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Five things that make me laugh out loud:
Good slapstick comedy (Think Lucille Ball, John Ritter, Carol Burnett)
A good joke
A clever parody
Some exaggerations
Great spontaneous wit
How 'bout you?
Father, thank you for good hard laughter. It's so freeing to laugh. And thank you for your sense of humor. You'd have to own one to put up with some of us. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
[American Sniper has been nominated for Best Picture. Bradley Cooper has been nominated for Best Actor. Chances are in this political climate Selma will win Best Picture. Kudos to Bradley Cooper and Clint Eastwood, the director of this powerful film who was not nominated. This role is way out of the ordinary for Cooper, and I commend him for taking on the depiction of such a larger-than-life man and SEAL hero. Big shoes to fill.]
The subtitle to American Sniper is The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History. Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice believed in the value of, and assisted in writing, Navy SEAL Chris Kyle's story. The most prolific sniper of "bad guys", Chris Kyle and friend Chad Littlefield were mysteriously and allegedly murdered by a Marine in Reserve status at a gun range.
This is the honest story of the warrior Chris Kyle, who, if you believe you are marked for specific callings at creation, was destined to be a true soldier with the gumption, courage, determination, and skills to become the SEAL who attained the most recorded kills as a sniper in U.S. military history.
American Sniper tells the story of Chris Kyle's inevitable military career, how he pursued the option of becoming a SEAL and how in his mind the order of life was God, country, family. His wife Taya's thoughts and emotional responses to this order, her struggles with anger and resentment as their two children were born, are recorded intermittently throughout the book. Her comments help bring to the forefront the difficulties of being a military wife, particularly the wife or family member of an elite soldier who can't tell his loved ones anything about his location or specific duties and seems to value being with the Team more than being at home.
I'm going to give those of you who intend to read this amazing story a few quotations from Chris. These telltale words say more than anything I could say.
"And then we had a third group of Iraqi soldiers that we used in villages outside the city. . . .
"As fighters went, they sucked. The brightest Iraqis, it seemed, were usually the insurgents, fighting against us. . . .
"Let's just say they were incompetent, if not outright dangerous. . . .
"Besides being particularly inept, a lot of jundis were just lazy. You'd tell them to do something and they'd reply, 'Inshallaah.'
"Some people translate that as 'God willing.' What it really means is 'ain't gonna happen.'
"Most of the jundis wanted in the army to get a steady paycheck, but they didn't want to fight, let alone die, for their country.
"I realize that a lot of the problem has to do with the screwed-up culture in Iraq. These people had been under a dictatorship for all their lives. Iraq as a country meant nothing to them, or at least nothing good. Most were happy to be rid of Saddam Hussein, very happy to be free people, but they didn't understand what that really meant - the other things that come with being free.
"The government wasn't going to be running their lives anymore, but it also wasn't going to be giving them food or anything else. It was a shock. And they were so backward in terms of education and technology that for Americans it often felt like being in the Stone Age.
"You can feel sorry for them, but at the same time you don't want these guys trying to run your war for you.
"And giving them the tools to progress is not what my job is all about. My job was killing, not teaching." Chris Kyle (excerpted from pages 251;252;253)
And this about taking Ramadi:
"You know how Ramadi was won?
"We went in and killed all the bad people we could find.
"When we started, the decent (or potentially decent) Iraqis didn't fear the United States; they did fear the terrorists. The U.S. told them, 'We'll make it better for you.'
"The terrorists told them, 'We'll cut your head off.'
"Who would you fear? Who would you listen to?
"When we went into Ramadi, we told the terrorists, 'We'll cut your head off. We will do whatever we have to and eliminate you.'
"Not only did we get the terrorists' attention - we got everyone's attention. We showed we were the force to be reckoned with.
"That's where the so-called Great Awakening came. It wasn't from kissin' up to the Iraqis. It was from kicking butt.
"The tribal leaders saw that we were the bad-asses, and they'd better get their act together, work together, and stop accommodating the insurgents. Force moved that battle. We killed the bad guys and brought the leaders to the peace table.
"That is how the world works." Chris Kyle (excerpt from page 319)
Chris Kyle makes the battles come alive, the pain of losing Team members searing, the resentment of having to leave the SEALs even when he knew it was best for him, and the learning to regroup and love his family as he should, hit hard. He was born to be a warrior, he was a mighty man.
Chris Kyle was a Christian who by his own account was a little rough around the edges. But one thing for sure about this man of war: he had no trouble distinguishing good from evil. None. He killed bad guys in large numbers because they were intent on doing harm to his guys and all things good. He had no guilt or qualms about protecting his own. He recognized evil and acted to put it down. He paid no attention to the awards and medals he earned. Instead he hurt and mourned over the losses of his Brothers. His sorrows came over the ones he couldn't save. That was the heart of Chris Kyle, a true Navy SEAL.
I recommend reading American Sniper for all who respect the military and admire those who dedicate their lives to protecting the United States of America, one nation under God. As Chris Kyle's brother Jeff gave his heartbreaking response, "America has truly lost one of its finest sons." If you want to read cold, hard facts about war from someone who lived it and isn't afraid to speak about it, if you don't mind some hardcore language at times, and if you're a patriot, Chris Kyle's American Sniper is the book for you.
Father, you have defined evil for the world to know. Chris knew what was evil. Only you could plant that in his heart. You forgive us our own evil when we ask to be covered by the Blood of Jesus. We know we're sinners. Without you we would be evil too. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
The long and short of it is most of us have to wait for a lot of things in life. And we get impatient. At least I do.
If you're waiting to be published, you must conclude what kind of wait and what kind of publishing you want. Publishing has a lot more open doors these days with the advent of e-books. Access to getting your work digitized for e-readers takes a lot less time to produce. What's left waiting in either scenario is the ever present millstone of marketing.
What is worth waiting in line to you? What can you endure and what will you allow to stretch your patience? What can you say with a relaxed admission: "As long as it takes"?
Father, you know how impetuous I can be. So you've made me wait to slow down my approach. Thank you for not giving up on me. I know I can be a handful. You've been so gracious to me. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
You know me. Passionate: right or wrong. But there's more. I need purpose. I need to know there's something I can do. And it isn't just anything. It's not routine. It has to be that certain something where I know it's me who has to do it.
It took me 8 and 1/2 years to write my first monster tome. Incredibly large book about horse racing. I was full of purpose, but I'd never written a book. I had to learn the immense determination in the process of writing it. I also had a divine purpose to write that one, and after every lag in the journey, I wondered if I could do it. Could I finish it? It was definitely the divinity in the purpose that gave me the perseverance to complete that massive novel. Granted, it wouldn't be the same book if I'd written it in current times, but it has served a purpose. One I needed but even more beneficial: it has served to bless some of its readers.
Following that completion, I started a sequel, but it expanded to the size of the first one, and I quit writing it. I had a new purpose, a different book. The Famous One was written and finished in a matter of months, not years. Then I wrote three more novels in one year, all over 140K words. Then I slowed down but kept writing. Finished two more. Worked on getting TFO published.
Now it's been a long dry spell with three novels in progress, one I'm focusing on that's taking the same kind of determination as my first one. I've struggled with my purpose. I've languished with self-doubt and all those thoughts and practices which rob me of purpose. And when you hide my purpose, I'm not me.
So. Here's to being purpose-full. To doing what we're designed to do. To making sure we find that direction we set aside or misplaced. I don't know about you, but I need to be full of purpose.
Father, only you provide the inspiration and purpose. Apart from you, I can do nothing. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
If you intend to write comedic fiction, then you better make it funny. If you intend to write women's fiction, then you better make it dramatically poignant to most women. If you intend to write an espionage thriller, you had better be equipped with valid inside sources.
The point here being if you're intending to write a story, you better make it authentic. If you fail to do that within your genre of choice - or meshed genres - you will not have accomplished the primary purpose of telling the story.
What prompted this post was I needed something "lighter" after reading and meditating on Chris Kyle's American Sniper and his tragic murder. Darkness and sorrow seem to cover over the USA in recent years.
So I picked a novel I knew would not normally entice me, but I got it for my Kindle anyway because the author is a Washingtonian. While the book could be classified in the romance genre, for me it's more like chick-lit which is not by any stretch a favored genre for me. I'm over halfway done with the book, and I had to decide whether or not to continue. When I examined my reasoning, I realized the intent of the story was to take a lighter look at a conflicted relationship which, of course, the two people involved both assume could never be anything but a somewhat difficult friendship due to their history.
Both hero's and heroine's viewpoints permeate the pages with occasional humorous and awkward moments, their stubborn personalities, and their remembrances of personal pain. And, although I might have hoped for a more meaningful story because that's what I prefer, I figured out this book's intent had been accomplished. Therefore, criticizing it would be a waste of time and prove to be unfair. I think that's important when assessing what we read. Giving it a negative review when it's done what it set out to do tells readers more about the reviewer than it does the story.
It should always be about the story and how that story is told.
Figure out your intentions and then go accomplish them.
Father, thank you for helping us understand our motives and directing our steps toward accomplishing our goals. Thank you for inspiration and perseverance. Thank you for always being what we need. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.