The Far Too Long List of 2015 Films and Opinions On Them You Don't Care About

Personally, I hate most anticipated lists. There are a few reasons for this, I believe. One of those reasons being that since I am an Ohio sports' fan, I am conditioned to anticipate nothing so that I cannot be let down by my teams. (I was convincing my family that even with 5 seconds left in the National Championship against Oregon that tOSU could still manage to blow it). No anticipation means no let downs, right? 

Well, maybe, but for a pessimist I can be pretty optimistic. And being movie geek/film junkie, I cannot help but look forward to a few movies. So if you care to humor me, wonder where you may find me if I'm not in my apartment, here's a few that I'm looking forward to this upcoming year. Instead of providing a full recap of what the movie is supposed to be, I'll link the trailer so you can experience this for yourself. I will then tell you why I'm kind of excited about these.  



The Hipster Category (Ones You Didn't Know Were Coming)

Chappie (March 6) 

Trailer Here

Why am I excited? 
Look, I am not really a big "Sci-Fi" guy, but I loved District 9. It was innovative, crazy, creepy, and exciting. After seeing the first trailer for this movie, I found myself laughing and loving this little robot. He's like the adorable little innocent puppy at your friend's house that's discovering the world for the first time and you cannot help but offer to pet or feed him...in this case you may feed him diesel fuel or WD-40. 

Plus Hugh Jackman has a mullet. That alone is enough to peak my interest. 

True Story (April 10)

Trailer Still Here

Why am I excited? 
Imagine this: Jonah Hill stars as a bumbling reporter just recently fired for potentially fabricating a story. He gets a random call from an inmate played by James Franco, and the unlikely pair of con/reporter work together to see something bigger than themselves! Sounds like the next big comedy?  

Try the independent crime thriller of Sundance. This movie premiered to mostly positive reviews at the hub of indie film this year, and I'm excited about this. Jonah Hill showed in Moneyball that he can play the serious roles, plus James Franco is a stellar actor himself. Add in Felicity Jones fresh off an Academy nominated performance, an actually riveting story, and this could be one of the better films of the year! 

Southpaw (July 31)

There's no trailer yet, but here's a unique look from the set

Why am I excited? 
There is a lot of buzz around this film, and rightly so. The movie stars one of the hottest talents in the industry (Jake Gyllenhaal), some amazing talent in the supporting roles (Rachel McAdams and Forest Whitaker), plus the director of The Equalizer, Shooter, Tears of the Sun (one of the most underrated war movies IMO) AND Training Day is the one directing this movie. I loved Rocky, and I trust this crew to help make another boxing classic.  

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (August 14)

Motion Picture and Sound here!

Why am I excited?
Quick! Name the other guy considered for the 007 role before Daniel Craig! If you guessed "Henry Cavill", you'd be correct! This is a remake of the 1964-67 spy series that lets us see what would happen if Cavill would have gotten that Bond role instead of Sean Connery, It's classy. It's lighthearted. It has my money. 
Also, fun fact: his co-star Armie Hammer was considered for the role of Batman. This is essentially an old-school Batman v Superman. Yay. 

The Stuff Of Legends (Or, What We've All Known About)

Avengers: Age of Ultron (May 1)
Trailer here

Sorry, I got confused. Here it really is.

Why am I excited? 
Explosions. Action. Slow-motion. Protein. As a guy, how couldn't I be excited? I know Michael Bay would agree!  
(plus, it helps us get ready to see the even greater Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice movie next year.) 
Honestly, I'm excited about this because it seems like I'm supposed to be excited about it. Yay stuff! 

Jurassic World (Jun 12)
Prehistoric Video here

Why am I excited? 
Listen, if heroes and action are tough to resist, then what happens when you throw dinosaurs in the mix? Awesome stuff happens! I'm throwing this into guilty pleasure territory. It'll be fun. Who doesn't want to see Star Lord (Chris Pratt) play with pet velociraptors? Ok, maybe you don't. But you can't resist....

Minions (July 10)
Bapoy Traibapoy 

Why am I excited? 
Bu ta na ma ka tulaliloo ti amo. Bable hana buttom baboi gelatooooooooo. Bee do bee do bee do bi do kampai. Sae bananonina. 

Mockingjay Part 2 (November 25)

Why am I excited? 
Part one was cool and the rest of the series is fun as well. Fun...that's not how the last movie was, but that was one heck of a cliff hanger to leave on. I'm ready to finish this series with a bang! 

Star Wars: the Force Awakens (December 18)

I almost fought my sister because she was wanting to use the computer on Thanksgiving for something other than watching this trailer. The trailer is enough to get you excited. Vroom vroom. cheeekkk cheeeeek. Star Wars. 


Now, what's the most anticipated movie for me going into 2015? This may surprise a lot of you, but...what's that? You hear it? It's like piano from a distant memory. It's....it's.....

The Peanuts Movie (November 6) 
Here's a trailer, you blockhead!

I can hear my grandma calling my mom to see if I want another Peanuts gang figurine. NO GRANDMA! 

Sorry. My therapist said I should be able to work through this.

But why am I so excited for this movie?
In 5th grade, I did a research project on Charles M. Schultz. When I was 8 years old, I cried when I heard there would be no more Peanuts comic strips. I spent hours at Cedar Point in the Charlie Brown store. God, baseball, applesauce, and Peanuts: this was my childhood in a nut shell (badum tiss).

When the first trailer dropped, I was more excited than a bald elementary student kicking a football for the first time. More excited than a beagle shooting down the red baron. More excited than a yellow bird meep meep meeping on a warm summer day. 

What's exciting to me is that this movie feels so much like the old cartoons, yet it is an inovative film by the type of animation used. It feels fresh yet familiar. This...this is what a reboot should feel like.

I'm very excited about this year in cinema, mainly because it will involve countless movies not on this list (Furious 7, Fant4stic to name a couple). What are you excited about? Comment below and let me know! 

-Raymond Morris

Pondering Life Moments: Get Off the Wall

This past week I was walking through our local extravagant mall with a friend of mine....ok, you got me. Let's rephrase that: 

I was killing time after work by going to the mall and looking at some records. FINE, YOU GOT ME. 

I had no life so I was wandering aimlessly through the rinky dink mall like a puppy through a Budweiser Super Bowl commercial. While I was hiding the plethora of Beatles vinyls around the store in the name of the Rolling Stones, I noticed an older couple follow a teen with a lovely Mohawk into the store. I thought nothing of this random scene until I heard the older man look to his wife and say "Wow, that is off the wall". 

This led me to ponder a moment. Why do we call something that is peculiar or unusual as "off the wall?"  Think about it. What all tends to be off of the wall? 

Chairs. 

Shoes. 

Chinchillas. 

Beatles records once they have been ruthlessly thrown across the store. 

How are these things "crazy?" Maybe I'm being too silly. Lets observe what is commonly on the wall then. 

Posters made to draw your attention to a movie. 

Signs that are intended to grab you and let you know about what a wicked deal they're having at Dunkin Donuts. 

A man in red and blue tights climbing like a spider, man. 

Graffiti.

"Sentence enhancing" words on the walls of a bathroom that, when quoted back to your Mother with your 4 year old lips, results in a quick slap to the face, grounding from your favorite Thomas the Tank Engine toys, and an immediate turn to your Father and a shout of "I TOLD YOU WE CAN'T LET HIM BE WITH THE JOHNSONS SO MUCH!"

These things are anything but normal (unless, of course, you're Stan Lee, in which case...more power to you along with more responsibility). For the rest of us though, what's normal is being off of a wall. Gravity has a funny way of keeping us nice and grounded as people and away from any semblance of levitation ON a wall. 

So here's my grand proposal: lets try and live a life that is truly off the wall. Why don't we look at our lives, and instead of seeing it as "boring", "mundane", and "blah", and see it as actually being off the wall? Why not make "off the wall" more of a celebration of what we take for granted instead of something that is bad or crazy? 

Live your life "off the wall", because is there really any other way of living it? 

-Raymond Morris 

Do You Trust Me?

A puffy hatted fellow with equally puffy pants and pointy shoes reaches out his hand to a beautiful young lady, and from the comfort of his levitating carpet asks "Do you trust me?" She smirks, and almost as though it was scripted to go down this way, Jasmine says "Yes", and away the two love birds fly into the Arabian night sky. 

Do you trust me? 

This scene from the greatest 2-D Disney movie ever made (don't agree? Get your own blog) is a magical and heart-melting moment that brings up an interesting question: do you trust me? Trust.

Believe it or not, this very idea of "trust" is something on which the majority of things in our society and our lives are built upon. You TRUST that when you give the dry-cleaner money and your suit that they will clean it to satisfactory levels and not simply spray it with skunk gunk and keep your cash. We TRUST that the better ingredients do in fact make a better pizza from a papa named John. We TRUST  that the bell ringer outside of K-Mart (I like shopping there better. What can I say? I like an underdog) is truly going to give the money to that charity and not just use it to purchase the newest season of Vampire Diaries on DVD. We TRUST that the person we just said those three words that are hard to say will in fact reciprocate the feelings and actually mean it. Trust is something that hits all of us in one way or another. 

We place trust in things/persons that we find to be "worthy" or our trust or things/persons that we feel confident enough in to do the things or be the person they claim to do or be. Being an Ohio sport's fan, you can imagine that I have some pretty ridiculous trust issues. "I won't stop until I bring a title back to Cleveland", so LeBron heads to South Beach to win 2 titles (I don't blame him. I have YET to eat a good Ohio orange). Being a number 1 ranked football team means you can trust them to win a National Championship, but when the opportunity arises we prefer to lose every chance we get. 

And don't even get me started on baseball. Good grief...

What may be worse than blindly misplacing our trust is knowing about a trustworthy thing and then choosing to go another way. Imagine going in to take an exam at school. You get to class with your #2 pencils and equally sharp intellect and get settled in to your nice hard chair. As the teacher hands out the exams, she makes an interesting announcement. "Today, I have the answers to the questions on my desk. If you would like them, you may use them. Good luck." At the same time, the guy behind you taps you on the shoulder. "Bro, my little cousin gave me her answers to this test at her 5th birthday party yesterday. She does smarts good, yeah. You want them?" Here you have the person who made the test offering to give you the way to ace the test and someone who has no clue offering what they think is the best thing. Why would you take the 5 year old's answers? 

That's something we could ask Adam and Eve too. See, in the Garden of Eden, they were able to walk and talk with the very Person who designed them. The One who made the entire existence around them. The One who is life Himself! He made plants and vegetation before there was a sun, yet He was able to sustain them anyways. Crazy, right? He had never failed them. He put them in a place of absolute perfection and basically asked them to trust Him. 

Then there was a serpent who planted a seed of doubt in their minds. Instead of continuing to trust the maker and keeper of their lives, they looked God in the face and said "I understand I have all I need in You, but I need something more." That day sin and death came into being. The ultimate disgrace of this story is the fact that Adam and Eve would knowingly sever the life-giving relationship with the all-loving Creator of the Universe because of a failure to trust. Looking at it with hindsight being 20-20, we may comment on how silly of a decision that was. 

But in reality, many of us make the same exact decision every single day. 

This God is still around, and He has YET to fail those who trust in Him and follow Him. Seeing the sin that severed the relationship, He made a way to mend it and bring about life through the person of Jesus. (Romans 6:23). He has never left or abandoned His children (Deuteronomy 31:6) and desires that everyone come to know and follow Him (1 Timothy 2:4). It even glorifies Him and brings a smile to His face when those that follow Him have pleasures from Him (Psalm 16:11). 

Even in the face of these things, we chase other things because we fail to trust Him. We don't really believe God will comfort us in difficult times, so we run to football, food, fitness, beer, sex, blogging, facebook. We don't really think God has given us what we need, so we see what others have and become envious. We want the gratification of intimacy, but instead of trusting what God says about waiting until marriage (Hebrews 13:4), we try and grasp it before marriage (either with someone or through the internet). 

Brothers, sisters, humanity: we need to trust in God. We must return to the One who gave us breathe, the One who loves you, the One who desires to know you because He knows that in Him you can truly become the person you were designed to be. In Jeremiah 17:7, the prophet writes "Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him". Trust in the One who has yet to fail and knows what is best for you is more than just a cognitive decision; it is a conviction that sparks action. We TRUST Jesus, therefore we delight in the path of His commands (Psalm 119:35). We TRUST God and know that He will provide us with what we need, so we help that person who is holding the sign by the highway. We go out of our way to share this word of hope to anyone who will listen and even those who don't want to, because His love is for all. 

Christ is holding out His nail-scarred hand to you and I and is asking "I am life. I love you. Do you trust me?" 

-Raymond Morris 

If you have questions about Christ, salvation, or anything like that, visit this site. 

http://www.klove.com/ministry/why-jesus.aspx

Pondering Life Moments: Bear Hugs

A new weekly segment on the blog will be "Pondering Life Moments with Raymond." This will be a time for me to talk about something that is common in life or our culture and ponder it with you, the reader. They're crazy. They're silly. But then again, isn't life that way?

So this past summer, I was a camp pastor for a week of camp for 5th-6th graders. As I was leisurely sauntering across the sun-filled scenery towards the restroom, a youngster sprinted in such a speedy manner in my direction, arms wide open, shouting for all to hear "BEAR HUG". This triggered an image in my mind of a grizzly "hugging" it's prey before devouring it.

It is safe to say that I no longer needed to use the sanitary and squeaky clean facilities.

The young lad apologized upon seeing my accident, saying that he didn't mean anything by it. It got me thinking, though: why do we call them bear hugs if they are to be a comfort or display of affection. Have you ever hugged a bear before? I doubt it. If you have, you wouldn't be reading this blog right now, you'd be too busy talking to Jesus and asking Him all the questions you want to ask Him once you get to Heaven (because you'll be there).

Unless they read this blog in Heaven. If that's true, I'd get more than 24 views per post.

Anyway....yes. Back to bear hugs.

When did you last feel the need to show someone you cared about them, and promptly channel your inner wild sabertooth tiger and bite their face off? The only culture in which that's acceptable is in the household of Hannibal Lecter.

Here's what I propose: why not rename this grandest of hugs to reflect the comfort and love it gives? Why not, instead of striking fear with the term "bear hug" we call them "bed hugs"? My bed is warm, always welcomes me, and is sad whenever I leave it in the morning (at least, that's what I tell myself when I call my house just so I can leave a message on the machine to reassure my mattress that I will indeed return to it soon).

Remember: bear hugs don't comfort, they kill. Lets bring about a new era of love and acceptance...and bed hugs.

-Raymond Morris

Busting Barriers

My phone buzzed with a warning tweet from a good friend of mine. "@OfficialRMorris Movie tweets are coming." He, much like me, loves film as both entertainment and a beautiful art form. Hearing this, I knew what was coming: a reaction to the Ghostbusters news. The beloved duo of movies that have evolved into one of the most iconic comedy movie series (think about it. If you say "Who you gonna call?", odds are very good that you'll get a reply of "GHOSTBUSTERS") is now officially getting a makeover, but not just a normal makeover, one with an all-female cast of Kristen Wiig (Former SNL), Melissa McCarthy (Tammy, The Heat, St. Vincent), Kate McKinnon (Current SNL) and Leslie Jones (Current SNL). So when my phone continued buzzing with Twitter notifications alerting me to the next 5 tweets voicing his displeasure, it did not surprise me. Honestly, I tended to agree right at the outset. 1) This is a blatant cash grab. 2) If you are going to do this, you should get better actresses! 3) The director Paul Fieg has not really made a movie that I thoroughly enjoy yet. I should be worried. I should be mad.

So why is it that I am strangely ok with it?

As a self proclaimed "Pastor of Cinematic Experiences"/film enthusiast/indie lover/Hollywood cynic, I should be enraged at the prospect of this! Right? Right?

This is what scares me. The more I thought about it and the more I wanted to be irritated about it, the more I began to like this. Why?

Ask yourself this question: when was the last time you watched a big time movie that gave you a primarily female cast? Scratch that: when was the last time you saw ANY movie with a primarily female cast? What about one that was more concerned with presenting the female (females if you are watching a progressive enough movie that has more than 1 female main cast member) cast as characters that were treated more like human beings and not eye candy? This film may have a chance to break this mold. We can get a movie that presents the lady cast as human beings that are legitimately funny or have some legitimate acting talent (Look up the movie "The Nines" if you doubt McCarthy as an actress).

The possibilities for this movie excite me. Will this be one of the greatest cinematic works of all time? I doubt it. Will it involve "stupid" comedy that resorts to cheap laughs from time to time? Most likely. Then again, so did it's predecessor. Before Ghostbusters, Bill Murray was the silly man in "Stripes" and the moron hitting flowers in "CaddyShack". Dan Aykroyd was an extra in "Temple of Doom", and Harold Ramis couldn't get a movie role unless he wrote it for himself. What's interesting is that the female cast proposed for this reboot has a better pre-Busters resume than the original cast did. But the possibility of getting a movie that, if smartly written and well executed, can break down some of the barriers that women in movies tend to have is awesome. I am excited to see a reboot that is a new spin on a (now) classic story, and to have the female presence take a back-seat to the laughs and good story presented.

...now if only they could get Tina Fey to co-write...

What are your thoughts? Are you ok with this news? Why/why not?

-Raymond Morris

Hits Rather Than Misses

Today, June 16, is a day in which we could think about a few things. For some, they will look at and celebrate the San Antonio Spurs as they overcame the odds and toppled the big bad Heat, led by Mr. Polarization himself, LeBron James. Others may choose to see how the extreme heat has led to some crazy and less than desirable storms for the summertime. And still, others will read about the news of baseball hall of famer Tony Gwynn passing away after battling cancer that was potentially caused by the very smokeless tobacco he loved to use. 

Wait, who? 

To the many Americans that will see the headline "Tony Gwynn Dies" scroll along the bottom-line of ESPN or CNN or see the trending topic "RIP Tony Gwynn" on Twitter, the reaction will be "that's sad" or "who?" He is one of the greatest athletes of the last 30 years (or even of all time), and yet he is one of the most unknown. 

If you don't know him, go on ahead and budget 4 minutes to learn about him. Here, I'll help. Just watch this. http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=11092503. I'll wait. 

Amazed? Bewildered? How could someone this good at his sport be so unknown? The answer to this question reflects more on the nature of our culture and society rather than on the achievements of one Tony Gwynn. 

Tony Gwynn is known as one of the best people to play the game of baseball. Fellow Hall of Fame shortstop Barry Larkin said of Gwynn "he a great competitor, and a great person" (per twitter account, @BLarkin_ESPN). He was known as someone who gave back to his community of San Diego, a place that he played his entire collegiate and professional career in. He was friendly to the media, tipped his hat to the fans when they recognized him, and was always first to honor those around him. He was not the center of scandal, lived a quiet life in the spotlight, and played the game that was his job the way it was supposed to be played. 

...and that, ladies and gentlemen, is precisely the issue. 

Take a look at the headlines. Listen to the radio. Watch a little clip of the news, or better yet, just watch 30 seconds of E. Do this and you will notice a trend: we thrive on the negative. Now, we will never come right out and state it, but we tend to remember things that are the opposite of how they should be. We will watch the Kardashians duke it out on tv, drama unfold on Dance Moms, and dedicate 4 hours of sports coverage to where the location of the party that Johnny Manziel was at last night. We idolize and celebrate those things which are extrordinarily negative and off the wall (in a negative way).

We don't say we love the negative, though. Nobody would say that. We tend to mask it with labels like "drama" or "things getting interesting." Just look at this year's NBA Finals. Instead of headlines celebrating the beauty of a team that is centered around fundamentals and good team chemistry, most commentary surrounded around LeBron cramps, D-Wade failures, and a general dislike for the most polarizing team in the league, the Miami Heat. We seek out the flaws, the bad and the dirty, so much so that those things which are good, clean, and fun are muddled and forgotten. 

Just like Gwynn; one of the greatest hitters that was forgotten because of steroids (along with Jim Thome, Griffey Jr., and many others). It is very easy for us to remember the misses in life, allowing those to overshadow the hits. 

This even happens in our own lives. When heavy traffic hits on the way into the office, we see the moron who just learned to drive yesterday instead of the hilarious sparrows fighting for food on the sidewalk just beside us. When the power goes out, we yell out the window at the power company since it is their fault instead of taking the welcome break from technology to enjoy the simple things surrounding us. When relationships fail, we simply remember the negative aspects because of the hurt we have experienced. In the Film (500) Days of Summer, Tom (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) recalls all the things he loves about Summer (played by Zooey Deschanel), yet those very things are the things he rattles off later as things he hates about her. Our perception in the midst of tragedy can either take us deeper into the negative or brings us up out into the positive. 

Those negative things, when they happen, tend to be what we end up defining ourselves by. We know what bad we have done and allow that to be the lens through which we view life. Failures and mistakes tend to be much stronger emotions, and those emotions connect memories, and those memories are tough to erase. The thing is, though, we don't have to be bound to those negative things. The strong bonds of mistakes and failures were broken long ago by someone Who's love brought Him to earth to restore a relationship that was defined as broken. He mended it though, asking that we merely accept this gift and dedicate ourselves to Him. What's crazy is that He provides hope and a new outlook on life, one defined by love joy and peace rather than hate depression and discord. One that celebrates those things that are just, that are pure, that are lovely. The innocent is praised, and the condemned is redeemed. All made possible by Christ's sacrifice on the cross and defeat of sin via the resurrection. 

So, today, there will be a temptation to see the negative in the world surrounding. Why don't we purpose in our hearts and our lives to show people the hope and positive, and celebrate those things which are good? This doesn't mean we naively ignore the fact that the negative is there, but rather use the power of Christ to change the negative into positive. 

And celebrate the good guys. Rest in peace, Tony Gwynn. 

What's So Amazing, Spiderman?

Back in 2010, there was a little announcement that came out of Hollywood that was both as surprising as the sun rising in the morning and as surprising as an apple growing on an orange tree. Sam Raimi would not be making a Spiderman 4, and consequently the franchise would be done after 3 movies. However, Sony also announced that it was gearing up for a full-series reboot to be released in 2012. The internet responded in all of it's glory, with social media, blogs, and other various "experts" butchering and slamming Sony's decision. Despite the backlash, aptly named Marc Webb was brought in to direct, and the tandem of Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone were brought in to star as Peter and Gwen. 

Something crazy happened: people liked it. 

A mere 4 years after the worst movie of the franchise and in the midst of all things Avengers and Batman, Spiderman was back. What happened? What made this installment so different from the other 3 movies, let alone all the other films surrounding it? 

Was it the change from organic to mechanical webshooters? Perhaps it was the slightly redesigned suit? Was it the fact that Momma Gump was Aunt May? Maybe...but I propose that the answer has less to do with the cinematic elements of the movie and more to do with life. 

It's the people. 

In an age where we want flash, spectacle, and amazing depth from our spandex sporting silver-screeners, we have lost the personal element. We love plot twists and amazing effects and explosions, but even the best written scripts, without personal development of the characters, become empty sheets of paper. Just consider these situations.

When Iron Man has to kill his mentor and father figure to save the day, we don't react with more than an "eh". 
When Thor has to banish his own brother who has deceived him, we respond with a lackluster "so? Where's Coulson?"
Rachel, the love of Batman's life, dies because he chooses Harvey, we wonder where Joker is. 
And even when Captain America has a tearful goodbye to his British lover, we simply yawn. 

Each of these moments had potential to raise the stock of Kleenex 10 fold, yet the emotion was lost. Why? We didn't know these people all that well. We didn't care very much about their relationships with each other. We were given more fighting, more flash and more clash instead of the people. 

Then came Spiderman. Visually, it's no more spectacular than any other blockbuster today. Story-wise, it's no more amazing than what are considered the upper tier superhero movies (Dark Knight, Iron Man, Watchmen, even Spiderman 2). Why do we love it so much, then? 

Because, even for just a couple hours, we forgot it was a superhero movie. We were able to see people acting, reacting, being awkward, growing up: almost like we were able to look into a window of our past (or even present). Marc Webb cared about these characters, so much so that he was able to take something larger than life and make them into people we know. We remember the awkward first encounter with the girl/guy we love when we see Gwen and Pete talk in the hall, so much so it makes our skin crawl more than a new batch of radioactive spiders. Uncle Ben's actions and antics remind us of our own dear uncles or grandparents, making it hurt that much more when we see him pass away. We love Peter because he reminds us of, well, ourselves. 

The reviews of TAS2 have been pretty negative so far (which is stupid, if you ask me. I mean, who's reviewing it? Green Goblin? Kingpin? GAHH. Sorry, I digress). Through it all, there is always one thing pointed to as being the shining beam in the movie: the people. The characters are real, and as human beings we long for this realness. 

Our lives are defined by more than our successes and our failures. In life, the relationships we have with our friends, our enemies, our families, our Father, help to define, refine, and shape who we are. When we see this in other people, we are reminded of the fact that these people make up the story of our life. 

We are reminded of what we were originally intended to do. In Genesis, we see that mankind was made for relationship with the God of the universe. He valued that relationship, and after sin broke that relationship, He made a way to renew and mend that relationship by sending Christ to die and rise again. His ministry was defined by the people He encountered, and the people He knew and taught. We long for this relationship, and we will only find it in Christ Himself. That's why we, as humans, relate to and are drawn to people and relationships, even if it's only on a screen.

It reminds us that life is more than our job, our schedules, and our responsibilities; it's about the people we touch, the people who touch us, and how they help us change. 

And when we see that true aspect of life portrayed on a large screen, we are reminded of what life can be: AMAZING.