"What have we got?" "Male, age 10, acute abdomen, low blood pressure, possible shock." "Looks like a ruptured viscous." "Run the blood work." "Call surgery." "Look, stay in the waiting room." "I'll be back to tell you how he's doing." "It's good to be able to come in here and kneel alone." "But sometimes..." "You need somebody to kneel beside you." "May I?" "Please." "I'm Alexander." "John Brighton." "It's my son, Kyle." "His appendix burst and..." "I'm... afraid... of losing him." "Sometimes our burdens are so heavy that we can't find the words to express what's in our hearts." "Do you mind if I say a prayer for your son?" "Please." "You told us, Lord if there was anything we wanted, to come to you." "Well, we come to you now." "This is John, Lord, whose heart is burdened and heavy-laden." "He has a son, Kyle, whom he loves very much and Kyle is sick, Kyle is deathly sick, so we're asking you Lord, to save Kyle." "And we know you can do it through the blood that you shed for us." "Heal him Lord... and heal him now." "This we ask in the name of thy son, Jesus." "Amen." "Well..." "We've laid it out before him like he told us." "The rest..." "Is up to him." "Thank you." "Thank you so much, Alexander." "Are you a chaplain here?" "No, no." "But I've come here many times." "Many times but..." "I, ah..." "Won'tbe coming anymore." "Not now." "What were you here to pray about?" "My wife..." "MyMarjorie." "She had cancer..." "And she passed away this morning." "I'm sorry." "John, you are a lucky man." "Marjorie and I, we wanted to have kids but we never did." "You have a family." "Love your family, John." "Love them with everything you got." "And about Kyle... trusthim." "Kyle will be all right." "Everett Wayne Anderson." "Terry Ernestine Anderson," "where's the camera?" "I gave it to you." "It's hanging on your shoulder!" "Oh, oh!" "I don't believe it." "If you need help locating your sunglasses later," "I'd be happy to help you look." "Thank you very much." "Kyle Alexander Brighton." "How are those burgers coming, pastor?" "Well, John, they're sort of a burnt offering." "I thought Kyle ate a lot." "He does, but now you've got 50 Kyles together in one place." "Reminds me of the movie "the thing that ate Pittsburgh."" "So anyway, this account is sitting there like this, like this big plum ready to be picked off the tree you know what your old man says?" ""I think we should stop and think about it."" "What is that all about, Kyle?" "You're majoring in business, right?" "That's right uncle Phil." "Here's your first lesson..." "Great-- each minute Kyle talks with my brother it takes me an hour to deprogram him." "I call it uncle Phil detox." "Listen to me." "Candi and I want to give you something that's well, a little something that's real..." "A little going away present." "No, no..." "C' mon Kyle, look at it as an investment in your future." "Now remember, if you want something in life you got to go for it." "C' mon Kyle, pull harder!" "Ohhhh!" "You were right, Teri." "I didn't think it would work but, sure enough!" "Ah, you're a good kid, Kyle." "I like you." "Did you see what Phil did to Kyle?" "You and Phil are just like your dad-- always..." "Don't ever say that-- Phil's like dad, I'm not." "Hey, this is me remember, the one who's on your side." "Why can't he be committed to one woman and settle down?" "Look at him, he's got a different woman every time we see him." "John, Phil is not your responsibility." "Let God handle it." "Ah, wait..." "I'm..." "I'm winded-- I'm never winded." "Well, you know what they say about growing old." "No, what do they say about growing old?" "Actually, they don't say anything at all." "But I do remember you saying that I'm the one who's growing old while you stay the same age." "That's true--you're a cradle robber." "I'm going to go back." "You want me to go with you?" "No, no." "No." "No." "You need the exercise." "You know what they say about middle-aged men?" "What do they say?" "The legs are the first to go." "Oh, thanks a lot." "You going to be okay?" "I'm fine" " I may lie down a bit, but I'm fine." "All right." "See you in a while." "Oh, Kyle... youforgotJohnny." "Ma, I don't need Johnny." "But you've always taken him." "I know, but, keep him here." "I'll be home lots of weekends, don't worry, with big bags of laundry." "So things won't change that much." "I love you, sweetheart." "I love you too, mom." "Don't worry." "I'll tell you about what worries me." "What's that, dad?" "Well, you letting yourself be influenced by your uncle Phil's school of business." "Dad." "Now remember, living by God's principles is not exactly on the top of his list of priorities." "Even though he's my business partner and my brother we always don't see eye-to-eye on things." "Dad, don't worry." "I'm not as dumb as I look." "Dad, I can see what's going on." "Don't worry." "I love you son." "I'm proud of you." "I love you too, dad." "See you squirt!" "I'm almost 16-- you can't call me that anymore!" "Okay--try not to flunk out of school this year, okay?" "Oh right, and how many academic scholarships did Mr. IQ get?" "Huh?" "Now they decide to get along." "Now get out of here, will ya?" "I love you guys." "Fight you for his room?" "Don't you mean my new study?" "Oh!" "They're right in the palm of our hand." "All we have to do is squeeze them a little bit." "C' mon John, use that charm of yours." "Slow down will you?" "Don't use such a big club." "What do you mean?" "I mean, you don't have to steamroll every deal, Phil," "I want you to walk a little softer on this one." "Okay?" "For once!" "It's the way to do business." "It's the way you do business." "It's not my way, not like the Callahan deal." "What about the Callahan deal?" "You promised them the world, then we couldn't deliver." "No firm could-- you misled them, Phil." "Lied, really." "Oooo-- here comes the moral police again." "Yeah, I lied!" "Everybody does." "If our word is no good, we can't expect their word to be any good, then nobody is committed to the deal on either side of the table." "We do not approach this deal that way." "Fine." "Would you mind knocking?" "What are you wearing?" "Stuff for school." "Well, you can just take it back to wherever you got it." "You're not going to go out of this house dressed like that." "Why not?" "All the girls dress like this." "Well you're not going to dress like this." "What do you want me to do, wear skirts down to my ankles?" "Just do as I tell you, Teri-- that's enough!" "Look, just because your baby left for college doesn't mean you can take your frustrations out on me." "I'm just doing nothing..." "Stop it..." "Stopit." "Stop it!" "Stop it!" "Stop it!" "Slop it!" "Hi, honey." "Hi, sweetheart." "How was your day?" "Good, I think." "We're waiting to find out any time about that Atlantic Petroleum account-- we're really close." "Where is the mail?" "I don't know, maybe Teri has it." "Has what?" "The mail." "How could I have it?" "I just got home." "You're kidding." "That's great!" "we got the account." "Oh, wonderful." "Well, I found the mail." "It's right here where it should be-- next to the margarine?" "How did it get in there?" "Hold on a second, Phil." "Don't look at me." "Well, I didn't put it in there, John?" "Ellen, don't look at me, it had to be you." "Unless the mail carrier decided to put it in there." "Ellen, you're getting nuts on us." "No, she put the mail in the refrigerator." "Yeah, that's right-- probably trying to freeze some of my assets." "At least what I've got." "Well, this is great!" "Our next speaker was awarded Harrison Elementary's" "Our next speaker was awarded Harrison Elementary's teacher of the year this spring." "I've heard rumors she might run for school board next year, and I want to go on record right now and say that I will personally campaign for anyone who runs against her..." "Because we simply can't lose her as a teacher." "Please welcome, Ellen Brighton." "After 6 long months of hard work from all of us, well, maybe not all of 'em." "I think we finally reached the next plateau with Atlantic Petroleum." "This time we finally struck oil!" "Now if you'll open your presentation..." "If every teacher had someone as supportive as Valerie, this profession would be a lot easier." "I'd like to..." "I'd like to, um..." "I'd like to talk to you today..." "I-I I must need glasses," "I can't..." "I never thought I'd need glasses." "Um..." "Oh goodness..." "I'm sorry Valerie, I..." "Do you mind if I don't... ls there a doctor!" "Well, it isn't cancer-- that much we know for certain." "No sign of a brain tumor that might have caused you to collapse." "Oh, thank God." "But I'm afraid the news isn't good." "All of our tests are pointing in one direction." "Ellen, we believe that you have a form of dementia." "It could be Alzheimer's disease." "Why. ." "Aha..." "That's ridiculous." "Alzheimer's is an old person's disease." "You're right." "In the vast majority of cases it strikes people over 65." "But a very small minority contract it much younger." "Your test results indicate a 90% probability that you have the disease." "But what about the other 10%?" "Shouldn't we get a second opinion?" "Of course, we want you to." "Nothing would make us happier than to be proven wrong." "Look, we can fight this." "Maybe they're wrong." "They're not wrong." "Sweetheart, we'll get everyone at church to pray." "We can face this together." "Together-- what are you talking about?" "Pretty soon you are going to be the one who's going to be facing things all by yourself and I'm going to become more isolated, more alone." "No, we won't let that happen." "The children and I..." "No!" "You're not going to tell the children." "Ellen..." "No!" "I don't want Kyle and Teri to know." "Why?" "I just..." "I want my life to be..." "Normal for as long as possible." "Look at Teri, she doesn't even listen to me now." "If she thinks I'm brain-dead I'll lose her completely." "So please, promise me, don't tell them." "Where have you been?" "I've been paging you all afternoon." "We had a doctor's appointment." "Again?" "..." "Forwho?" "Are you both okay?" "Oh, the appointment was for me." "I'm fine." "Just some tests." "I feel fine." "Sorry I stole John from you for a while." "Where have you guys been?" "hey uncle Phil." "Hey, Teri." "Can you stay for dinner?" "No thanks." "I'm just gonna talk to John for a second." "So what's up?" "So what's up?" "Just the biggest deal of our lives!" "Hello!" "?" "I needed to contact you today." "They invented pagers just for that purpose, remember, they go in your belt?" "Phil, there are more important things in life than this deal." "Such as?" "I needed to be with Ellen." "Who were you with today?" "Ah, gee..." "clients?" "Look, I'm sorry," "I'll try not to let it happen again." "Want to stay for dinner?" "Nah, I can't." "I've got a hot date." "I'm going to tell Barbara today." "Good ." "I'm glad." "You need to tell someone." "So do you." "How can he let these things happen?" "I don't know John." "All I know is how much I miss her even now, my Marjorie, after all these years." "I've spent a lot of private time praying in these woods, John." "I don't know if I even know how to pray anymore." "I didn't either." "I agonized and struggled-- I fought." "But the one thing I discovered that I couldn't do was hold on to her." "I had to let go-- in my mind." "I built an altar, right here." "And on it I laid the one I loved more than anything in all the world." "I gave her up to him." "It's all right if we wrestle with God on some things, but remember..." "we can trust his hand, even if we don't understand his plan." "When all is said and done, we have to trust in him, even though our questions are not answered." "Now I've gone over the figures and everything looks fine, but what we need are the results of that land survey." "But what we need are the results of that land survey." "Do you know anything about it John?" "John?" "I'm sorry, what did you say?" "Yes, Alex, I'll take distracted executives for $300." "He at important meetings seems frequently pre-occupied and inattentive." "Who is John Brighton?" "That' s correct!" "Brighton associates is now in double jeopardy." "All right." "All right." "let's keep going." ""William pulled out the canteen and took a long drink." "The water felt good as it rolled down his parch-ed throat."" "Mrs. Brighton, he said "parch-ed."" "What?" "It's supposed to be "parched."" "Oh, yes, that's "parched", Jim." "Please continue." "It's Justin." "Oh..." "Oh, of course it is." "I'm sorry." ""Down his parched throat." ""Then he passed the canteen to his friends and they each took long drinks until it was empty."" "Do you want me to go on Mrs. Brighton?" "No, no, that was fine." "thank you." "Um..." "Who would like to continue?" "I'm not a teacher anymore." "I resigned today." "Valerie was just terrific, she..." "She said that she would get a sub for as long as I needed and that when I was ready to come back..." "Oh, Ellen." "Kyle is coming home this weekend and I think it's time to tell the children." "I'm going to drop out of college-- you're going to need help." "No, Kyle, I don't want you to do that." "But I want to be here." "You've always been there for us and now it's our turn." "We'll be fine." "What I want is for both of you to go on with your lives, grow, love God." "It would break my heart if you stopped doing that." "You don't want to break your mother's heart do you?" "What's going to happen to you, mom?" "Nobody knows exactly..." "What will happen but I'll, I'll probably..." "I will lose my memory." "Maybe slowly..." "and maybe quickly." "I may not..." "I may not know you..." "Any of you." "But if that day comes, I want you to remember that the real me... ls still there... loving you as much as ever." "Each of us is in God's hands." "And I think he wants us to live each day..." "Each minute..." "as best as we can." "So should we start now?" "Oh!" "Oh look at it!" "It's just as beautiful as I remembered." "So are you." "Even more beautiful than when we first came here." "Whoa').!" "Whoa!" "No!" "No!" "Oh-oh-oh!" "No!" "No!" "I've had such wonderful moments with you." "Oh, I just wish we could make time... stop..." "Stay like this forever." "I love you, sweetheart." "Oh..." "Hm?" "L...I'dbetter see to Kyle." "I think he's crying." "Honey?" "Oh, please God, help her." "God, why is this happening?" "Bye, Mom." "I'm gonna to go to school now." "All right, Grace." "I'm... yourdaughter,Teri." "This one right here." "Teri." "Yeah, and that's Kyle." "Kyle." "Yeah." "L gotta go" "I'll see you this afternoon." "Aw..." "Are you feeling good, Mrs. Brighton?" "You want to get up and get dressed?" "No!" "No!" "No!" "No!" "No!" "No!" "No!" "No!" "No!" "No!" "No!" "No!" "No!" "It's all right." "He's coming back in a little while." "Maybe I better not go just yet." "You go ahead, Mr. Brighton..." "No!" "...it's important you have some time for yourself." "Go on now." "No!" "No!" "No!" "No!" "He's coming back in a little while." "He's coming back in a little while." "Oh, God help me." "I'm sorry..." "Youokay?" "Sorry, just resting." "Oh, I thought you were..." "Well..." "Having a heart attack or something?" "Does it look like I should be?" "No, it's not that, I see you running here every once in a while but you're not very regular." "Keeping track, eh?" "I just happened to notice." "It's hard to do it every day." "Oh, yeah, I heard." "Heard what?" "Oh well, nothin', it's just that..." "What?" "Well, I heard that the legs are the first to go." "Really?" "The next to go is your sense of humor." "Julia Sinclair" "John Brighton." "Jingle bell swing and jingle bell ring." "Jingle bell swing and jingle bell ring." "Dancin' and prancin' in jingle bell square in the frosty air." "Oh, right time it's the right time to rock the night away..." "Thank you-- thank you very much." "Jingle bell time is a swell time to go ridin' in a one-horse sleigh." "Giddyup jingle horse pick up your feet jingle around the clock mix and mingle and a-jinglin' be-- that's the jingle bell rock." "Jingle bell jingle bell jingle bell rock." "A"?" "!" "body home?" "Jingle bell chime and jingle bell time dancin' and prancin' in the jingle bell square in the frosty air." "What a bright time, it's the right time to rock the night away..." "Hello." "Hi." "You all right?" "Just bubbling with happiness." "How's Mom?" "On a scale of one to ten, about a minus 4." "How's Dad holding up?" "You mean that guy who wanders through here every now and then?" "Wouldn't know-- hardly ever see him." "This isn't a family anymore, it's an asylum." "And I get to live here..." "lucky me." "Look, dad's doing the best he can." "I saw him this week for about 10 minutes and last week I got 15." "Mom thinks I'm her cousin, Grace." "I don't have parents anymore." "I might as well be a boarder." "And it's Christmas, Kyle, do you see any decorations?" "Do you see any cookies?" "Dad hasn't even had time to go out and buy presents." "There won't be a Christmas this year-- maybe it's for the best." "I mean, why fake it?" "Okay, pitiful, let's go." "What?" "I said, let's go." "What are you talking about?" "Come on." "Leave me alone." "No!" "No, you're coming-- we've got work to do." "You're crazy!" "You belong in this family." "I know." "Hey-he!" "Hey Dad, how are you?" "Hey Mom, how's it goin'?" "Ellen, it's Kyle." "Oh, hello." "Hi, Mom." "You look great!" "When did you get home?" "A little while ago." "You ready squirt?" "Ready." "What's going on here?" "Ah, you'll see." "Okay, let her rip." "Oh, I don't believe that." "Oh!" "Thank you..." "Both of you." "God bless us, everyone." "Mom, do you want some hot chocolate?" "You're not going to blow a fuse, are you?" "How many amps you got going?" "Dad, don't worry about it." "Okay, if you say so." "I'll tell you what to worry about." "Hmmm?" "Teri's planning to cook Christmas dinner oh, no." "Oh, yeah, and God help us-- everyone." "Like trying to put the windows up with the heater on we're going 75." "My hair-- ruining..." "You have this scarf on." "Anyway it was nothing." "I mean, in Florida when it's raining you put the windows up..." "You guys need to know that Teri is the mastermind behind this entire dinner." "So she's worked really hard and we need to thank her." "Okay, ladies and gentlemen..." "Teri's grand opus..." "Is served!" "It's nice when someone lends you a hand in the kitchen." "Well, let's all give thanks, shall we?" "You know, I'd like to say something first if it's okay." "sure, fine." "Well, um..." "Last night I asked Cindy to marry me..." "And she said yes"!" "All right!" "I finally get a sister." "Blessings on both of you." "Thank you Alexander." "I didn't realize things had gotten so serious." "I know, dad." "you've been so busy we haven't had time to tell you." "Welcome, Cindy." "Wow!" "Congratulations." "When's the wedding?" "Well, um..." "As soon as possible!" "Welcome to the family." "Thank you." "welcome!" "Something to think about." "Don't get any ideas." "We certainly have a lot to be thankful for this year." "You' re absolutely right." "Let's pray." "Oh!" "Father on this Christmas day, we want to thank you for all these gifts of joy." "For our children, Kyle and Teri..." "Everybody told me not to marry him but I was stubborn." "I knew better..." "Or so I thought." "I' m sorry, Julia." "Thanks, I appreciate your listening." "You don't interrupt the way my cockatiel does." "Once the legs are gone, what can you do but sit and listen?" "Oop!" "Woop!" "You ruin everything!" "These are my favorite lipsticks." "How did you do this?" "Look what she did." "Everything is completely ruined!" "Honey, it's all right." "Let me take care of this." "Mrs. Brighton, don't you like your breakfast?" "You need to eat." "Oh, you're looking for your husband aren't you?" "You don't like it when he's gone." "But everything is going to be just fine." "He's away on a little business trip and he'll be back tomorrow night." "Tomorrow night." "It's pretty isn't it?" "you like it?" "I'll be right back, I'm just going to fold some clothes." "Teacher." "Teacher." "The... teacher,teacher." "Senora?" "Senora!" "Mrs. Brighton!" "Mrs. Brighton!" "Mrs. Brighton!" "Mrs. Brighton." "Ay dios mio!" "We at Brighton Associates are pleased to have the opportunity to brief you on the progress of our southwest corridor explorations." "We first chartered this region..." "Come on." "...number 630 in your prospectus." "If you'll turn to page 16." "Before we get into all that" "I would like an explanation as to why this briefing has been repeatedly rescheduled." "I'm glad you asked about that and it is something we..." "How far behind schedule are we?" "Well..." "Wellyou have to understand." "Southwest corridor has never exactly been explored before so..." "Aaahh!" "Exactly-- the southwest corridor is a very hazardous, cavernous region of the ocean." "Mr. Brighton, it's for you." "A family emergency." "You and Stephanie will have to run the meeting without me." "John, that's impossible, they want to hear from you!" "I have no choice." "You do have a choice." "Yeah, you tell me-- what is it?" "Are the police looking for her?" "I assume so." "Well fine, they'll take it from here." "I mean, what can you do?" "Look, we have 2 hours in there and we've got 'em." "You can't get there in 2 hours anyway." "I've got to go home." "I have no other choice." "It's funny how this company never seems to be on your list of choices." "How do you think they liked it?" "Are you kidding?" "you did a nice job." "Thanks for pinch-hitting." "No problem." "I can't believe John just bails on us like that." "Ellen was missing." "It's not like he could have done anything about it." "I'm sure she's glad she married John and not you." "She would have been in a nursing home a long time ago." "That's right." "Jeremy, keep reading, quiet." "If you finish up this lesson you guys get to go to recess." "Psst!" "Mrs. Edwards." "May I help you?" "Take your seats." "Take your seats, class." "Take your seats." "Matthew, please go get Mrs. Dewey." "Who knows the question?" "NO!" "No!" "Take your seats." "Take your seats." "Take your seats." "Ellen..." "Take your seat." "Ellen, it's me" " Valerie." "Take your seat." "take your seats." "Take your seats." "Ellen, why don't you come into my office?" "Take your seats." "We could sit down." "No!" "We could sit..." "No!" "No !" "No !" "Teach!" "No!" "No!" "No!" "Teach!" "Teach!" "Teach!" "Teach!" "Oh, Mr. Brighton, I'm so sorry." "I went to the laundry room for just one minute and she was gone." "I'm so sorry." "It's all right, Maria." "Ellen..." "Hmmm." "I'm so glad you're safe." "She's okay." "Well I'm not!" "I can't take this anymore." "I'm sorry Teri, we're all trying." "Every day I think the chaos can't get any worse." "And it does." "People keep telling me there's nothing more I can do for my wife that she doesn't even know who I am anymore." "I should put her away in a nursing home." "But sometimes she does know who I am," "I can see it in her eyes." "I'm sorry to be dumping all this on you but having someone to talk to just means so much to me." "No, it's okay." "I love to hear you talk." "Oh." "This time that we spend together, well, it's just about the high point of my day." "I really appreciate your friendship." "You don't return phone calls." "You don't return phone calls." "You cancel meetings at the last minute." "You're not available for consultation." "Every time it happens you apologize, but nothing changes." "Aren't you the one who's always preaching about how repentance is some sort of change of conduct?" "I'll change; the company will change." "We'll rebound." "Rebound?" "Yesterday Robin and Doug resigned." "This morning 3 sales guys-- you call that rebounding?" "Um, excuse me." "May I help you?" "Is John Brighton here?" "The word's on the street John, the accounts are getting jittery, the sharks are circling!" "I'll make some calls." "That's not enough." "I need you here every day, I need your word on it." "How am I going to do that with Ellen the way she is?" "You put her in a home for people like that." "Come on, John, you're young, get a life." "She's not people like that!" "She's my wife." "I love her!" "John, Ellen's dying." "There's nothing you can do about that." "Please, just go." "Hello." "Hi." "Hi John!" "Julia." "Oh, I hope I'm not interrupting anything." "Oh, excuse me." "Phil, Julia Sinclair, my brother, Phil." "Hi." "Nice to meet you." "nice to meet you." "I was right around the corner." "I wondered if you were free for lunch." "Sure." "And you're with..." "Julia's ah, just a friend." "Oh..." "Oh, just a friend." "Have a nice lunch." "Nice to meet you." "Nice to meet you." "I can't say I blame him." "If it was anyone but family," "I'd a gotten the boot a long time ago." "I'm so sorry." "What are you going to do?" "I don't know." "So much of what I did was for Ellen and our future." "Your future isn't over." "Would Ellen want you to give up your life for her?" "She loved you." "I know what a woman wants for the man she loves, she wants you to go on and be even more successful..." "For yourself and Kyle and Teri." "You're such a giving man." "You think about everybody but yourself." "But John..." "I'm thinking about you." "If you ever need anything..." "I'm here for you." "Cindy and I have been praying about this for a long time." "We set the date for our wedding." "It's a week after graduation." "That' s great." "Congratulations." "I'm happy for you son." "Just wish things could have been different, we haven't had much time to talk." "I wanted to be there for you." "Make sure you were ready for this." "Don't worry Dad." "Cindy and I have learned more about marriage from watching you and Mom than you could ever put into words." "Let's go for another set." "John!" "?" "Her name is Julia Sinclair." "She's become a..." "a dear friend." "She's amazing." "She listens endlessly to my whining." "I'm just so lonely, Alexander." "I try to remember what it felt like to have Ellen put her arms around me, kiss me..." "But the memory's fading." "Every morning I see Julia and I'm alive." "I'm afraid I'm falling in love with her." "I love Ellen..." "But I just..." "Sometimes I can't stand the thought of holding her hand and just being so completely alone." "Loneliness can be a terrible thing." "I know" " I'm an expert." "There was a time I thought I had a loneliness problem, same as you're feeling now." "I know the signs." "But, John, you haven't got a loneliness problem," "I think the issue for you is trust." "Are you free tomorrow night?" "I suppose so..." "Why?" "You'll have to trust me on this." "All right?" "I remember that night in temple terrace." "God was speaking to my heart-- I knew that." "God was speaking to my heart-- I knew that." "And I remember getting on my knees on the 18th hole of the golf course and I said," ""Oh, God..." "Igivein ." ""I never wanted to be a preacher." ""I never wanted to be anything in the church." ""I didn't like the church, but I'll be what you want me to be" ""and I'll do what you want me to do."" "And that call has never left and God has said," ""I want you to continue as long as I give you the strength."" "The voice was so distinct that I couldn't misunderstand that call." "And every Christian is called to ministry." "Did you know that?" "The word ministry means servant, service." "With a call to do something for other people that are less fortunate than we are." "Jesus took on himself the form of a servant, the Bible says." "He said, "I did not come to be served, but to serve."" "In Mark 10." "It's tough to do the will of God." "We have the highest standard of living in the world." "The highest standard that the world has ever known." "And yet as a nation we're in danger of leaving God out of our lives." "Oh, please, God, forgive me" "forgive me for trying to do all this on my own." "I need you Lord..." "Now more than ever." "The devil will always have a ship ready when a man wants to sail away from God." "You see God gave his son, Jesus Christ," "You see God gave his son, Jesus Christ, to die on that cross for you." "That's the reason he was there..." "John?" "..." "Are you all right?" "Yeah!" "I've got to go home, Alexander." "I have some things I need to do." "Sure..." "Let' S" "Sweetheart..." "Sweetheart..." "I know it's been a while, but I have something to tell you." "Something to remind you of, because, well, I was reminded of it myself tonight." "Let's see..." "Been a long time." "I, John, take you, Ellen, to be my wife." "To have and to hold." "To honor and to treasure." "To be at your side through sorrow and joy, in sickness and in health." "To love and cherish you always." "I promise you this from my heart..." "With my soul..." "For as long as we both shall live." "This is my promise to you." "You know, up until now" "I thought of taking care of you as a chore." "But I want you to know, taking care of you is an honor... aprivilege." "This bed..." "Is my altar, Lord." "And on it is the woman I love." "I give her into your hands." "Well, hi." "Hi." "Come on in." "Thanks." "I'm sorry to surprise you like this." "Oh no, it's fine." "I have a feeling we're not going to be running together anymore." "Isn't it strange?" "It was your faithfulness that drew me to you and now your faithfulness is taking you away." "John..." "Hi." "Phil, I'm sorry to bother you." "I just wanted to stop by and tell you, I am so sorry." "You are absolutely right." "About what?" "About me holding the firm back." "I've giving it a lot of a thought and I understand now, you were right about it and the only solution is for me to give you my share-- controlling interest." "What are you talkin' about?" "I've given it a lot of thought and I just think it's best for all concerned." "So, I just wanted you to know that." "So I'm sorry I disturbed you and..." "Michelle." "Michelle..." "Hi." "Hello." "So, anyway, have a nice day." "Who was that?" "I think it was my former partner." "Well, I'm glad you all could make it." "There's been a few changes here at Brighton Associates." "We have good news and we have more good news." "The good news is we're not going to have anymore problems with John bailing on meetings and scaring away clients." "What did you do, hide his pager?" "Not exactly." "He stepped down from the company." "What?" "what?" "You've got to be kidding us." "So what's the more good news?" "The more good news..." "Is that I'm in charge now." "Ah... nooffense,Phil, but without John, I'm not sure we can make it." "Without John?" "give me a break." "He hasn't been here for the last 3 months." "Come on guys." "we'll be fine!" "Where's the old company spirit here?" "Who's going to handle the European clients?" "It took John 3 years to get them to sign those contracts." "And they won't even talk to you, pal." "I'll send them flowers." "Is anybody hot in here?" "Look, I'm with you, Phil, but I'm not sure we're going to be able to convince the others." "We'll convince them." "We have to." "I see the laundry truck has arrived." "Hi, uncle Phil." "how's it going?" "Okay. ls your dad here?" "No." "Why, what's wrong?" "Nothin' ." "Actually, plenty." "Why?" "Your dad turned over the controlling interest in the company to me." "Really?" "Yeah, really." "It's been a disaster." "I thought that's what you always wanted." "Yeah, he just dumped everything on me and split." "The whole office staff is nervous, some of them have quit." "I'm afraid if I tell the clients," "I'm going to lose a lot more than just employees." "He knows how valuable he is to this company, he can't just do this." "Look, Dad's been under a lot of pressure lately with Mom and everything." "There's a lot of professional people and places that can do a much better job of taking care of your mom than your dad has." "You haven't even seen him with her." "Are they going to put 1 1/2 teaspoons of honey in her tea, just the way she likes it?" "Are they going to read to her out of the Bible and brush her hair every night?" "Do they even know what her favorite color is?" "Look, uncle Phil, I love you a lot." "I always have and I always will and I appreciate the things you've tried to tell me about life but, you got to understand something-- my father, he lives every day according to the principles of the Bible." "Now, I know that doesn't mean anything to you, but I gotta ask you..." "What principles do you live by?" "If you want to find Dad, he's probably at Alexander's." "And so I did what you said, Alexander," "I let go of everything I could think of..." "And I let go of Ellen." "I gave her over to God." "I feel... peace." "Thanks, Alexander." "Hi, Alexander." "Phil..." "Ididn'tknow you were here." "Well, I heard John spilling his guts," "I didn't think I should interrupt." "Man, what is going on with him?" "He let go of the business, he let go of Julia, he let go of Ellen." "He doesn't have anything left." "I mean, how do you get peace by letting go of everything?" "I thought you get peace by having everything." "Well, it's easy enough to understand, but not so easy when you try and do it." "You know, I think what matters is to recognize that it takes someone bigger than ourselves to help us find true peace." "We weren't designed to do it alone." "So how does John do it?" "He finally recognized that God was fully capable of handling anything we give him to handle and that there is no true peace without that step." "I thought God helps those who help themselves." "How can he if you're too busy handling things yourself?" "You see, God loves us so much, he gave his only son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place." "Then he raised him from the dead to prove that he was his son and to show us that we too could have eternal life." "If he's willing to do all that without any help from us, why should he want to see us carry our other burdens?" "I don't know." "Well, he doesn't want us to carry them." "And the good news is, we don't have to." "He's more than capable of managing our lives if we just let him." "But we need to acknowledge that we need him and then learn to trust him, to believe in him-- let him take control." "Invite him to be the Lord of your life." "So, is that what John did?" "Uh-hm." "Is that how he got that peace he was talking about?" "That' s how." "You want some of that?" "Sounds like too good of a deal." "It's always about the deal." "But you know-- you're right!" "It is a good deal." "Phil, why don't you go on back in the woods and talk to the Lord." "Let him take controlling interest in your life." "Begin to feel his power at work." "Listen to Phil, Lord, just like you listened to John and to me so many times." "God, are you there?" "Can you hear me?" "I think I need you, Lord." "I'm getting really tired of doing this on my own." "I'm just tired of being a control freak, God and telling everybody what to do all the time." "Just forgive me, God." "Forgive me for being so self-centered and..." "Just such a jerk." "Forgive me for that, will ya?" "Could you do that?" "Just change me, Jesus." "Okay?" "I give you controlling interest." "Just come and take control of my life." "Will ya?" "And give me peace." "I just give it to you." "Is that a deal?" "Have I got a deal, Lord?" "Deal!" "It's a good deal!" "The test was pretty hard." "I hate chemistry and when I'm done with this class," "I'm never getting near it again." "But there is this guy in the class I-l kinda like him." "He's cute, but I don't even think he knows I exist." "But... collegeisso different." "But lately, I was thinking about even getting into teaching 'cuz I-I remembered how much it really meant to you and it's... it'skind..." "Teri..." "I...Love...You." "Mommy..." "You know who I am." "I love you too." "Mom..." "I'm going to go get Kyle and Dad," "I'll be right back, Mom." "John!" "Ellen!" "Mom!" "Ellen!" "Mom!" "Ellen, honey..." "Ellen?" "She looked right at me." "She said my name." "It's all right." "Maybe it was God's gift to you." "Looks like you finally found the studs to that shirt." "Got a little class working for you there just like your little brother." "Thanks." "You know, John, we ah, we want you back at the firm." "I want you back as controlling partner." "Now you don't have to answer to me right now," "I...lknowyou got alot on your mind and stuff." "There is one other thing I want to clear up." "I ah..." "I need you to forgive me-- for the way I acted, for ah..." "Putting the company ahead of Ellen." "Will you forgive me for that?" "I, Kyle, take you, Cindy, to be my beloved wife." "To have and to hold you, to honor and treasure you, to be by your side in sorrow and in joy, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish you always." "I promise you this with my heart, with my soul..." "As long as we both shall live." "This is my promise to you." "Yes, it is beautiful, isn't it?"