Trigger Discussion

Aaron and I had the pleasure of entertaining last night. I love having people over! We turned on music and worked together in the kitchen, making homemade guacamole and salsa for an appetizer, a fresh walnut and feta salad with blueberries and greens from our garden, Greek peppers on the grill, sour cream mashed potatoes, and grilled sirloins smothered in a bubbly bleu cheese topping. For dessert I made a flourless chocolate torte with a mixed berry sauce and fresh whipped cream. Yum. We accented it all with a light Chenin Blanc to begin and an earthy, raspberry toned Zinfandel to finish. The night was simply lovely.

But I'm waxing a little too poetic about the food. While it's true that I love a long, leisurely meal (ours began at 6:30 and ended with dessert at 11:00), there's one thing I love even more: great conversation. And we enjoyed wonderful conversation with our friends last night.

Most of our discussion centered around a shared vision we have for the reconciliation of art and Christianity. Bob is a filmmaker whose most recent project, a series of shorts called Trigger, has just been produced by Zondervan. These brief vignettes are designed to be a launching pad for discussion: many questions are raised but few, if any, are answered. The point is to provoke discussion and get people thinking about issues that we would normally tend to ignore or gloss over.

Let me just say, the films are amazing. We watched a few last night and I was completely blown away. They are artistic and gripping, raw and honest. One of my favorites was a mosaic of photographs, dubbed over with a woman singing: "He's got the whole world in his hands." You know the verses, right? Have you ever heard the one about: "He's got the red light district in his hands?" How about: "He's got Osama bin Laden in his hands?" Wow. Pretty powerful stuff.

Anyway, I was so taken with their vision and their amazing product that I just had to blog about it. I can't encourage you enough to head on over to the Trigger website and check it out. Though Trigger is associated with Youth Specialties, I certainly wouldn't consider their audience limited to teenagers or college students. I would love to use these shorts as a launching pad for discussion in an adult Bible study, too. There is no doubt in my mind that it would trigger an extraordinarily real and meaningful discussion...