The Pixar Studios film, Inside Out, is a wondrously creative and insightful look into human emotion. Through the experience of the film’s main character, Riley, we come to see the world of her interior life—a world brought to life by making her emotions actual characters at work in her mind. The whimsy of Pixar’s animation to tell this story belies the deep existential themes the film explores. Namely, the film suggests that though often ironic, there is necessary relationship between sadness and joy in human experience. The film turns a critical eye toward trying to keep sadness at bay, or restricting its role in human development through the often well-meaning exhortation to simply ‘be happy.’

These themes were brought home to me at a funeral service for a family member. He was the fourth person to die in this family, and the fourth to die before the age of 70. As the extended family began to gather in the church library prior to the service, the grief was as palpable as if it was a figure in the room. Tears flowed freely, and we embraced one another in an attempt to offer comfort in the midst of the overwhelming sorrow.

Continue reading Ravi Zacharias Ministry – For the Joy Set Before Him →

The ethics of regifting is always a hot discussion at Christmastime and the weeks that follow our various office parties and family exchanges. Apparently, there are those who insist that regifting is a tawdry practice, and there are those who have practiced it for years and see no harm. For those who might not be familiar with the concept, Webster’s New Millennium Dictionary offers a helpful definition: To regift is “to give an unwanted gift to someone else” or “to give as a gift something one previously received as a gift.” In any case, two out of three people say they have either regifted or are considering regifting. And while there are no doubt many successful regifters among us, there are also unfortunate stories to show for the less successful, which make the discussion entertaining. Imagine opening the very gift you had given your mother-in-law a year earlier.

The concept of regifting is similar to a word coined by J.R.R. Tolkien in The Hobbit. “Anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a mathom,” writes Tolkien. “Their dwellings were apt to become rather crowded with mathoms, and many of the presents that passed from hand to hand were of that sort.” Whether Hobbit or human, regifting is evidently nothing new.

Continue reading Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Mathoms and Myrrh →