Film Friday Based on a true story, this is a movie which in some ways celebrates losers. But in a wonderful way. Back in the 2001 world cup qualifiers the American Samoan football team Lost 31 nil to Australia. So when the time came for the 2014 qualifiers they just want to score one goal. Just one goal. To achieve this they enlist the help of Dutch-American coach Thomas Rongen, a man who has himself known trouble and difficulty. And so the tale begins…
When Jesus turned up on this planet 2000 years ago, he turned on its head the whole notion of success. The first shall be last, he said and the last shall be first. It can’t be emphasised enough how much Jesus spent time with those who had no influence, power or celebrity status in his culture. He loved those who were seen as lost in their culture. And he told stories which celebrated these folk. Desperate widows win over powerful judges, lost sons find themselves enveloped in welcome home parties, and the despised Samaritans become rescuing heroes.
And then Paul pitched up writing about the way that God’s power and light shines out of the cracks and fissures in our lives (in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 7). I have a pair of what I call Kintsugi jeans. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of making a prominent feature of the cracks in damaged pots, by gluing the bits back together with gold. When my jeans started ripping at the knee I took some thick, brown string and used it to obviously stitch the denim back together. They remind me that life is full of things that need repairing. Including me. And that God has time to spend with those who are not the greatest and the finest.
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