Recently I was home flipping through the channels and found a movie that I had missed at the box office, Trouble with the Curve.

(Please know that (1) I am not endorsing Clint Eastwood or his movies; (2) Yes, I watch way too many movies and TV, but I am married to a man, therefore I have seen a lot of Clint Eastwood movies;  and (3) I took a film class at UNC Chapel Hill what feels like a hundred years ago, and it was the worst grade I got in my entire school career – so I am no expert! How’s that for a disclaimer?) 

I enjoyed the movie which was about an aging baseball scout struggling with poor health and a distant relationship with his only daughter.  It’s a story about love, restoration, and reconciliation.

It made me think about another Eastwood film a few years ago, Gran Torino.  That movie was about an aging Korean War veteran struggling with prejudice and a changing world around him.  The movie chronicles a transformation in his character so dramatic that he ultimately sacrifices his own life in order to save two Asian teenagers, in a very powerful, and if I may, Messianic-type scene.

The point I’d like to make is simply that Clint Eastwood is now 83 years old.  If I had to guess based on my mere 44 years, he probably has to be pretty selective about the type of projects he puts his energy into.  Two of those projects in the last few years have been about love, reconciliation, redemption, and even salvation in a thematic sense.

It appears that as he has gotten older some important messages have become a priority to him and are surfacing in his work.

My thought is simply this, what if we didn’t wait until we were in our 70’s and 80’s for the important messages to become a priority?

What if right now, wherever we are on life’s journey, we laid aside our ideas of the perfect outcomes (perfect marriage, great job, financial success, big house, perfect kids, retirement accounts) and prioritized our lives and where we put our energy based on the ultimate important message, “God loves me and God loves you”?

What if we focused on relationships and not goals?

What if it wasn’t about what we achieve or accomplish, but Whose we are?

What would change in your life?

This too is reigning in life.

Luke 10:39, 42 – “And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching…but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”