The Journey 267
Read: Genesis 41
Unconditional is a new movie that has was released last Friday, September 21. It is a movie directed with a cause and is based on the life of a person named “Papa Joe” and his organization called Elijah’s Heart, an organization aimed at bettering the lives of underprivileged children. Who is Papa Joe?. Papa Joe is name fondly called by children when they see a native of Nashville, Joe Bradford. It is a story of a how a person who encounters the wrong side of the law, finds himself in prison and then freed, tries to live in a society where you are condemned because of your past. Joe was an ex convict whose childhood and his youths days was that of images of poverty and no one caring for him, since he never saw his father. After his release from prison he got married to Dennis and they both loved music. But soon Joe realized that he had contracted a kidney disease. The treatment and the recovery later put a lot of financial burden on the family. With his past, he found it hard to live in certain neighborhood and this led to lot of housing and financial issues. On day a young girl who was deaf came to their house, and they offered her a candy, but she later came back with her sister and her brother. Soon many other kids slowly started coming to the home of Joe and Denise. This is when Joe realized that these kids needed not just candy but had to be given emotion and spiritual caring. As they were both musicians they decided to form choirs with these children. More and more parents started sending their children to the Bradford home. One day during a choir rehearsal, girl with swollen eye, who seemed to be abused by her drug addicted mother, approached Joe and told her story and asked Joe whether he could be her dad. Soon the other kids also asked the same question “Will you be my daddy”. From that day Joe Bradford became Papa Joe. As more and more parents got involved with the couple, Denise starting making fliers so that she could raise donations to run these programmes and soon they decided to form a non profit organization called Elijah’s heart. It is Michel Ealy who plays the role of Papa Joe in the movie Unconditional. A man who feels ostracized in the society decides to focus not on his circumstances and the hostility that he faces on the contrary focuses on the needs of the underprivileged and it is this refocusing that helps him to find meaning and goal in life.
As we meditate on the theme “ Transformed Living, there is one character in the Bible, who just like Joe Bradford, refocuses his life to a more worthy cause. The person is the old testament character Joseph. In the book Genesis 41 we find Joseph helping Pharaoh in interpreting his dream. It was not just the interpreting of the dream that was important on the contrary the objective of the dream. Here is a person who is going through severe crisis in life, crisis that came about due to the treachery shown by his brothers, the crisis that results from due to the separation from his father, the crisis that come about because of the false accusations leveled on him, and finally the loneliness that he was experiencing. But Joseph puts behind him all these traumatic experiences and helps a king in their time of crisis, thus helping not only one nation but also people in the neighboring nations also, whose needs was taken care because of the foresight of Joseph. What Joseph did all through his life and what he show us in our life journey as we try to live transformed living through Christ is not to focus on the crisis that we go through on the contrary to refocus on the way we could be a help, healing and blessing to others. It is this refocusing of life that transforms Joe Bradford to Papa Joe and also the crisis ridden life of Joseph to a transformed life that was a blessed experience not only to him but to others too. Have you refocused your life?
Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla
Unconditional is a new movie that has was released last Friday, September 21. It is a movie directed with a cause and is based on the life of a person named “Papa Joe” and his organization called Elijah’s Heart, an organization aimed at bettering the lives of underprivileged children. Who is Papa Joe?. Papa Joe is name fondly called by children when they see a native of Nashville, Joe Bradford. It is a story of a how a person who encounters the wrong side of the law, finds himself in prison and then freed, tries to live in a society where you are condemned because of your past. Joe was an ex convict whose childhood and his youths days was that of images of poverty and no one caring for him, since he never saw his father. After his release from prison he got married to Dennis and they both loved music. But soon Joe realized that he had contracted a kidney disease. The treatment and the recovery later put a lot of financial burden on the family. With his past, he found it hard to live in certain neighborhood and this led to lot of housing and financial issues. On day a young girl who was deaf came to their house, and they offered her a candy, but she later came back with her sister and her brother. Soon many other kids slowly started coming to the home of Joe and Denise. This is when Joe realized that these kids needed not just candy but had to be given emotion and spiritual caring. As they were both musicians they decided to form choirs with these children. More and more parents started sending their children to the Bradford home. One day during a choir rehearsal, girl with swollen eye, who seemed to be abused by her drug addicted mother, approached Joe and told her story and asked Joe whether he could be her dad. Soon the other kids also asked the same question “Will you be my daddy”. From that day Joe Bradford became Papa Joe. As more and more parents got involved with the couple, Denise starting making fliers so that she could raise donations to run these programmes and soon they decided to form a non profit organization called Elijah’s heart. It is Michel Ealy who plays the role of Papa Joe in the movie Unconditional. A man who feels ostracized in the society decides to focus not on his circumstances and the hostility that he faces on the contrary focuses on the needs of the underprivileged and it is this refocusing that helps him to find meaning and goal in life.
As we meditate on the theme “ Transformed Living, there is one character in the Bible, who just like Joe Bradford, refocuses his life to a more worthy cause. The person is the old testament character Joseph. In the book Genesis 41 we find Joseph helping Pharaoh in interpreting his dream. It was not just the interpreting of the dream that was important on the contrary the objective of the dream. Here is a person who is going through severe crisis in life, crisis that came about due to the treachery shown by his brothers, the crisis that results from due to the separation from his father, the crisis that come about because of the false accusations leveled on him, and finally the loneliness that he was experiencing. But Joseph puts behind him all these traumatic experiences and helps a king in their time of crisis, thus helping not only one nation but also people in the neighboring nations also, whose needs was taken care because of the foresight of Joseph. What Joseph did all through his life and what he show us in our life journey as we try to live transformed living through Christ is not to focus on the crisis that we go through on the contrary to refocus on the way we could be a help, healing and blessing to others. It is this refocusing of life that transforms Joe Bradford to Papa Joe and also the crisis ridden life of Joseph to a transformed life that was a blessed experience not only to him but to others too. Have you refocused your life?
Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla