My, My Heart like a Kick Drum

About 6 months ago, we decided to cut off our cable & DVR services (I know, crazy right?). I felt like we were watching too much TV and Tom felt like we were spending too much money. But of course, we couldn't live completely without TV, I mean let's not be ridiculous here. So we bought one of those converter box thing-a-ma-jigs and mounted an antenna on our chimney. Now we get about 10 channels (all of the basics) for FREE. We also convinced our friends Cameron & Megan to do it, but they live in a much bigger city and get tons more channels than we do. Anyway, we also decided to get Netflix. IT IS AWESOME. Seriously, I highly recommend it. We started out just getting 1 movie at time for like $9 a month. When you send it back in the mail, you literally get the next movie on your list within 2 days. Incredible, right? So then we upgraded to get 2 movies at a time for $14 a month. Still totally worth it.

This past week, we got Duplicity and Precious in the mail. We watched Duplicity together and I would give it 3 out of 5 stars. Decent, but not great. Last night, I decided to watch Precious by myself (Tom wasn't interested). It was very good. I would say 4 out of 5 stars. Not spectacular, not as great as I thought it would be, but still really good. It's always a little bit weird for me to watch movies like that because I hear those stories every day at my job. The real stories, from real people who are living through unfathomable things. Several people warned me that the movie was really "heavy". I cried once during the whole movie. It was when Precious was having a breakdown, crying and saying that love hasn't done anything for her except beat her, rape her, and tell her she's worthless. That's heavy.

It bothers me a little that I didn't cry more. Although, it made me more angry than sad. The brokenness of the world we live in is just completely angering. I've often worried that my job would eventually harden my heart. When you see crappy things enough, they become ordinary and not as shocking. I don't want to lose my compassion and empathy. I think those are 2 of the most precious gifts that God gave me. I believe that's part of the reason that the Lord led me into the field of social work. But if my heart becomes hardened...I'll no longer be able to do the job well that God called me to. Here's the trailer for the movie. Check it out and let me know what you think.