A River Ran Through It: Post-Script

I have finished reading "A River Runs Through It.."

A buddy on Facebook today asked if I had seen the film. Apparently, he does not read my blog. Inconceivable. If you can name where that is from, I will send you a copy of my book free, postage included. No cereal tops needed. Maybe a few beer caps of beer you love.

I answered my buddy, who is a co-suffering Eagles fan, that I have seen the film about 20 times. But, that this was the first time I read the book. ARRTI is actually more of a novella. A story that is too long to be called short but too short to be called a novel. So add an "la" and there you have it.   

Somehow it is fitting that the father in the film who tutored young Norman as a child to make his essays half as long about three times in one assignment  would  be pleased--you do the math on the econometric boiling of the word mash to distilled thoughts. The novella packs a serious punch in that there are no wasted words. Each word--like a rock--is solid and provides a place to stand in the river of life. The father is a devoted, stoical, and pious Scottish Presbyterian. He is not a man  given  to loquaciousness. Instead, every word is weighed and deliberated upon as one should do with a fine single-malt whisky.   

There is beauty is brevity indeed. A few words are often enough. Jesus said "Peace, be still" to the raging sea and it calmed. Never underestimate the power of a few words, for it created the universe we inhabit. 

The thing that is so heart-breaking about the book is that the younger brother Paul is lost. He is murdered under suspicious circumstances. Although he could adroitly handle a fishing pole, gracefully ride the rapids, and wrangle a massive fish to shore, the torrent he churned up by his reckless behavior overcame him in the end.  There is no hope that he is saved by God eternally. The question is an unspoken undercurrent in the book.

When the father's final sermon  and concluding scene is shown in the movie shortly before the father dies, I came to discover again, since I had forgotten, that it is technically not Paul's funeral service. Instead, the movie presents that this sermon ached in the father's bones since Paul's death. And. in his last sermon several years later, the bones speak of being  the part that wound up not being what Paul needed.

One of the reasons I felt as if I should provide a post-script to yesterday's blog after finishing the book is that there are a lot of real Paul's in this world. They are restless and unable to find peace for their souls. As Augustine wrote in his autobiographical Confessions, "Lord, we are restless until we find our rest in thee." 

Christians are obligated to speak about the hope that is in us. It is not enough to condemn the failed systems that people believe in and place their trust in, hoping to find solace for their souls. There is only one place, under the shelter of God's wings, where we find it. The Bible never promises a pain-free life. It faces hardship squarely and does not side step it. 

And you know what it is. Peace like a river...and a river runs through it.