Thursday, January 10, 2013

A River Runs Through It


A River Runs Through It

I love the movie “A River Runs Through It” It is one of my favorites. For those who have not seen it, it is a story about a pastor and his wife who have two boys. The boys are very close. They do everything together. They both come from the same stable loving home, but their stories become radically different. One makes wise choices and is a success, while the other makes bad choices and those choices end up getting him in lots of trouble.

The pastor father struggles and in some of my favorite lines of all time says this
“Each one of us here today would at one time in our lives looked upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question ‘We are willing to help Lord, but what if anything is needed?’ For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us, either we don’t know what part of ourselves to give or the part we have to give is not wanted. But we can still love them, we can love completely with out complete understanding.”

So true isn’t it? I have had many people in my life that I have loved completely without complete understanding. With offering them love and help only to be rejected or ignored. They keep making the same choices the ones that I look at and judge and think, “can’t they see how that is hurting them?”  I don’t know. I have like in the movie lost a family member that I could not help. The ones left behind often wonder,  “Could I have done more?”

But to love completely with out complete understanding means to give up our right to judge their behavior, it means we look for the good in them, it means we love them any way. 

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