt, that he hopes one day Matt will give his heart to Jesus because his life will never be the same. Grant gets a new truck, the team starts winning most of their games, eventually beating their greatest fears, the Giants who are almost three times their size, his family's needs are met and Brooke gets pregnant naturally!

I love this movie. Alex Kendrick (Grant Taylor) did a good job at expressing his emotional response to situations, for example when praying to God and when he heard news that Brooke was pregnant, he was like so overwhelmed, which made me so overwhelmed too... (his sad face is sooo sad, make me want to cry only) but most important was the message of the movie - it was about facing your fears, trusting God, honouring God in everything we do, and praising Him whether win or lose. I want to watch again... soon...


Book: Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom

This is a true story of an old man, Morrie Schwartz, with a terminal neurological illness called ASL, and so teaches his last class to a young man, Mitch Albom, about life's greatest lessons. Even as Morrie's health deteriorates and he becomes more and more dependent on other people to eat, to wipe his backside, he tells of how you learn to live only when you've learnt to die. After 14 Tuesdays of teaching, Morrie passes away serenely, leaving a legacy of being A Teacher to the Last, but Mitch still goes to visit him every Tuesday, as Morrie says it, "you talk and I'll listen."

The book is full of many values of life that many people take for granted, like purpose and love. There are some principles that are not exactly godly or Christian values, but they are some that I feel are worth living for, like learning how to give out love and receiving it, learning how to live by learning how to die, offering others what you have to give eg time and concern, being fully present with the person you're with by paying attention when your loved ones are speaking as if it were the last time you might hear them, be compassionate and take responsibility for each other, and forgive yourselves as well as others.
"Love each other, or perish. - Auden"
"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. - Henry Adams"

I think I'd like to be a teacher or professor next time. They really influence their students, don't they? Based upon the movie and the book above, I think I know what I want to live for: I want my life to glorify God, because that's what I'm here for anyway.