| | A few weeks ago (In my conception of time, everything is either "A
couple of days ago..." or "A few weeks ago..."), I finally watched the
movie Facing The Giants. At
the time, I actually liked it quite a bit, even though it was probably
one of the most predictable movies I'd ever seen. It made me feel good,
gave me hope about some things I was going through, and even made me
laugh a few times. "Really good movie," I thought to myself at the time.
As the weeks went by, though, something about the movie started to bother me. Every little thing worked out.
The team started winning; the wife became pregnant; the kid with the
crippled dad kicked the winning field goal. Heck, they even lost a game
and had the outcome overturned because of a rules violation by the other team. The coach also got a new truck, a pay raise, and a fixed-up house. It was nice ... but was it real?
This past weekend, I watched the movie Amazing Grace,
which dealt with the efforts of William Wilberforce to end the slave
trade in England. Wilberforce knew the Lord. He also got very sick and
exhausted from his efforts. His bills to end the slave trade were
defeated for several years, and the first victory he did win he had to
kind of slide through the side door. His mentor, John Newton, the
writer of the hymn the movie's title is taken from, is totally blind by
the end of the movie. In the end, though, the slave trade was
abolished, Newton's soul was cleansed from the guilt he suffered from
his year's as a slave trader himself, and Wilberforce knew his efforts
had not been in vain.
Now, let's contrast things for a moment here. Facing The Giants = new baby, new truck, and a pay raise. Amazing Grace
= years of failure, stomach illness, and blindness. Was someone not
doing something right? I mean, if you're following God by the Giants model,
everything works out great. The Wilberforce model? Eh, not so much ...
unless you look at the end result. Is God more concerned with your
personal comfort or with the carrying out of his purposes for good on
the Earth?
I felt bad as I watched Giants because
I thought the story would've been better if the wife hadn't gotten
pregnant. Show how people have to deal with the things that don't happen. I know more people going through that scenario than the prosperity track Giants seems
to be hinting at. Wilberforce nearly gave up his fight entirely before
circumstances came about for his efforts to succeed. His health never
did get much better. What he did, though, was pour himself out for the
sake of others.
I don't mean to rip on Giants.
It really is a feel-good kind of movie. I just worry about the message
it's sending. Like the Rolling Stones used to say, "You can't always
get what you want." For every Joel Osteen, there's a Mother Theresa. If
we think everything's going to come up roses every time, I'm afraid
we're setting ourselves up for some pretty deep disappoint. If we can
keep our eyes on Jesus, though, we can walk through the times when
everything's not working out. At least, that's how I'm looking at it
today. And, really, that's about all anybody can do. |
| | Posted 12/12/2007 1:55 PM - 40 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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