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Soul Surfer

May 24th, 2011
by Rodney Olsen.
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I really wasn’t sure what to expect of the movie Soul Surfer, the true life story of Bethany Hamilton, but last night we headed to a preview screening. What a wonderful movie.

So often in life we meet people who allow circumstances to drag them down and give them reason to give up. The story of Bethany Hamilton should inspire people to overcome whatever life throws their way.

Through determination and a strong Christian faith, Bethany overcame the loss of her arm to get back in the water and continue surfing at the highest level. I’m not a surfer but I still loved this movie.

Bethany has become a source of inspiration to millions through her story of determination, faith and hope. Born into a family of surfers on February 8, 1990, Bethany jumped on the board at a young age. Bethany entered her first surf competition—winning both the short and long board divisions at age eight. On Halloween morning 2003, Bethany was attacked by a 14-foot tiger shark, which bit off her left arm and seemed to end her career as a rising surf star. After losing more than 60% of her blood and undergoing several surgeries, Bethany began her recovery with an unbelievably positive attitude.

Miraculously, just one month after the attack, Bethany returned to the water. Two months later, Bethany placed fifth in the Open Women’s division surf competition and just over a year after the attack she won her first National Title. In 2007, Bethany realized her dream and turned pro. Bethany has since participated in numerous Association of Surfing Professionals and World Tour Events with her major highlight being a second place finish in the ASP 2009 World Junior Championships. “It has been an incredible journey for me and now, I’m just so excited to share it!” says Bethany.

The cast includes AnnaSophia Robb, Dennis Quaid, Helen Hunt and Carrie Underwood.

If you’re looking for inspiration, don’t miss Soul Surfer.

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A Resilient Life

Apr 26th, 2011
by Rodney Olsen.
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If I had the money, I’d put this book into the hands of just about everyone I know. A Resilient Life: You Can Move Ahead No Matter What by Gordon MacDonald is a book that speaks gently yet firmly into so many areas of life. It gives caring rebuke when needed but overall provides incredible hope. While it spoke to me throughout my reading, I kept thinking how this book would be helpful for so many others.

I read A Resilient Life over a period of about two weeks but I figure I’ll spend the rest of my life tapping into its wisdom as I seek to live my own resilient life. MacDonald talks about inheriting a ‘quitter’s gene’, a natural inclination to give up when the going gets tough. I reckon we all have some of that gene and so a book that helps us to overcome it to live a life of honour is a welcome addition to any bookshelf.

Gordon MacDonald has been a pastor and author for more than forty years. A former chairman of World Relief, he presently serves as editor-at-large for Leadership Journal. His most recent books include Who Stole My Church, A Resilient Life, and Ordering Your Private World. MacDonald can often be found hiking the mountains of New England or Switzerland with his wife, Gail, or their five grandchildren.

Our Best Years are Still Ahead

In a society that values the new, young and latest, MacDonald is keen to remind us that the second half of life can be the time that our lives make the most impact. That’s not to say that this book is only for those of middle age and beyond. While I appreciate everything in the book for the stage of life I’m now at, I so wish I could have thought through a lot of the ideas he presents when I was younger. The book gives hope for those of us in our forties and older but provides valuable insights for younger people as they begin to carve out the shape of their lives.

Finishing Well

A major theme of the book is ‘finishing well’. History is littered with stories of people who started life well but who fell along the way and came to the end of their lives full of regret. There is much we can do right now to set ourselves up to finish the race of life well. If you think you’ve already messed up your chances of living out a resilient life, MacDonald will be quick to remind you that there is healing and a way forward. He has experienced moral failure but has found his way back to make his life count for something far bigger than himself. His message is that you can too.

Self-mastery

The book recommends healthy self-assesment, not the kind that becomes morbid introspection, as well as talking about self-mastery. Self-mastery or self-control is absolutely necessary if we are to live a resilient life. It’s no wonder that the apostle Paul talks about training as an athlete for the Christian life. We need to work on creating a resilient life. It doesn’t just come from wishing or from reading a few good books. It’s a practical, daily exercise.

A Happy Few

As you get deeper into the book you find that MacDonald has a lot to say about cultivating a ‘happy few’. The concept is that of developing deep friendships with a small group of people; the kind of friendship that means that someone is there for you no matter what. He talks of a closeness that allows those people to not only celebrate the good times with you but to call you to a higher standard when required.

If you want to build some depth into your life and want to finish well, let me recommend taking some time to read A Resilient Life: You Can Move Ahead No Matter What and then begin the long journey of putting Gordon MacDonald’s wisdom into action.

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Christian Carnival Returns

Apr 4th, 2011
by Rodney Olsen.
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christian_carnival_lion.jpgWould you like the opportunity to have your blog promoted? Have you published a post that you’d like read by a wider audience?

I’m having some friends drop in to my faith blog, Beyond Belief, this week for the next Christian Carnival. They’ll be visiting from all over the world and you’re invited to join us.

The weekly Christian Carnival is an opportunity for Christian blog writers to share their best posts from the previous week. The topic of the post doesn’t necessarily have to focus on Christianity but it must reflect a Christian worldview, and the writer must be Christian to qualify. You may wish to consider that the readership of the Christian Carnival will be more varied than your usual readership, and you might do better contributing a post with broad appeal.

I’ve already received a number of contributions and I’m looking forward to offering readers of Beyond Belief some great links when the carnival is published.

If you’re a Christian and you’ve never contributed before, or if it’s been a while since you have, how about having a look through your posts for this week and choosing something to contribute. It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, just a post that outlines your point of view or is designed to get others thinking. Being part of the carnival could be a great way to gain a little extra traffic at your blog.

The easiest way to get involved is to submit your article through the Blog Carnival Submission Form. Otherwise, you can email the submission address.

The deadline for submissions is Tuesday evening at midnight, Eastern (US) Standard Time. That means it’s midday Wednesday here in Perth, Western Australia.

I’ll let you now when the carnival is published at Beyond Belief.

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The End of the World

Mar 4th, 2011
by Rodney Olsen.
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Floods, earthquakes, fires, natural disasters, wars and continuing instability in various regions around the world. Are we in the end times?

Going right back to biblical times people have been watching the signs and events around them and predicting the end of the world. Some have actually tried to predict dates but those dates have just sailed past, making many people cynical about the whole topic.

Wars and disasters have always been happening but in recent days there has been a major increase in natural disasters. Does this mean that we’re facing the end of the world? What does the Bible really say?

My regular Wednesday morning guest on 98.5 Sonshine FM is Rev Dr Ross Clifford who is the Principal of Morling College in New South Wales . Each week we chat about a range of issues relating to spirituality and belief.

This week we tackled the issue of the end times and discussed whether what we’re seeing might be signs of what’s to come. This is a question that Ross is being asked more and more by a variety of people both inside and outside the church. You can hear what Ross had to say by clicking the play button on the audio player below.

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What is love?

Feb 14th, 2011
by Rodney Olsen.
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It’s Valentine’s Day and people around the world are celebrating their love for each other in a variety of ways …. but what is love?

The messages are confusing. Is it a deep sense of caring? Is it all about lust? Sex? Romantic feelings? Sacrifice for others? Is it emotional or even chemical? Is it a combination of some of these factors? All of them? None of them? What is love?

Even if you don’t consider yourself a religious person it’s worth looking at what Paul wrote about love around 2000 years ago. I reckon what he had to say still holds up pretty well when you’re trying to define a word that has attracted so many meanings over the years.

1 Corinthians 13

1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.

11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. (New Living Translation)

When I measure up the way I love others to those words I realise that I’m a million miles off the mark but it’s a wonderful standard and one worth striving for every day.

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