Ali Smith’s “Entrusting the Key” is a bold, frank and very transparent account of how she grapples with being single. Her heart’s desire is to be married and have children. She chronicles how she moved from using her efforts and always being on the “hunt” to the state of being restful and resting in God. She openly reveals the stages of her “Entrusting the Key” to her heart to God and Him alone.

 

There are accounts of “unsuccessful” encounters which many readers will probably be able to identify with. Encounters which seemed all so hopeful but with hindsight from God, they put a smile on our face and a laugh in our hearts. The “Just Friends” chapter tells of how she perceived a relationship to be going on well, how she read so much more into it and then only to have it fall flat. Oh… we empathise with her.

 

Another valuable lesson shared is that we cannot help looking at the suave, attractive and successful – so drippingly tempting.  An offer we cannot refuse. Smith shares her very human struggle and then her determination to commit to God. She concludes and learns that…. Travelling on a train…. Be a wise traveler…. Not all sights are worth a stopover.

A new film on the life of John Wesley is long overdue. Until this new release, the only other feature film on Wesley I could find was one made in ... 1954! So my expectations were high. The first two-thirds of the movie do not disappoint. The story gets underway when John and Charles are leading the “Holy Club” in Oxford. John decides to take up General Oglethorpe’s invitation to go and serve in the colony of Georgia, supposedly to reach the Indians. His adventures in Georgia are portrayed in a way that is consistent with the Journal of his life which John kept so meticulously. The drama of his love for Sophy Hopkey is played out convincingly, complete with its abrupt unravelling, which forces John to flee the colony in disgrace. Back in London, John tries to find his feet again. The “strangely warmed” breakthrough of his Aldersgate experience follows. The rest of the movie tries to give an idea of how this propelled John and Charles into their evangelistic and social outreach ministry, but this part is far less convincing than the first two-thirds.