I Found God in Falling Skies...

I'm constantly looking for a Buffy-replacement.  So far, nothing has matched my all-time favorite show, and most shows I end up liking don't make it past one season (No Ordinary Family, V, etc.).  But, I've found new one on Sunday nights on TNT that I am loving...!!  It's called Falling Skies with Noah Wyle.  Alien invasion, great action, and intriguing characters are just what I like... and I discovered a happy surprise while watching it... There's a Christian character!  And for once, she's not a freaky religious caricature of what a Christian is truly like!!!


"Lourdes" (played by Seychelle Gabriel) is a pre-med student whose college education was interrupted by the alien invasion of the Skitters and Mechs.  She helps in the clinic of one of the resistance bands, and routinely (normally!) displays her Christian faith in each episode.  We see her pray before each meal, openly discussing her faith to the other characters (even if they don't agree - or even have any faith of their own), and... my favorite... when she prays over photos of each of the missing children posted to a bulletin board.  She doesn't preach - she leads by example, and she doesn't back down when other characters make fun of her or dismiss her faith as "pointless."


This character does what we, as Christians, should ALL be doing... letting her actions show others that a faith in God will give us strength in the hard times, enable us to see outside of ourselves to help others, and though our everyday, ordinary actions, show how our faith in God has transformed our heart, our mind, and our actions.


People are usually leery of those "freaky, religious people" infiltrating the workplace or social settings outside of church.  I confess that I have a BIG freak-o-meter, myself!  I can't stand meeting pushy religious people who seem to be play-acting their faith.  The trick is to be "normal" - to "naturally" share your faith in small, authentic ways... to gently lead others by example.  God can change someone's heart; He doesn't need you do do His job.  But you can open a door by being the kind of person who represents God authentically with honor, integrity, and honesty.  There is a great article about naturally sharing your faith in the workplace HERE.


Falling Skies is not a religious show.  It is a show with guns and bad language and survival in a post-invaded world.  There is violence, and fear, and grief, and hard choices... the alien-invasion part may be make-believe, but the human feelings are common in many situations in our real-life world.  But God makes our life better when we let Him work through us naturally... in everyday, ordinary places... and allows us to lead others to Him.


What can you do to share your faith naturally?

The World Is Not a Stage

 ¹ "Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don't make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won't be applauding. ^2-4"When you do something for someone else, don't call attention to yourself. You've seen them in action, I'm sure—'playactors' I call them— treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that's all they get. When you help someone out, don't think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.

Pray with Simplicity

 ⁵"And when you come before God, don't turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?

Matthew 6:1-5 (Msg)

You can win more people to Christ with your everyday, ordinary behavior than you can preaching at them.  Leave the preaching to the Pastors, and lead by quiet example.  Your example just might be the one thing someone else needs to come to know Christ.

Take care of you and yours,

:) Mags

Of God and Gardening...

My Mom forwarded me an email with this story:

A successful business man was growing old and knew it was time to choose a successor to take over the business. Instead of choosing one of his Directors or his children, he decided to do something different. He called all the young executives in his company together.

He said, "It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO. I have decided to choose one of you. "The young executives were shocked, but the boss continued. "I am going to give each one of you a SEED today - one very special SEED. I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from the seed I have given you. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next CEO."

One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story. She helped him get a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed. Everyday, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow.

Jim kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew.

Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing.

By now, others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn't have a plant and he felt like a failure.

Six months went by -- still nothing in Jim's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Jim didn't say anything to his colleagues, however, he just kept watering and fertilizing the soil - He so wanted the seed to grow.

A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company brought their plants to the CEO for inspection.

Jim told his wife that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But she asked him to be honest about what happened. Jim felt sick to his stomach, it was going to be the most embarrassing moment of his life, but he knew his wife was right. He took his empty pot to the board room. When Jim arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other executives. They were beautiful -- in all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor and many of his colleagues laughed, a few felt sorry for him!

When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young executives.

Jim just tried to hide in the back. "My, what great plants, trees and flowers you have grown," said the CEO. "Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO!"

All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered the Financial Director to bring him to the front. Jim was terrified. He thought, "The CEO knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me fired!"

When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his seed - Jim told him the story.

The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and then announced to the young executives, "Behold your next Chief Executive Officer! His name is Jim!" Jim couldn't believe it. Jim couldn't even grow his seed.

"How could he be the new CEO?" the others said.

Then the CEO said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it,and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead - it was not possible for them to grow.

All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Jim was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new Chief Executive Officer!"

How often have we done something wrong and wanted desperately to hide the mistake? How often have we felt like Jim - head hanging in shame - thinking that we have screwed up beyond help? How often have we BEEN the other executives...? -- Trying to hide our mistakes and pretend we haven't messed up?

Unfortunately, while you can fool the world for a while... you can't hide from God.

That's part of what being omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient means...!

Whoever said "honestly is the best policy" is definitely referring to Jim. Honesty can be embarrassing, shaming, and hard, but it is what God expects from us. Off all the commandments God gave, LYING was one of the "Big 10."

Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not deceive one another.
Leviticus 19:11

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.
Proverbs 4:23-27

The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful.
Proverbs 12:22

Courage and honesty is rewarded. If you plant honesty, you will reap trust. If you plant humility, you will reap greatness. And if you plant hard work, you will reap success.

And those plants will thrive.