Great Movie: Henry Poole is Here

Spoiler alert! I plan to talk about the feelings that this movie brought out in me, so I might tell a few things that would spoil the movie. It is a movie where a loner who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, moves back to his childhood neighborhood to find his depressed solitude infringed constantly by his neighbors and especially after one neighbor finds what she believes to be Christs face in a water stain on the stucco of his house in his backyard. First of all, I loved the persistant caring of these people. He is rude time and again, but realizing that there is something behind this anger and sadness, they refuse to take offense. I think that is true in most of life's encounters. This is the true form of charity, looking beyond the offense to the person and loving them anyway. I also loved the priest, who offered to listen to his problems. Poole says, "I don't want to talk about it". He replies, "yes, you do. Or you wouldn't have brought it up". That is so true! I hear Poole's words echoed all the time in my middle son. I have found with a little patience and persistance, he always spills all to me. Poole didn't want to be alone and to bear his burden alone, but being a loner he didn't know how to talk to people about it. And I think he was also cynical when it came to believing that anyone could care. I believe this aspect is reflected daily in our lives. Heavenly Father brings each of us to places where we can find people that will help us to grow. Poole, sees time and again, people exhibiting their faith. I love in the end, how after he has destroyed the face and had the house fall on him, lol, and landed himself in the hospital. The ladies that have become his friends tell him that he doesn't have any illness anymore, and he says, "I was never ill?". It reflected where he was at. I think that many people who are learning to have faith, begin that way. They explain away a miracle or a sign after it is given and then later on after many more life experiences look back and admit. My Dad was an example of that. As a young man, and after a particular trying experience, he looked up and the sky and it being an extremely overcast day and seeing no star in sight, he said, "God if your really there then let me see just one star in the sky". He looked around for a second and didn't see anything and said, "see I knew you didn't really exsist", in that moment he looked up and directly over head the clouds parted and a bright star shown down above him. By the time he walked into the house he had explained it away as a coincidence. But obviously deep down he wanted to believe and in later years after having had more experiences that brought him closer to God and building his testimony of the exsistance of God, he knew that that was a sign and a miracle that God gave him in that moment to let him know he was there and he cared. I don't think this movie was just about this man's struggle to have faith. But a movie that portrays that God puts us where we need to be because he cares and loves us and wants to help us grow and be happy.
"Adam fell that men might be. Men are that they might have joy." 2 Nephi 2:25
God wants us to be happy. But we can only find that happiness through having faith and interacting with others in a way that is uplifting and strengthening.