My Own Antidote For Church Malaise

So I've been grumpy lately or as Jaime put it I'm " overly negative and not excited and in love with life." She said I needed to get over it and recomended Anne Lamott books. Just for the record, if someone is having problems with people dying from cancer way too young, Anne Lamott books are not a good idea (Jaime didn't know this specifically is what was getting me down, so don't be mad at her).

Instead, I found my answer to the "theodicy duldrums" in two movies we happened to see back to back preceded by a service at church all about faith in the midst of shit (the pastor obviously didn't use that language, that's mine). The first movie we saw was In America. OMG! What a great flick! Joy in the midst of suffering, hope even when scary things are happening and being able to let go of a dead/dying loved one. This one really hit the spot, we watched this Monday night and following up on the Church service on Saturday, had me feeling pretty good.



The second movie we watched was Big Fish. I've just gotta say, I love Tim Burton movies. I could totally relate to the son trying to figure out the truth behind the myths of his father. I don't know why this movie specifically helped with my current church malaise, but it did. Maybe just having an uplifting, sweet, quirky movie was all I needed to finally pull myself out of the last bit of my doldrums.




Anyway, both movies are highly recommended especially as medicine for Church Malaise, or Theodicy Duldrums. Honestly, I'm not any closer to the answers of those questions that caused the grumpiness in the first place, but I'm okay with it now and can move on and maybe look for better answers than the standard lines we've been fed...or maybe not I'm gonna be pretty busy over the next few years.