This past week I watched 3 movies about faith and grace. They were all very different, came at the subject from different directions and ended up totally different. Two of them are dramas, taken from the hearts and minds of honest people and yet their characters are contrived and set in predictable circumstances by the writer. The stories have a job to accomplish and they accomplish it fairly well. They are completely different in their outcome and application though they both come from a faith-based system of thinking. They each make a very valid point and, though completely opposite, they are not opposed.
The other could have been contrived, but instead it is based in real people, a real event, real struggles and a real outcome. I like these kind of movies because even if they are not predictable, they are dependable. In this movie based on true events, the main character is given a despicable job but in the doing of it he hears from God and pursues what his heart knows is truth instead of what man says he must do. His way is not easy. About everything that can go wrong goes wrong. In the end he perseveres, his human plan fails miserably and yet greater good is accomplished than he would have ever imagined and he sees a great reward for his faith and endurance though it brings sorrow of a kind.
The main point is that if we will follow God's leading, the road may not be smooth, the result may not be what we thought we would get, but God's Supply will be abundant and great good will always be accomplished though it may not be the good we had in mind. A side point seems to be that God will not abandon those who seek him and follow him though their case may seem hopeless for a time. It also teaches that human defeat is not Heavenly defeat.
The first movie we watched was also a movie about struggle, about human impossibilities and the need for faith to face them. It was about hearing from God and going God's direction against great odds. It also had a somewhat predictable outcome. They found the missing child, they reclaimed the wayward child, God, through doctors, healed the damaged child. By following God, all the pieces fit together into a happy ending. People without faith were convinced. People with faith were sustained. People without purpose were redirected. It was a good, feel good story about total Redemption. The overall point seems to be that if you will trust God when he speaks even if what you believe is hard, God will take your faith and resources and he will accomplish amazing things.
The remaining story was also about incredible odds. In it adversity was at first met with unbelief. The man's life was centered in himself and he rejected all claims of God on his life. His family though estranged from him , was faithful through the same adversity. The events of the man's life let him to a state of hopelessness and yet miraculously, hope was revealed. Eventually the man had to make sense of that hope. His struggles led him to seek faith in the God he had denounced, the God he thought had failed. He faced harder events after his conversion and yet he faced them as a believer among believers.
Though not your classic feel-good movie, this movie also has some valid points. Faith is not based on a trouble-free life. Faith does not always get you everything you want, but God does not abandon those who trust in him even in the hardest of times. In the bigger picture, the greater good is accomplished when man submits to God. It is a contrast between facing the unthinkable without God and facing the unthinkable with God.
One of my favorite non faith-based movies has a line in it where one of the main characters is talking with his father about the family business. He says "You know there's a time when everything comes together, all your struggles make sense and for that moment everything is right in the world. Well this is not that moment."
All three of these movies share that sentiment. In one of them you get over it and everything is right with the world's again. In one of them you get through it and the world is right even though your heart is broken. In one of them you get through it and nothing comes out good by any human standard, yet everything is right. I believe that people of faith will face all three of these outcomes at one time or another.
Faith overcomes. I think if we deny the good outcome, the sweetness that comes from answered prayer and God's intervention in the worst of times, we miss the most intrinsic blessings. If we deny the bad outcome, we leave no hope for times when life falls apart, when every thread is pulled lose and we stand naked before a judging world and a loving Father. We miss the sustaining power of our God and our testimony. We set aside the value of those who endure through faith without earthly deliverance. If we deny the outcome where we give everything we've got and everything falls apart and yet God puts it back together in an amazing way that we could not have imagined, we miss the greatest adventure of life.
Based on Humanity, we all face hard times. Having faith is not a uniform walk. Having faith means God walks alongside in the best of times, in the worst of times and in times when things just don't make sense. His promises are “I will never forsake you” and “all things work together for good to those who love the Lord, who are called according to his purpose.”
My favorite lines after one watch (because I'm like that)? From the retired principal while obnoxiously pursuing the challenge presented by her family's struggle: "This is me not being a stranger." From the mother who after seeing her family restored finds out she has the same genetically based cancer that killed her son: "Death is not the absence of life. I'll be where you don't see me, in the next room, loving you, caring about you, waiting for you." From the preacher who gave everything he had to follow the directive God gave him, standing in a flash flood watching all his efforts fall apart: "Really, God?"
The other could have been contrived, but instead it is based in real people, a real event, real struggles and a real outcome. I like these kind of movies because even if they are not predictable, they are dependable. In this movie based on true events, the main character is given a despicable job but in the doing of it he hears from God and pursues what his heart knows is truth instead of what man says he must do. His way is not easy. About everything that can go wrong goes wrong. In the end he perseveres, his human plan fails miserably and yet greater good is accomplished than he would have ever imagined and he sees a great reward for his faith and endurance though it brings sorrow of a kind.
The main point is that if we will follow God's leading, the road may not be smooth, the result may not be what we thought we would get, but God's Supply will be abundant and great good will always be accomplished though it may not be the good we had in mind. A side point seems to be that God will not abandon those who seek him and follow him though their case may seem hopeless for a time. It also teaches that human defeat is not Heavenly defeat.
The first movie we watched was also a movie about struggle, about human impossibilities and the need for faith to face them. It was about hearing from God and going God's direction against great odds. It also had a somewhat predictable outcome. They found the missing child, they reclaimed the wayward child, God, through doctors, healed the damaged child. By following God, all the pieces fit together into a happy ending. People without faith were convinced. People with faith were sustained. People without purpose were redirected. It was a good, feel good story about total Redemption. The overall point seems to be that if you will trust God when he speaks even if what you believe is hard, God will take your faith and resources and he will accomplish amazing things.
The remaining story was also about incredible odds. In it adversity was at first met with unbelief. The man's life was centered in himself and he rejected all claims of God on his life. His family though estranged from him , was faithful through the same adversity. The events of the man's life let him to a state of hopelessness and yet miraculously, hope was revealed. Eventually the man had to make sense of that hope. His struggles led him to seek faith in the God he had denounced, the God he thought had failed. He faced harder events after his conversion and yet he faced them as a believer among believers.
Though not your classic feel-good movie, this movie also has some valid points. Faith is not based on a trouble-free life. Faith does not always get you everything you want, but God does not abandon those who trust in him even in the hardest of times. In the bigger picture, the greater good is accomplished when man submits to God. It is a contrast between facing the unthinkable without God and facing the unthinkable with God.
One of my favorite non faith-based movies has a line in it where one of the main characters is talking with his father about the family business. He says "You know there's a time when everything comes together, all your struggles make sense and for that moment everything is right in the world. Well this is not that moment."
All three of these movies share that sentiment. In one of them you get over it and everything is right with the world's again. In one of them you get through it and the world is right even though your heart is broken. In one of them you get through it and nothing comes out good by any human standard, yet everything is right. I believe that people of faith will face all three of these outcomes at one time or another.
Faith overcomes. I think if we deny the good outcome, the sweetness that comes from answered prayer and God's intervention in the worst of times, we miss the most intrinsic blessings. If we deny the bad outcome, we leave no hope for times when life falls apart, when every thread is pulled lose and we stand naked before a judging world and a loving Father. We miss the sustaining power of our God and our testimony. We set aside the value of those who endure through faith without earthly deliverance. If we deny the outcome where we give everything we've got and everything falls apart and yet God puts it back together in an amazing way that we could not have imagined, we miss the greatest adventure of life.
Based on Humanity, we all face hard times. Having faith is not a uniform walk. Having faith means God walks alongside in the best of times, in the worst of times and in times when things just don't make sense. His promises are “I will never forsake you” and “all things work together for good to those who love the Lord, who are called according to his purpose.”
My favorite lines after one watch (because I'm like that)? From the retired principal while obnoxiously pursuing the challenge presented by her family's struggle: "This is me not being a stranger." From the mother who after seeing her family restored finds out she has the same genetically based cancer that killed her son: "Death is not the absence of life. I'll be where you don't see me, in the next room, loving you, caring about you, waiting for you." From the preacher who gave everything he had to follow the directive God gave him, standing in a flash flood watching all his efforts fall apart: "Really, God?"
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