But God’s signal never stops.

It’s like I’m viewing God as the wireless router that won’t work properly, and I’m the perfect computer that can always connect, whenever I want to.

Whenever I want to.

When I woke up this morning, it was to my iPod touch’s alarm. What’s the absolute first thing I did (with my eyes still half-closed)? I checked my email. Second? I checked Facebook. Third? ESPN. Fourth? The weather.

In the first two minutes of being awake, before I even got out of bed, I was connected to a piece of technology, work, sports, weather, and a plethora of people via social networking. I do this every morning. Perhaps you have a similar routine.

All of those connections are at the palm of my hand. And yet, how long did it take me to connect to God? It’s not like I don’t have an app for that; my Bible app is right next to my ESPN app. The reality is that most mornings I have two cups of coffee, get ready for the day, play on the Internet some more, ride the train to work and sit at my desk all before I think about connecting to God.

I figure it is time for some troubleshooting. So what’s the problem? Is God hiding? Am I not trying hard enough? Is there some sort of interference? Am I broken?

Well, the answer to the last question is obvious: yes, I am broken. The sin in my life is an all too constant reminder of my brokenness, of my inability to do what is right, of my habit of falling short of God’s glory.

Sin always makes me think about Adam and Eve. Here they are, the crown of God’s creation, intimately connected to God, without sin, living in the perfection God intended on earth…and they both fail. They get disconnected from God’s glory and cause disconnection for every human to follow. Sometimes, I can’t help but express major disappointment in Adam and Eve…like I could have done any better.

It’s like they had an infinitely long Ethernet cable and in sinning, willfully unplugged themselves. The result was that God severed their perfect, superfast connection. But God didn’t stop the signal.

All too often we treat God like an Ethernet cord that we can plug in and unplug whenever we want without consequence. We can ignore God when we want and pay attention to God when we want and that better be okay with God. Well, God might have something to say about that.

In the Old Testament there are people who God chose to connect to in an intimate way, but it was nowhere near as solid of a connection as Adam and Eve had. The source didn’t change; the signal didn’t stop. God was still God, but connecting was not as easy. It’s like the connection was password protected, but because of sin nobody could properly remember the password. Sometimes God shouted in people’s ears, choosing to connect to them, but not because of their holiness, rather because of God’s grace.

Finally, after centuries of mankind struggling in sin, at just the right time God sent His own Son Jesus into the world. Jesus preached and taught about the Kingdom of Heaven and showcased His own unique connection to the Kingdom of Heaven: He is its King.

Jesus brought a renewed connection to humanity simply by coming to earth. While humanity hadn’t had a pure connection to God since Adam and Eve, Jesus brought that connection to earth in and of himself. By seeing Jesus or hearing Him speak, people found themselves connected to God. Moreover, Jesus was perfectly connected to God because He was without sin. He had the perfect connection no other human could attain.

In Jesus’ death and resurrection, He gives us the promise of unlimited, unrestricted, perfect connection to God. He grants us access to God. Paul speaks about this access in Romans 5 and in Ephesians 2, saying, “[Jesus] came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”

We were far away, disconnected, but God brought us back and reconnected us. It’s like Jesus is this all encompassing wireless router that is totally free, totally unrestricted, and available any time at all for connectivity to God.

But Jesus’ death and resurrection hasn’t automatically made every human since then feel connected to God. There are many people who still go through this life and die never understanding what they are missing when it comes to connecting to God.

But Jesus didn’t ascend into heaven without opening God’s Word to us. In John’s Gospel account, Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” Disconnected from Jesus we can do nothing. Staying connected to Jesus, abiding in Jesus, we bear fruit.

The book of 1 John also provides some insight. This letter offers several pieces of advice for holy living and abiding in God. It mentions walking as Jesus, loving one’s brother, doing the will of God, keeping God’s commandments, confessing that Jesus is the Son of God, abiding in love, and believing the teachings of Christ. Like I said, Jesus didn’t leave us empty handed. By doing all those things John mentions, along with studying the Bible, we can build up the habit of connecting to God. God hasn’t changed. God is still there, the source that keeps pumping out the signal seeking us and helping us to connect. This habit of connecting to God helps build up metaphorical bandwidth, it makes our receiving antennae stronger.

We’re still not perfect on this side of heaven. We shut off our receivers often. We ignore the signal the God sends, inviting us to connect. But no matter what you and I have done, our actions cannot stop the signal.

It reminds me of a quote from Joss Whedon’s movie Serenity. Mr. Universe – a giant geek with major technology knowledge – says, “You can’t stop the signal, Mal. Everything goes somewhere, and I go everywhere.”

Jesus is a better version of Mr. Universe. Nobody can stop God’s signal. It’s always out there. Jesus comes to earth revealing the signal more clearly, helping God’s creation to see it and understand it more clearly by teaching, preaching, and removing humanity’s sin. Jesus then sends out His followers to continue spreading the signal, hoping to connect all people to God.

God’s signal of love and grace is unstoppable. Jesus connects us to that signal through His life, death, and resurrection. And we await the day when we can be fully connected to God in heaven, without the infection of sin.

The problem is that most trailer mash-ups aren’t that good. They’re often poorly edited and bear little resemblance to the movie (or original trailer) that they’re lampooning.

Such is not the case today. A video has surfaced on YouTube that combines Toy Story with the first trailer for this summer’s The Avengers. Somehow it makes me both want to re-watch the Toy Story movies while actually increasing my excitement for The Avengers.

Much like the WALL-E/Watchmen trailer mash-up that we posted three years ago, this mash-up is a faithful, near-shot-for-shot remake of the original and it features a surprising consistency in its parallelism. Mr. Potato Head appears as Nick Fury, Woody stands in for Captain America, Buzz Lightyear is Iron Man, Jessie the Black Widow, and somehow The Prospector makes a pretty convincing Thor. Even Ken makes a cameo appearance — as Dr. Bruce Banner.

I don’t want to ruin all the fun, so just enjoy the video. Also included below is the original Avengers trailer. After you’ve watched the mash-up, play the two trailers simultaneously to really get a flavor for just how faithful the mash-up is to the original.

What’s in there? Perhaps something about Viagra, a data entry job, blog advertising nonsense, or perhaps even a letter from the Prince of Nigeria asking for $5,000 so he can free up some money and then he’ll pay you back to the tune of $10,000.

If you have a blog that allows comments, chances are you get ten times more span than actual comments.

Spam is easy to spot. It often has caps lock, exclamation points, and a jumbled mess of misspelled words.

There are times when an email from a real, actual person slips into my spam folder and I have to retrieve it out of there, sending it back to the inbox, where it belongs, saving it from the darkness of the spam folder. Sound familiar?

I think there are at least two spam-related metaphors when it comes to telling Jesus’ story. The first is similar to the parable of the lost sheep as recorded in Luke 15.

In this parable, Jesus speaks about a shepherd having 100 sheep, but one of them runs away and gets lost, so the shepherd leaves the other 99 sheep to find the one lost sheep, and there is great rejoicing in finding this lost sheep. Jesus also says in John 10 that He is the Good Shepherd.

If we modernize this metaphor of Jesus as shepherd and humans as sheep, we might get something like this: a geek is checking emails and happens to look in the spam folder. Upon seeing an email that isn’t spam, the geek checks the box next to the email and hits the “Not spam” button sending that email and any subsequent emails from the sender into the inbox.

We are the email confined to the spam folder. Jesus is the geek. The inbox is heaven.

Another way to look at spam as it relates to Jesus isn’t all too different. It’s more of an expansion, examining how Jesus came into our world and what people were expecting the Messiah to be.

The prophecies surrounding the Messiah were well known to the masses. Jewish people at that time believed that the Messiah would come to free them from their oppression and that the Messiah would come from a distinguished background. Well Jesus did those things but not in the way people expected. God always has a way of surprising us.

Many Jewish people thought the oppression they were suffering and needed to be freed from was coming from the Romans. These people did not realize that they (and every human being who has ever lived) needed to be delivered from the oppression of their sins that had existed since the fall of Adam and Eve. And Jesus certainly did come from a distinguished background, the line of David, the King.

But very few people who should have noticed Jesus’ coming really did. People were looking for a war and a soldier to lead it. They found a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes. They found the son of a carpenter.

Even John the Baptist required clarification. We see in Luke 7 that John sends his disciples to Jesus to make sure that Jesus is “the one to come.” But Jesus’ answer isn’t, “Yes, let’s march on the Romans and take charge of the government!” Jesus’ answer is, “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.”

Not exactly one’s typical idea of a warrior…

The Jewish people in Jesus’ time were looking for something very specific and they were looking in specific places. They had placed God’s Messiah into a box. Jesus didn’t fit their predetermined notions, so many of them didn’t see the obvious truth in front of their faces: Jesus was the Messiah.

This idea of Jesus coming but not being properly received is echoed throughout the Gospels and Paul’s writings, perhaps best put in John 1:11, “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”

Think of it this way. We are all emails. Certain religious leaders believed themselves to be “inbox worthy” and that the Messiah would certainly be like them, easily recognizable as inbox worthy. Those who were less important were relegated to the spam folder, where they were forgotten and eventually deleted. Jesus came to the inbox people and they did not want him, so they sent Him to the spam folder to be deleted.

But after Jesus is deleted from the spam folder, he doesn’t stay deleted permanently. He comes back to life and not just back to the spam folder, but He overtakes the inbox and brings all the other lost and forgotten spam messages with him to the inbox, giving them not just life, but abundant life.

Sometimes we feel like spam, don’t we? We feel locked away in a folder where nobody ever looks. We feel like unwanted, ignored, worthless, unlovable, just waiting to be permanently deleted. But Jesus doesn’t think we’re spam. Jesus became spam for us and broke the filter’s chains, bringing us to the inbox, bringing us to heaven with Him.

You are not spam. You are a new creation in Jesus.

Episode One is undoubtedly the least favorite installment of the Star Wars Saga. And with good reason: after waiting over fifteen years for George Lucas to release another installment of the beloved sci-fi fantasy, we got an over-produced kids movie with barely enough lightsaber fights and space battles to hold our attention for even a couple hours. Even if that had been enough, let’s not forget…Jar-Jar Binks. Enough said.

Mr. Lucas has certainly taken his hits over the past decade. Sure, there was some uproar over his decision to re-release the original trilogy as “Special Editions” in the mid-90′s. Most of it surrounded Lucas’ decision to show Greedo shoot first in the infamous Mos Eisley cantina scene (a decision he most recently confessed as having been his intent all along). Controversial though it may have been at the time, it meant that teens such as myself got our first chances to see these films in an actual movie theater, and that alone justified the price of admission.

Then came The Phantom Menace. And Attack of the Clones. And Revenge of the Sith. From what I can remember of the reviews I read, they boiled down to two simple words: “eye candy.” That was it. No deep dissection of Anakin’s fall from grace. No insight into how Palpatine was able to manipulate an entire governmental system. Just the usual complaints about how George Lucas was continuing to ruin the Star Wars universe.

Last year, LucasFilm released the entire saga as a Blu-Ray collection with even more “adjustments” to the beloved series. If there had ever been any doubt of the fanboys’ unbridled wrath against their creator, one had to look no further than the forums discussing the changed scenes.

And so in the last thirteen years since the release of The Phantom Menace, many feel George Lucas has done more to himself in changing the opinion of his legacy through his fans than anyone working against him could have done.

With all that controversy, why am I advocating that you should spend even more money to see yet another altered version of a Star Wars film — and not a very good one, at that?

I know that a lot of things have been compared to pizza for the simple reason that even when pizza isn’t as good as it could be, it’s still mostly enjoyable. I’d like to apply that comparison to Star Wars, too — specifically to the 3D release of Episode One. Yes, you have to suffer through watching Jar-Jar klutz around the screen. You have to endure the poorly-executed direction of true talent like Liam Neeson, Samuel L. Jackson, and Natalie Portman. And you get to listen to a whiny little brat brag about how he’s the best pod racer in the universe.

But what I loved about watching this film — besides the fun of seeing anything Star Wars on a big screen again — was that it was a 3D movie that wasn’t filmed to be a 3D movie. While this is often a bad thing (since the process of converting a film to 3D is often done poorly, leaving the movie a grainy, blurry, drably-colored mess), LucasFilm seems to have taken extra care with this one and done it right. At that point, since it wasn’t originally made to be 3D, we don’t have to put up with gimmicky shots of things purposefully flying straight at you. (While there are some of those elements in the movie, it’s not campy or pointless.) You get to enjoy it as a Star Wars film with the added benefit of getting to see a pod race, lightsaber fight, and space battle in 3D.

So, yes. It is worth it. Trust me.

Finally, aside from reasons of enjoyment, there’s one other die-hard, concrete, indisputable reason why you must go spend your hard-earned money to go watch this Star Wars movie in 3D. So far, George Lucas has not yet revealed the release dates of the rest of the saga. Apparently, it takes an entire year to transfer a 2D film into 3D. One can assume the possibility that with a weak showing of The Phantom Menace in theaters, the ridicule of George Lucas’ “creative liberties,” or even the national economic recession that he could very well either scrap the entire project or just wait another five to ten years before releasing yet another home video collection.

In other words, if you want to see the really good Star Wars movies in 3D, you should probably go see the not-so-good ones just to let ol’ Lucas know you’re interested.

So, go do your duty, fellow geeks. Take a couple of hours out of your weekend, take along a kid who’s never experienced a Star Wars film on the silver screen, and spend the money to see The Phantom Menace.  Because as hard as it might be to sit through certain scenes in Episode One, imagine the heartache of missing out on seeing the Battles of Yavin, Hoth or Endor again on the big screen. In 3D.

The choice is yours.

*Editor’s note: this post is about spoiler alerts, but also contains quite a few spoilers to things like

In our current social world of over sharing, it is nearly impossible not to get spoiled. If you don’t get into a popular television show immediately, you had best ignore Twitter and Facebook until you’ve gotten caught up.

I recently finished reading the book A Game of Thrones, the first book in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, a series of five (soon to be seven) books. HBO has made the first book into an original series and has plans to continue with season two beginning April 1. My wife read the five books that are available of the series before I even started. She even watched the TV show before had I read a word.

The first thing I saw of Game of Thrones (which I chanced a glance at while my wife was finishing the series) was the last two scenes involving SPOILER ALERT the King of the North being proclaimed and dragons hatching. Those scenes didn’t ruin the first book for me, but there was less mystery involved around those dragon eggs.

But I chose that spoiling. I couldn’t resist. It looked so intriguing. I saw five minutes of the show and I needed to pick up the book and start reading. I couldn’t help thinking, “Why haven’t I read this already?”

The spoiler I didn’t choose from A Game of Thrones was knowing that SPOILER ALERT Sean Bean’s character Eddard Stark, died because people on Facebook and Twitter just couldn’t help pointing out how Sean Bean dies in every acting job he gets.

But the first book was still a great book, and the series isn’t even finished yet, so nobody can spoil that for me quite yet. But I didn’t overly attach myself to Eddard Stark while reading. He’s a very well written character, but knowing he would lose his head before the end of the first book made me care more about other characters.

I did the same thing with Lost, only the first episode I saw was the season three finale in which SPOILER ALERT Charlie dies.  I then started watching from the beginning, not getting overly attached to Charlie, because I knew he wasn’t going to last.

Getting spoiled hasn’t really ever stopped me from watching or reading anything, but I won’t lie, getting spoiled (or spoiling myself as it were) affects how I watch and read things. Knowing something about the future of the show that I shouldn’t know makes me wary and less likely to attach.

I wonder sometimes if this is the way people think about Jesus.

Certainly people have differing levels of knowledge when it comes to Jesus, and different opinions about what Jesus did and what it means, but hopefully many people know that Christians believe the following highlights: SPOILER ALERT Jesus was born, Jesus performed miracles, Jesus died, and Jesus rose from the dead.

Now stop and think about this. If those four things were all you knew about Jesus, would you want to know more? If a person knew these things and only these things about Jesus, how would that affect their willingness to learn more? For those who believe, Jesus’ actions on earth are the climax of human existence. Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection are the pinnacle of humanity’s story. If you knew the climax to any story, would you still read it or watch it?

Strangely, most of us do. Even if you’ve never read or seen Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, you probably know that SPOILER ALERT, they both end up dying suicidal deaths. I hope that doesn’t prevent you from watching it when it comes to a stage near you.

Jesus’ time on earth is also a pretty solid plot twist in the story. Jesus provides moments where everything changes. Think about the first time you watched Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. If you were born in the 1980s or later, you probably knew that SPOILER ALERT Darth Vader was Luke’s father before you saw Episode V, because people tend to go around misquoting Vader with “Luke, I am your Father.” I pray knowing that major plot twist never stops anyone from watching such a fantastic film.

Many of the greatest classic stories are spoiled for us before we see them. Does that make them any less great? Does that mean we should not read them in their entirety? No, I don’t think so – especially not when it comes to Jesus. Why?

When it comes to Jesus, the power of the story does not derive from the surprise of the plot twist known as Jesus’ birth, nor from the character development of Jesus’ miracles and teaching, nor from the shock of Jesus’ death, not even from the biggest plot twist in history when Jesus rises from the dead. The power of the story comes from its truth, its effect on the rest of our lives, and its source: God.

The story of God’s interaction and intersection with humanity is a story with many pieces. Perhaps you know the beginning of the story, perhaps only the climax, perhaps a few things in between, but reading and learning more, putting the pieces together can deepen our understanding and appreciation for the story. Even reading the climax over and over and over again can be worthwhile.

Think of it this way. Unless you were living under a rock, you knew upon meeting Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace that this charming boy would one day SPOILER ALERT become Darth Vader. That didn’t stop you from watching because you needed to know more. You needed to see the pieces come together…even if it meant putting up with Jar Jar Binks.

Sharing just a fraction of the story with others, spoiling them with the reality that Jesus came into our world to save us, is a good way to get people intrigued by the story, to convince them to discover more of the pieces of the story. And what better story is there to dive into?

The bundle this time is a little different, but if you’ve never give it a chance this might be the best one for you: Android devices are now supported, along with the usual trio of Windows/Mac/Linux desktop platforms. All of the games continue to be DRM-free, allowing you to move games around from computer to computer (or from reinstalls) without having to worry about getting locked out of a game because of a forgotten password or too many installations.

As usual, there are a few notable games this time, and I invite you to check them out. However, instead of dwelling on new games, I wanted to take a look at the best of the games so far released as part of past editions of the Humble Indie Bundle. Sometimes the Bundle releases games again as a bonus for paying a little more than average, so if you see these games show up in the future, take note:

5) Crayon Physics Deluxe

This deceptively simple game requires the player to get a small ball from one end to the other using crayon drawings. As something of a puzzle game, things advance as you go along. You may have to create blocks to propel the ball forward, make a wall to keep it going too far, or quickly draw something to keep your drawings in place. The “Physics” part of this game means that gravity is a major force working against you. Crayon Physics Deluxe has a demo available at its site, although the original version of the game is a shorter, free version as well.

4) The World of Goo

This is another puzzle game, although with a different feel. In this game, balls of Goo connect to each other to build a tower or bridge to reach the final destination of a spigot that will take the Goo balls to their next level. Like Crayon Physics, the game feels easier than it actually is. Each type of Goo acts differently — some stick to things, others don’t, and some can’t be moved again once they’ve been put into place. Levels start with a vague hint, and then it’s off to connecting Goo Balls to get to the end. The graphics and sound in this game are quite exceptional, as each Goo ball will make little noises and keep moving even after it’s connected. The World of Goo is quite an addictive game, and sets a standard on how good an Indie game can look and feel.

3) Aquaria

In this underwater game, you play as Naija — a mermaid woman who spends times exploring her expanding world. Early in the game, she meets a creature that nearly kills her but forces her out of her complacent world. From there she uses her growing abilities and the power of song (called “The Verse” in the game) to combat creatures that she comes across. Aquaria is easily the most beautiful game of this list, with lush seaweed forests and vast amounts of blue-tinted caves to explore. At times you’re simply allowed to let Naija rest while you take in all of the details on the screen. The music also adds to the experience, playing ambient and mellow songs as you pass through the various maps and underwater tunnels. Even then, there are very tense moments in the game, and you’ll need to move quick and decisively to stay alive. This game won numerous awards when it was released a few years ago, and it’s not difficult to see why.

2) Cave Story+

Cave Story+ is technically a special edition release of a Japanese freeware game that’s been popular for years. The game is an homage to traditional 2D scrollers and adventure games like Zelda, Metroid, or even Castlevania. The game stars a robot boy who is drawn into saving a race of rabbit-like creatures from a mad scientist intent on destroying their world. As you play you get more information about the world, gain weapon upgrades, shoot crazed monsters that disappear once defeated, and do the usual 2D things that might make you think that you’re sitting in front of an NES in 1987. While a throwback, the game never feels like it’s trying to milk nostalgia for older games but creates a credible adventure in its own right. The freeware version is just as fun, but the Plus version has upgraded graphics, music, and few extra twists that might be worth it for some. There are three endings: one “bad” ending, one ending where most things work out, and one exceptionally tough ending that is the best possible ending — giving you three chances to play through. Until it becomes available again, check out the free version at this tribute site. And do yourself a favor — don’t read too many fan sites or walkthroughs just yet; you might ruin the fun.

1) Braid

Speaking of avoiding spoilers and walkthroughs, there’s a reason Braid is at the top of this list. Few video games deserve to be called “art,” but Braid might just be the except to the rule. Braid itself is hard to explain without giving too much away, but at the beginning this much is revealed: Tim is the main character and is attempting to save a Princess who has been taken away because of a mistake he made. He hopes to be able to reconcile this mistake, or possibly erase it given his abilities. The major factor in this otherwise simple 2D scroller is that Tim has the ability to reverse time. Since he only has one life, he uses this to erase mistakes when coming across monsters or missing a jump off a clip. However, some levels have things that simply cannot be erased, others force the entire game to reverse itself when he moves left, others must be played backwards in order to move ahead. Narrative clues are given as to what is happening in the game, although they start to come off as foreboding. By the time the final levels arrive, they rival The Prisoner or 2001 for their surreal feel. Again, do yourself a favor and don’t read hints or walkthroughs. Take your time working through the levels and puzzles you’re given. At worst, you can always reverse yourself — right up to the very end.

In 1992, when the series started, I was just starting to really get into comics. They opened a brand new comic book shop just blocks from our high school and I couldn’t have been more excited. I even remember the very first comic I bought with my own money, rather than one that I begged my mom to buy for me at the grocery store. (It was Wonder Man #15, but I digress.)

As much as I would love to talk about Wonder Man, I want to focus on a different Marvel character: an X-Man I discovered by watching season two of the cartoon series: Kurt Wagner, a.k.a. Nightcrawler.

If you know the comics or have even seen the 2003 X-Men film sequel X2: X-Men United, then you have a general idea of not only who but what Nightcrawler is: a furry, blue-skinned man with deformed hands and feet and a prehensile forked tail. Based on appearances alone, it would very easy for anyone to label him a “demon” or at the very least a bad guy. But there’s trait that Kurt has that sets him apart from most of his fellow mutants: he is a devout Christian.

Now, many superheroes in both the Marvel and DC universes could easily be looked at or labeled as Christian. While one could make assumptions about many of them, and while others profess a belief in some form of Christianity, it’s often pretty inconsistent or vague.

Kurt Wagner is special in that he leaves no doubt. He is a strong Christian who has a strong faith.

I could try to go into explicit detail on how Nightcrawler has been a beacon of light in the darkest times of the Marvel Universe, but the guy’s been around for over thirty-five years. Plus, aside from the shear volume of material, I simply don’t know the comics well enough to do that.

I do, however, want to return to my first point: the animated series. The episode was simply titled “Nightcrawler” and was a standalone story that didn’t tie into any previous plot lines (as many episodes in the series often did).  In fact, the premise was very simple: Gambit and Rogue decide to go skiing in Germany, chaperoned by a grumpy-as-usual Wolverine. When Logan hears rumors about a demon in a nearby town, he jumps at the opportunity for adventure and drags along his fellow X-Men.

It’s at a local monastery where they meet Kurt, or Nightcrawler, as he was known to the traveling circus performers who raised him. The rest of Kurt’s backstory plays out in a very Frankenstein-ian fashion as we see torch-wielding mobs comprised of frightened townspeople chasing him and persecuting him. Throughout all of it, though, Kurt harbors no bitterness or anger toward them. In fact, he loves them — a sentiment the skeptical X-Men don’t understand. Despite their doubt, Nightcrawler continues to boldly proclaim his faith throughout the episode, especially to Wolverine.

An inevitable confrontation with this mob (stoked by a particularly hard-hearted member of Nightcrawler’s monastic order) and a fire in the monastery creates the climax of this episode. In the end, though, peace and reconciliation descend upon the town and Nightcrawler is accepted among the townspeople. Even so, Wolverine can’t shake his usual pessimism. He fumes about how the monastery has been burnt down despite their efforts to protect it.

Kurt’s response is astonishing: “[I]t was only stone and mortar. The foundation God has built in our hearts can never be destroyed.”

Sounds like something out of VeggieTales, doesn’t it? And Wolverine’s reply: “Man…I don’t get you.” How true a response to such unswerving faith; it’s something the world has a hard time understanding.

Nightcrawler remains persistent. He gives Logan a Bible with pre-marked passages personally for him. While that could have been the end of the story, we soon see an epilogue: Rogue has been touched by the faith of the monks and, following an argument with Gambit, begins to wander the streets. She stumbles into a church and discovers Wolverine kneeling at an altar.

It’s here that we discover one of the verses Kurt picked out for Wolverine. He reads aloud: “I will give thanks to you, O Lord. For though you were angry with me, your anger turned away and you comforted me. I will trust and will not be afraid.”

After reading these verses from Isaiah 12, Wolverine bows his head in prayer, and Rogue leaves the church with a tear running down her face.

Nightcrawler’s mutant ability may be teleportation, but his true power is his faith — a faith in Jesus Christ, lived boldly and without compromise or apology, visible for all to see.

The movie is based on the book The Borrowers by English author Mary Norton, and revolves around a small species of people who stand little more than four inches tall and their encounters with their larger human counterparts. And because this is a British-based book, the United Kingdom will be getting their own version with their own dubbing. Here’s their trailer:

Two separate dubs in the same language isn’t unheard of in film: Quebec and France occasionally get different French dubs, as do Portugal and Brazil for Portuguese. But with this story’s distinct British origins (enough so that a live action film is coming out on British television this Christmas), it’s rather expected that they’d want to hear this story with their own take on the dialogue.

This is the first time in the director’s chair for Hiromasa Yonebayashi, a young man who has worked with Ghibli projects that include animation on Spirited Away and Ponyo. Getting some young blood into the world of Ghibli is something of an important move for the company: co-founder (and face of the company) Hayao Miyazaki is now in his 70s, and the less active Isao Takahata is 76. The two of them are responsible for fifteen of the studio’s twenty-one feature films.

The Secret World of Arrietty is coming out in North America is February 17, although it’s been out in the UK (who incidentally have a far more interesting website for the movie than Disney does for the US) since July 29 and will be out on disc there in early January.

Hilarity prevails as Kevin enjoys being the man of the house and has fun planning surprises for the burglars as well as the pizza delivery boy.

Though there are a number of characters in the story, we really only see development in a few of them. The one that makes for the best connection to faith is Old Man Marley. While Kevin’s older brother Buzz instills a rumor into Kevin’s head about Old Man Marley (that he’s a murderer and turns his victims into mummies), Kevin eventually meets Old Man Marley face to face in what seems at the time to be a rather unlikely place: church. Kevin comes to understand Mr. Marley a bit better as he assures him saying, “You can say hello when you see me, you don’t have to be afraid.”

After a brief conversation about Kevin being a good boy or not, Marley observes, “This is the place to be if you’re feeling bad about yourself.” This commentary on church is rather wise in my opinion. Where else could possibly be a better place to go when you are feeling bad about yourself? Attending a church service, surrounded by fellow believers, hearing the word and promises of God is certainly a place where one can go from feeling bad to encountering joy. Church is certainly a place where we can hear of God’s forgiveness and love. Hearing those things can remove guilt and instill joy like nothing else.

But that is not Marley’s only worthwhile observation about church in his conversation with Kevin. He also says, “You’re always welcome at church.” I think the real question is if you are always welcome at church, who are you welcomed by? If Mr. Marley means you are always welcome at church by God, then I think he is, of course, correct.

If Mr. Marley means you are always welcome at church by the congregation, well, if only it were true in every church throughout the world. After living abroad for a few years, I’ve come to observe that Americans, in general, simply aren’t that good at hospitality. Many of us don’t know how to properly welcome strangers and make them feel comfortable in our homes, at work, or in our places of worship.

But I think churches can do better. How? Strategies can be made and critiqued, but I don’t think anybody will figure out how to properly welcome anybody until they truly desire to build deep relationships with new people. Until that truth is a part of a person’s life, they cannot properly welcome anyone in any way.

An interesting reality is that Mr. Marley doesn’t stop in his observation about church. The fuller quote is, “You’re always welcome at church. I’m not welcome with my son.”

After years of not speaking with his son, Mr. Marley is feeling some serious guilt and regret. Not only that, he knows he is not welcome, even with his own son. Families are complicated. I hope your family doesn’t have anybody who is estranged from anyone else. I pray any brokenness your family is experiencing can be reconciled soon. How applicable is it that while Mr. Marley is estranged from his son, the only way our estrangement from God can be reconciled is through God’s Son, Jesus Christ, the infant born in Bethlehem. God accepts separation from His beloved Son, so that through Him, we might be no longer separated from Him.

That’s what Christmas is about: God intersecting this world with compassion for our sakes.

Kevin does a pretty great job of encouraging Mr. Marley to overcome his fears and to try to speak with his son and mend the brokenness that continues to exist.

Kevin is clearly a smart kid in more ways than just home security.

The other character in whom we see some development is Kevin’s mother. Whenever I watch Home Alone, I can’t help but think that she really is a terrible parent. She encourages Kevin to wish for a new family, she forgets him (as does everybody else), she fails to properly communicate with the police about the situation. She doesn’t think to rent a car herself and instead rides in a van with a crazy polka band. I’m just not a giant fan of Kevin’s mom.

Her one redeeming line is when she yells at the ticket agent in Scranton, “This is Christmas! The season of perpetual hope!” Kevin’s mom does find hope. She finds her way back home and finds Kevin largely unharmed. But she’s right; Christmas is the season of perpetual hope. For many kids, the hope is that they’ll get the toys they want. For many adults…it’s the same hope, actually. But I think the true hope of the Christmas season is that no matter what goes wrong, no matter how crazy the family gatherings are, Jesus Christ still comes to us on Christmas. The angels still sing. The shepherds still worship. The wise men still come and bring gifts. And the earthly life of our Savior begins.

A lot can go wrong at Christmas, but one thing went right in Bethlehem over two thousand years ago that reminds us that we have a loving God in whom we can place our hope and our joy!

Merry Christmas from all of us at Faith & Geekery!

A Christmas Carol, of course, focuses on the journey of Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly man who spent too much of his adulthood being lonely and selfish. Over the years, his cruelty towards his family and neighbors had only gotten worse.

While perhaps you know his journey, I’d first like to focus on how Scrooge came to be so unkind and stingy. I think the answer lies in his isolation. As he removes himself from the community, having only colleagues and employees, but never more, Ebenezer Scrooge is devoid of something that gives joy to us all: friendship. His loneliness started early; as a boy, he liked solitude. He reveled in it. And eventually, it warped him.

Scrooge’s plight can be a reminder to us just how important it is to treasure our friendships, our family, and the time we spend with them. While spending time alone can be helpful to many of us, it is not a wise lifestyle choice. God gives us friends and family and we should feel no guilt in taking full advantage of the time we have with them.

The first supernatural visit Scrooge receives is from his old business partner – partners in the Muppet version – the Marleys. Their appearing serves as a warning to Scrooge. He sees them in chains and shackles and they make it very clear that the same chains await Scrooge after his death.

Wishing to hear any other possibility, Scrooge pleads, “Speak comfort to me, friends.” It’s interesting to me how Scrooge, after so little of a warning, is looking for comfort. To me it speaks to how truly deep his desire was for something different than the lonely life he had chosen.

In some Christian circles, this is called the Law and the Gospel. As Scrooge hears the warning of chains and shackles from the Marley brothers, he hears the Law, the reality of how sin has infected his life. The Law tells him that he has fallen short of what he ought to do and his response is only natural. He wants comfort.

We don’t see much of Scrooge’s faith in this Muppetized telling. He prays on Christmas morning and speaks of having a grateful heart, but we don’t get many details. I think he is overcome by seeing the effects of his cruelty and is in desperate desire of forgiveness. I believe he yearns for the Gospel, the good news that there is forgiveness in Jesus.

The Ghost of Christmas Past comes soon after the Marley Brothers, showing Scrooge how he pushed away friends, how he fell in love, and how he lost that love interest. More Law. It brings Scrooge to regret and a desire to see no more. But the Ghost of Christmas Past has no good news for Scrooge.

He then meets the Ghost of Christmas Present, whose jovial attitude is fantastic. He asks Scrooge, “Have you ever noticed that everything seems wonderful at Christmas?”

Scrooge answers with the truth: “In all honesty, Spirit, no. Perhaps I’ve never understood about Christmas.” It’s amazing how Scrooge is already showing signs of change. He’s open to the possibility that he has spent more than fifty years refusing to see the good of Christmas. After fifty years of believing something, most of us wouldn’t be too open-minded about changing our viewpoint. But that’s where Scrooge is, showing his desire for a different life.

The Ghost of Christmas Present, especially in the Muppet version, exemplifies how Christmas joy is simply infectious. In his song, the Ghost of Christmas Present’s singing even makes Scrooge himself dance in the street with joy. Scrooge is finally starting to get the wonder of Christmas.

Scrooge then sees people, including his own family, who are not pleased with him, having a laugh at his expense. He sees the Cratchit family enjoying a meager feast and while some decry Scrooge for his stingy ways, Bob and Tiny Tim still find joy in Mr. Scrooge, the founder of the feast.

Scrooge’s changed heart is apparent as he worries about the health of Tiny Tim, wondering if he will live. The Ghost of Christmas Present wanes and the Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come appears. His news is perhaps worst of all. He shows Scrooge people who are rejoicing in Scrooge’s own death. He shows him that Tiny Tim will die. And Scrooge begs to know if things can be changed or not, if what he is seeing is what will be or what may be.

As Scrooge wakes up on Christmas morning, he is changed. The opportunity given to move forward and change what may be rejuvenates him to be generous and charitable. He approaches two men who had asked him for a donation to charity the day before (Bunsen and Beaker) and offers an undisclosed amount for their charity.

Then, a really interesting thing happens, Beaker gives Scrooge the scarf from around his neck. And Scrooge takes the gift from Beaker. He doesn’t refuse it. He accepts it. I think this is an important lesson for us. Refusing gifts is looked at as polite in some cultures (and looked at as extremely rude in other cultures).

However, I think as followers of Jesus, we should be in the practice of always accepting gifts. I am not exactly sure why I feel that way, but I think in part it is because Jesus himself accepted gifts. Not only as a baby (not that infants can refuse gifts), but many years later Jesus also accepts the gift from the prostitute who pours perfume and her own tears on his feet, then dries him with her hair.

When Jesus gave the gift of washing the disciples’ feet, Peter tried to refuse and Jesus rebuked him, making sure he understood the importance of accepting what Jesus was giving.

Jesus gives us far more than a foot washing. At Christmas, Jesus gives us himself in the form of an infant. Throughout his ministry, Jesus gives us God’s word and many miracles. At Easter, Jesus gives us himself in the form of sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. We receive this grace and forgiveness as a gift and to not accept is foolish.

Scrooge eventually continues on his way, surrounded by loved ones that he has refused to love for far too long. He provides them with a feast and his generosity continues to abound. While he never hears the specific word of the Gospel, Scrooge is changed; he is a new creation.

As followers of Jesus, I think we can learn a lot from Scrooge’s journey. Are you lonely, isolated, or feel rather like saying “humbug”? Are you regretting the past, afraid to face the wrongs you’ve done or failed to do? Are you desiring happiness, but finding it difficult to love neighbors who think poorly of you? Are you rejoicing with exceeding great joy at the reality of Christmas?

Wherever you are on the journey, know that Jesus is with you and joy awaits at the end. Joy comes as Jesus is born in Bethlehem. Joy comes as Jesus rises from the tomb Easter Sunday. Joy is here.

Feel free to infect others with it.