Genesis 6:14

I finally watched the movie Evan Almighty last night. I had never seen it, and so I rented it from redbox and watched it. Though I was disappointed in the lack of overall humor compared to Bruce Almighty, I enjoyed two things very much. The first is how the movie portrayed Evan as a crazy person that everyone thought was a nut. When I really think about it that must have been how Noah truly felt. He was warned about something "not yet seen" and then goes about building a massive ark and fills it with all of these animals. Imagine how the world must have thought he was crazy! The faith Noah had to have to give up doing everything else and concentrate on doing a task for God that seemed illogical and stupid. It makes me question if I would give up every sensible and logical human thing I do to take on a task that made no sense for God. Do I have that kind of faith? I so often align myself with what everyone else around me is doing. The other thing I really liked, was the quote that Morgan Freeman as God gave Evan's wife: Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other? I think this quote was incredible. It makes me re-examine my prayer life and God's answering of the prayers in my life. I cannot get that quote out of my mind. I guess I have always known that in some regards, its just when I stop and think about it, I realize how amazing that truly is. God is constantly trying to refine my character. And when I open the door by praying for things like "patience, humility, love, grace, etc" - the best way for those to be molded into me is by God giving me opportunities to exercise them in my life. How could Noah have better faith? By building an ark and collecting animals - doing something completely nuts with no logical sense behind it but trusting God all the way through it. Overall the movie wasn't as good as I thought it could have been (totally under utilized Steve Carrell's funny abilities) I still enjoyed it because it provoked my thinking.