And… Action!
I’m feeling a little whimsical this afternoon so let’s talk movies. The Word of God actually tells us that believers and unbelievers, were created with an internal knowledge of God and His concepts. Sometimes, these show up in movies. Today, I’d like to talk about scenes in 3 movies. (Warning, in order to bring these up, I’ll have to share details of the movies so if you haven’t seen them consider this your spoiler alert.)
The first movie I’d like to highlight is a 1990 movie, ‘Ghost’ starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and others. I remember this movie for several reasons. The first reason is that when this movie came out, I was carpooling with another Christian that very day. When I saw it and told her about it, she was concerned because it portrayed what happens in death in a sort of secular way (good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell). I’m not sure I could judge whether Patrick Swayze was a Christian before he was murdered. However, just the concept of a heaven and a hell which encourages people to think about, in my assessment, is a seed planted. Putting those two issues aside, at the end of the movie, when Patrick Swayze starts to go to heaven, he makes a comment that he gets to take all the love and good feelings with him. I don’t have any Bible references to support this, but I believe this to be likely.
“He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”- Matthew 13:33
The second movie I’d like to highlight is a 1999 movie, ‘The Matrix’ starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and others. What struck me in this movie was Keanu’s character was told that he was predestined to do something and had a hard time accepting it. At one moment, Laurence’s character says something like “knowing the path and walking the path are two different things”. This reminded me of a recent elder message where the theme (as I interpreted it), was the difference between wanting to do the right thing and actually doing it. Even a larger theme than that is just the concept that there is an overall plan to the world.
“In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory..”- Ephesians 1:11-14
The final movie is ‘Star Trek V, The Final Frontier’ starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Laurence Luckinbill and others. In this movie, Leonard’s character has a half-brother , played by Luckinbill. His character has the mystical ability to take away the pain and regret from past decisions made. He had just taken away another characters “pain” and was about ready to take away Captain Kirk (Shatner’s) pain. Kirk stopped him by declaring that he didn’t want his “pain” taken away. His pain and all his other experiences made him the person he was then and he wasn’t willing to change that. (By the way, there was a Star Trek, Next Generation episode with almost exactly that same theme.) Well, I ask myself all the time why would God allow this or that to happen? I have to remind myself that he is the writer and director of my life and, while I might not understand and appreciate everything that happens to me, it is all a part of who I am.
“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” - Romans 5:3-5
