”Blindness Of Heart”Last night I ordered a Christian based movie called: “The Overcomer”. The opening scene is at a private school called : The Brookshire Christian School.
At first I thought—oh boy this is going to be a dull, boring and unexciting movie. Basically, a waste of my money; because the first scene is about the boys basketball team narrowly losing their tough contended championship game in the last few seconds.
Afterward, the coach John Harrison consoles his son Ethan, who missed the final shot of the game; and telling his team, that next year they are posed to take the state championship.
Fast forward to the park, the high school boys are playing basketball. Suddenly, a young high school girl, Hannah Scott walked by, seen one of the boys’ expensive headphones lying on the bench, near by where they are playing—Hannah took the headphones—however, that part was not shown.
When the boy realizes his headphones are gone, and looked around, he sees Hannah—as she is running through the woods; all of the teenage boys started chasing her. Consequently, when they reach an apartment complex, they lose sight of her and assume she ran inside.
But Hannah— hid behind some rocks —because she had asthma, she pulls out her inhaler—to hide her heavy breathing from the boys to keep from being discovered.
Meanwhile, the boys gave up the chase and leaves; so she continued on to her grandmother’s house.
There at the house, her grandmother is awaiting, holds out an iPod — asks Hannah where it came from, insinuating she stole it —tells her to take it back, saying I already bought you one.
After her grandmother left for work, Hannah takes the stolen headphones and puts them in a box hidden in her bedroom—filled with more stolen objects, including another set of headphones.
Stay with me—cause the best is yet to come!
Back to the high school in, Principal Olivia Brooks office—she informs Coach Harrison that the school is losing several teachers and coaches; so she needs him to coach cross country because she doesn’t want the school to lose another program.
He protests as he doesn’t, like cross country or even think that it’s a real sport, but he doesn’t have much of a choice. When he goes to tryouts, however, only Hannah shows up to join.
She has a form signed by her grandmother, indicating she was born on Valentine’s Day, and she has asthma. When the coach protests to the principal, she tells him even one runner matters.
This is where the excitement began
At the first practice, Hannah runs a respectable, but not impressive time. Back at home he tried to recruit his basketball-playing son Ethan to run cross country as well. However, Ethan said he would only do it if he would run with him to train. So Coach Harrison quickly dropped that idea.
A phone call from their pastor reminds Amy, she promised that Coach Harrison would help the pastor with hospital visitation that night.
Once at the hospital, Coach Harrison accidentally enters the room of Thomas Hill, a blind man suffering from complications of diabetes.
He learns the man is a former cross country runner. Upon Coach Harrison leaving his room— Hill says he doesn’t often have visitors and invited Harrison to come back.
After Hannah’s unimpressive performance at their first meet, Harrison returns to visit Hill and ask for advice on how to coach her.
Along with giving suggestions on cross country coaching, Hill challenges Harrison to consider what his true identity is. If he’s not a coach or a teacher or a husband or a father, then who is he?
He answers that he’s a Christian, and Hill asks him if his faith is so important why didn’t he list it earlier.
Hill shared how he had to loose his own eyesight before he could clearly see what was important-how, how he hurt so many people, and was selfish.
Hill told that he once had a girlfriend, got her pregnant, got her hooked on meth, and abandoned his baby girl after she died.
He said his baby was a girl, born on Valentine’s Day, 15 years ago; and now lives with relatives.
Coach Harrison began to puts the pieces together— realized Hill’s daughter was Hannah. He knew that Hannah’s grandmother told her both of her parents are dead.
Not knowing what he should do—Harrison asked Principal Brooks about the situation. To his surprise —Brooks was a friend of Hannah’s mother, and has been the one paying for Hannah’s tuition.
She says she can’t advise him to go around the grandmother, but she also is sure that if they don’t, Hannah will never know her father. So Amy and John ask Hill first if he would like to see Hannah, and then they ask Hannah.
In the first meeting at the hospital, Hannah could only stay a few moments before she had to leave from all the emotion stirred up. But, she later returned —asked him to tell her what happened.
Hill told her the whole story based on the truth. He let her knows, that he doesn’t deserve it, but hopes she can someday forgive him.
Hannah replied, “It’s hard.”
Hannah and Principal Brooks talk about her feelings involving her father. Especially about her feelings of being unloved, a mistake, unwanted, and abandoned.
Principal Brooks tells Hannah that she has another father, a perfect Father who has always wanted her and loved her and cared for her.
So, they prayed together, and Hannah asks Jesus Christ to be part of her life. For this reason, Principal Brooks challenges Hannah to read the first two chapters of the book of Ephesians in the Bible and to write down all the things it says about her.
Which resulted in Hannah writing down things like: “I am blessed. I am chosen. I am forgiven. I am redeemed. I am loved.”
Hannah dramatically declares all of these things in front of Coach Harrison, and the drama class at school, then returns all the things she had been stealing.
She goes to her father’s hospital room and finds it empty. Grateful to find he was only moved to ICU after a possible heart attack, Hannah informs him she has two things to tell him.
First, she gave her life to Christ and second, if Jesus can forgive her for all the things that she has done, then she can forgive him. Of course, he is thrilled.
When Hannah returns home, she finds her grandmother is coming home early from work and is livid when Hannah tells her she was visiting her father. She feels betrayed.
She tells Hannah that she was trying to protect her by keeping her away from him. Afterward, her grandmother goes to the Harrisons’ home threatens them, and the school with legal action if they ever help Hannah in seeing her father again.
In deed, Grandmother was headed to Hill’s hospital room and tells him to let her go, that he only brings hurt to everyone.
Anyway, at the state championship, Coach Harrison gave Hannah an Earbud and a player. When she started the tape she hears the voice of her father coaching her through every step of the race.
Subsequently, he tells her how much he loves her, how proud he is of her, how they are going to do this together.
He coached her, to dig into the hills, to pass girl after girl. With the encouragement and expert coaching of her father, Hannah ran her best race ever, but literally passed out over the finish line.
As paramedics bring oxygen for Hannah, everyone waits for the final results, which were too close to call without review. When they determine Hannah won by leaning forward an inch more;
Hannah visited her father at the hospital, she placed the medal around her his neck. He was glad that she medaled. However, Coach Harrison told him it’s not just any medal; she won the state championship.
Hannah then wrapped her arms around him, puts her head on his chest, and said “I had a really good coach.”
Hannah’s father, died right after that. At the cemetery The pastor said Hill’s story was one of redemption. Hannah informed Coach Harrison that she “had the best dad in the world for six weeks.”
The last scenes are six years later. Hannah is sharing her story with others in a group, scenes of her running cross country in college, and her opening up a box tied with a ribbon .
Coach Harrison apparently had a drawer full of boxes that he mailed on her birthday) and with a flash drive with messages from her deceased father.
Because he mailed one every year on her birthday. She listen to the tape while running through the city… this particular recording made by her father for her saying, “This is your 21st birthday, Hannah.
Blindness Of Heart..This is a very inspirational and soul stirring movie.
Ephesians 4:15
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth. Walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind ;
Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:Read More