I saw Only Imagine yesterday for two reasons.
- Bart, the song’s author that the movie is about, is an old friend, and
- I had been up since 3:15am, done church and had a wonderful fish taco lunch, and figured the reclining theater seats would make for a fabulous nap.
I was wrong on both accounts.
First, I am Bart’s old friend like a White House substitute one-day groundskeeper is a friend of Obama. We met once, when I was at a Mark Matlock Youth Conference. Mark and I had run into each other before, and he at least knew my name. I once booked him at our church in Tucson for a weekend conference. Later JoLynn and I moved to Winnipeg, and we brought a youth group down to Fargo to see Mark and this band that was traveling with him, called Mercy Me.
They weren’t bad.
The conference was small and, for Mark / Mercy Me Conference, a little flat. Mark decided to spice things up by escaping from a strait jacket, while suspended 100-ft high from a crane connected only with a fast burning rope tied to one leg, over concrete and hissing cobras. Or something like that. Bert decided that the best way to spice things up was to sing a song he had written for his dad called I Can Only Imagine. It wasn’t released yet except on a CD that Matlock I think had produced.
We heard it first.
I still remember that night, and still have that early release CD of the song. Not sure there is a working CD player left to play it on however.
I also kept the hospital wrist tag that Mark wore later that night.
The lessons are these:
- If you ever say you are, “driving down to Fargo,” you are living in the wrong place.
- It’s OK to lie in blogs. Mark didn’t go to the ER. But I do remember him escaping from a strait jacket while hanging from church beams over a large organ. Not sure why he didn’t get the movie.
- There IS a good Christian move! Well, for anything but a nap. I missed mine till after I got home.
- Go see Only Imagine.
By the way, it came in as the third-biggest movie in America last weekend, behind only Black Panther and Tomb Raider. Not bad for a movie about a guy who has forgotten he once knew Dan Cooley… for a day.
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Dan…..Roy and I saw it this weekend….theater was full. We got our tickets ahead of time and still had to sit four rows from the front! Ugh! I hope they keep it around long enough for the Christians to spread the word that it’s a good movie.
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We had to sit in the way front area also – but more like 6 or 7 rows back, so not too bad. As good as it has done, I too hope it stays around a while!
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I saw it with Carl. We were in the last row because otherwise I’d probably get dizzy. As it was, my row of chairs only slid to the left twice. And I wore earplugs because my ears are super sensitive. Given all that, it was a good movie. Best part was the end. Not that it ended, mind you, the best part was the song at the end.See the movie. Think about how you treat your kids. Contemplate what effect an apology has on a child. Then encourage your child in doing good. And that tendency you have to over drink or abuse or punch holes in walls? Get on your knees about that.
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