CDRAMA FIRST IMPRESSION: Homesick

 Homesick is a new cdrama on iqiyi and it is awesome. I still think Reset is the best cdrama of the year but Homesick is definitely up there. And if there's one thing that I will take away from this drama it's that inviting a new person into your house can cause one trouble after to another to ensue.  What I love about this story is its economy of storytelling. It's a mystery and its pace seems laidback slice of life but the viewer is on a speeding train and doesn't realize it until it's too late. I envy this kind of storytelling. I like slow burns too but their slow style have influenced me too much. This drama does slow burn and speeding train at the same time. The information, backstory, everything is told so efficiently This is writing skill!

The story so far --four episodes in-- is our heroine arrives from the orphanage region welfare home in a small town full of secrets and shady doings to find her lost sister/friend who was a maid in a family's house. This family had a daughter who mysteriously went missing when she was seven--ish and an intellectually disabled teenaged son who was normal but got a sudden fever as a boy which left him disabled. Heroine takes advantage of this info in order to find out about her lost sister and pretends to be the family's lost daughter returned. Housewife has doubhts but Dad is weepy doting and disabled brother is overjoyed. Housewife gets DNA surreptitiously taken of girl to disprove paternity. DNA confirms paternity but Housewife isn't shocked and tells no one the results.

Meanwhile Heroine discovers that her sister had discovered the family's mom's affair with a local shady character. (Actually most everyone in this drama is shady. It's a small town after all. Not exactly Deliverance country but we all know how shady small towns can be. The police department is pretty much on the up and up, though.)

Sister either blackmailed housewife for a watch or stole watch but either way is branded a theif and a loose woman who upped and disappeared. So the discovery of the affair is only the first trouble that comes from opening one's house to a stranger. It only gets worse. That watch only causes more trouble. Heroine had received it from her sister but gives it to her sister's Ex for safekeeping. He's kinda dumb so he wears it outside in the street to show off his bling ...only to be seen by thuggy cheater. Thuggy cheater goes to housewife to ask why she sold the watch. Housewife explains that missing girl blackmailed her for the watch and together they plan to get heroine returned to orphanage. Heroine by now is loving the dad and brother because she never had such love all her life. But she knows housewife knows the truth about her having the watch and well...the ruse is up.

Meanwhile a shaman has come to the village. He performs some energy ceremony on disabled boy and boy improves exponentially but regresses when he returns home. Housewife asks shaman to give her son another ceremony. Shaman says the spiritual information he's received about the situation is heavy and says something vague about karma and folks getting served what they deserve. Housewife says she's a good person and pleads that her son is innocent and if he got healed even a little bit to get a tiny little job she would be happy. Shaman says helping her son in such a situation would deplete his own energy but after an offscreen talk with thug cheater gives in and says he'll come back in a month and the price will be 5000. 

Housewife returns home and finds that her hubby has put that savings into an account for their newly found daughter because daughter will be taking care of everyone when mom and dad get older. Housewife rages and says he's deluded and this girl is not their daughter. But doesn't show him the paternity paper. Husband says she is deluded that their son can get better. Husband cuckold decides to rent out a warehouse that isn't his because his boss gave him the key. With the extra bad money, he can start a savings account for newfound daughter.

Cheater Thug decides that the best way to get rid of heroine is to show her a tape of her missing sister preparing to enter a local beauty pageant. Housewife, thug, and heroine watch very skeevy tape and heroine believes her sister has deserted her. Housewife is also disgusted by cheater thug's seductive moves on the missing girl. Heroine dashes out crying and tells her sister's stupid ex to look at the tape and to stop waiting for sister's return. 

Stupid Ex goes to room later and steals the tape. Instead of looking at it in that room. He goes to a room where he and his thuggy friends hang out and starts watching the tape. His friends gang up on him, take the tape, watch missing girl being seduced...but wait...there's something else on the tape. Housewife with thuggy cheater lover beside her long ago taped a confession to her hubby saying she's grateful that he took her in when she was an unwed mother and has taken care of her and her disabled son but she has not been able to get over her thuggy lover. Note: half the town's young men are watching this tape. Next morning, housewife is at some office and hears that her husband has drunk pesticides and is now in the hospital. End of episode four.

Ruminations: Epiphanies

 Hubby and I sitting here listening to the Messiah and discussing the first time we realized something. Hubby remembers the first time he "got" biking. For me, it was the day I suddenly understood how to read music. I was in sixth grade orchestra, playing second violin. Mr Klingensmith, our teacher directing. The music sheet was on the stand before me. Some simple classical piece and I was busily watching the fingers of my fellow violinist and imitating his/her fingers. The only violinist I remember from that class was Randy Brown. A blonde cowboy from Colorado who was absolutely amazing in looks and skills. And a very sweet kid. I doubt he was playing second violin though. But I digress. My gaze bounced between the music sheet which I didn't understand and the fingers of the violinist which I was trying to imitate and keep up with. This went on for weeks and then suddenly as my gaze  bounced from sheet music to finger to sheet music, I realized that when my fellow violinist played a C, he or she used the left index and middle finger on the violin A string. And when the B note was used, the index finger alone was used on the violin A string. And suddenly I understood how the notes on the music sheet were mirrored by the fingers on the violin string. An epiphany! 

I am sure we all have various epiphanies...especially when we were in school. The moment we understood that letters had sound, the moment we understood how a clock's hans worked, etc. All this to say that as I read Green Eggs and Ham, Hop on Pop, Red Fish Blue Fish to younger son, I keep imagining son suddenly seeing and understanding. Understanding what? Lord knows! Preposition, Colors, Everything? I keep thinking that I am glad I always remembered my own epiphany. It makes me imagine the wonder and joy younger son will feel when sudden insight comes.

Sow Bountifully

 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Cor 9:6

I know this verse is used in context for money. But it's a general principle for most things. So, let's think about sowing the word. The word of healing, specifically. One prayer can be enough, but why not sow many prayers into a situation? 

So, if you're taking a shower and you think of a sick friend, say a prayer or command healing for them since we have the authority. Later, if that person comes to mind again, say another prayer for them or command another healing for them. Or if someone else comes to mind -- later that day or whenever it comes-- command a healing or pray for the sick person. Pray without ceasing. If you pray for or command for a person six or seven or eleven times a day, aren't you sowing bountifully? Let us all reap bountifully and speak the word of healing or blessing or prosperity over OTHERS and over ourselves whenever a prayer or a need or a person comes to our mind. 

And water the word with thanksgiving in the same way. Always be giving thanks for blessings received and those not yet received.

Take Every Thought Captive

 God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and a sound mind.

Paul tells us in Romans not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewal of our minds. In Corinthians, he tells us to take every thought captive and to subject them to the knowledge of God. We are told to nail the decree against us to the cross. The Bible gives us knowledge of God. We have precious promises. We have been given gifts, strengths, authority, and righteousness in Christ. We use the weapons of our warfare and are told to seek God's rest. The rest of faith is how we fight. We fight by resisting the devil, the flesh, the world. We fight by resting. The world, the devil, and our own history have filled our minds with lies. But the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth and he has given us everything necessary for life and godliness. We are seated with him in heavenly places and Christ has given us authority and power. The devil, of course, doesn't want us to know or trust in the Word sowed into our hearts. God has given us power through his precious promises. This is why we read our Bible. Each promise and Bible verse that we believe in is a living, active, powerful weapon.

There are many lying thoughts that lie against the truth. Lies like: God doesn't hear me when I pray. God doesn't love  me. God isn't helping me. I am powerless. The Bible is not true.

So, how do we take our thoughts captive?

By speaking:

Example: if we are attacked by a thought that we are old and probably will get sickly and die at age 70, or if we are attacked by thoughts that we are losers and we never overcome anything, we have to speak.

How do we speak?

We take the negative thought captive and we use the word of God spoken from our lips (and believed in our hearts) to declare the thought is false.

Example: In the name of Jesus, I declare the thought that I will die at age 70 because such and such runs in my family is a lie. I take this thought captive to the truth of the word which says with long life God will satisfy me and show me His salvation. It is written in Gods word that The Lord is my healer. I choose to believe God. God does not lie.

Another example: In the name of Jesus, I take the thought captive that I am powerless against my sin, flaw, habit, etc. I take that thought captive now and I choose to destroy it by  making it subject to Christ. All my sin and the power of sin was nailed to the cross through the victorious death of Christ. The grace of God has appeared which teaches and empowers us to conquer sin. In Christ I have victory over this thought, habit, sin, etc. I choose to believe God's word.

We can also command the thoughts to go. We have the authority to command them to go. But do it in faith.

And always, always pray and hope. Trust that something good is happening.