Almighty Answers

Wouldn't it be great if every time you prayed for something, God just went ZAP! and you got what you asked for? Why do you think he doesn't do that?

Back in 1990, Garth Brooks had a #1 hit with his song, "Unanswered Prayers", where he pointed out that sometimes it's better NOT to get what you ask for because you often don't really know what's best for your life. One great line from the chorus says, "Just because he doesn't answer, doesn't mean he don't care"... but do we really believe that? I mean, do we believe there are prayers that God just refuses to answer?

The people who made 2003's Bruce Almighty seem to believe it. In the movie, Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) feels like God has turned his back on him, and he decides that God must be either non-existent or evil, because if God has infinite power at his fingertips, he could clear up all our problems in five minutes. In order to teach him a lesson (or several), God (Morgan Freeman) gives Bruce a unique gift: he allows Bruce to temporarily have all of God's powers!

Are You Obsolete?

Whenever you hear, "Twilight's on!" at our house, you have to pay attention who's speaking. If it's my wife, undoubtedly she's talking about the recent series of popular vampire movies. But if it's me, more than likely I'm referring to something else: I'm always excited whenever I can see an episode of the classic series, "The Twilight Zone" on TV. Thankfully, Syfy has gotten in the habit of running a marathon every year around the first of January, so after the ball drops at Times Square, I like to get up the next day and watch as many episodes as I can stand!

Romney Wordsworth stands trial for the crime of being obsolete.

There are so many great episodes, but I especially enjoy the ones that feature Burgess Meredith (maybe in part because I'm such a big fan of Rocky and Batman!).

In particular, I think my episode favorite is 1961's "The Obsolete Man". Here, Meredith plays Mr. Wordsworth, an appropriately named librarian living sometime in the future, who is sentenced to death when he is deemed "obsolete" by a society that believes it has evolved beyond the need for books or religion.

So examine with me, if you will, this glimpse into other dimension - a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind... Next stop, The Twilight Zone!