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Last Saturday night, I turned on the TV to prepare to stream a PBS show from my phone to the TV. In one portion of the screen was an "ad" for the movie "I Can Only Imagine". My first thought was that Marcia and I may have watched this before, but I decided to start it and see. We hadn't, I realized after a few minutes.
While there is some artistic license taken in a few situations, it is based on a true story. The show focuses on Bart Millard, first as a boy, then as a young man. His mother drops him off at a nearby summer Bible Camp for a week. He is inspired and meets a girl (though both are in their single digits), but when he comes back, his mother is gone. His father beats him, physically and emotionally, and has nothing good to say about him. He plays football to please his father, but then gets injured. After this, his musical talents are discovered. After high school, he takes off to leave his father and joins a fledgling Christian music group. They are working to break into the market, but struggle. He keeps wrestling with emotions about his dad, joins him for a time, and finds that he has changed. Then, Bart comes up with a great song, the title of the movie, and things change.
I thought it was a good movie and worth watching. You can learn more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Can_Only_Imagine_(MercyMe_song). Hear the song here. I learned this week that there is a sequel to this that just came out.
Published 2026-02-27.
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