I am a sucker for the 3-hour epic movie. Not so much the newer ones like Troy and Alexander. Actually I haven't even seen them. They just do not strike me as something I want to see. I am talking about specifically, Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan, and Gladiator. While not an epic, I would also throw in Titanic. Stop freaking out, I'll explain myself right now on the Titanic pick.
I really like SPR and Titanic more than the others and it is due to the liberty the producers took in guessing how things went. What I mean is that they used some factual events and ways things happen and surrouned that with mostly conjecture. They guessed at how the "whole thing went down."
That openeing scene in SPR with the D-Day invasion changed me forever. War seemed all too real and not the glorious shoot-em up, roll the dice and remove army's from the gameboard, good guys always win idea I had in my mind. It was loud, dirty, gruesome, grisly, macabre, and bloody. For as bad as D-Day appeared in that opening scene, I am sure you can multiply that hundred-fold to how it really felt and looked. And to think, Hitler had moved most of his army away from Normandy (having guessed incorrectly where the Allied invasion would take place). Spielberg had a lot of historical fact and eye-witness accounts to go on, but still had to make it come alive. Still had over 2 hours of movie to do after that.
With Titanic, take away the love story, and you are left with the one of biggest human disasters ever. Cameron had some eye-witness accounts and historical fact as well to go on. But when that boat started to sink, it came alive. You understood how epic the event was. It was startling to see how massive the boat was and what it looked like while it sank (the ship was straight up in the air!!!!!). Cameron took a guess at how it all went down based on things he read. He took a stab at how it must have looked.
I honestly could not imagine what it would have been like to witness and have to take part in such an event as something that massive sinking into icy cold water.
It is when these directors take liberty in guessing how it happened and doing a very good job with it. It gives you elements and instances you never pictured or imagined. Additionally, the character development is there. Puts in more emotion and an attachment we get to the actor. Whether good or bad.
Which all leads me to The Passion of the Christ. Now, before I continue, I offer up this disclaimer:
I am a protestant, not Catholic. I understand that Mel Gibson
is Catholic, so I understand his point in the scene I am about to
talk about. It involves Jesus and Mary. Many of us know the
theology that Catholics and Protestants differ on in regards to
Mary. I am not here to discuss that, or further either thought.
In this movie, there is a scene where a flashback takes place. We are taken back to the home of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. Jesus is building a piece of furniture (he was a carpenter, you know). There is an interaction between Mary and Jesus of your typical mother/son interaction in a family. We have no mention of any of this in the Bible. But, I have no doubt, something similar took place and probably more than once. Jesus really was human. With a mother and father. He really was a carpenter, who used his hands to build and fix things. It added this element wonderfully. He felt the love of an earthly mother. He felt the enjoyment of accomplishing something with your own hands. Bringing a sense of pride to his parents as they watched him grow.
Somehow, we always attribute Jesus to being born, 12 or so years later showing up in the temple and teaching, 18 years later getting baptized and starting his public ministry, 3 years after that his crucifiction. We just leave it at that. All that filler in between was Jesus living a true human life, with all the emotions and feelings we experience. He had to experience all this human aspect.
To me that flashback scene, made his whole death more excruiating and sickly. It adds a pure understanding of the fact that, Jesus, while on the cross, felt total desperation and total loneliness, so much so that he screamed out to his Father in heaven, "Why have you forsaken me?" How many times do we here this about people we know? They feel like nothing is there, like God left them in their most trying times?
Jesus knew this was all going to happen and had to happen, but he still had experienced human life and its full range of emotions.
I have met many people and had conversations with people, where they fluff off the pain and suffering claiming since Jesus already knew, it was no big deal for him. He understood he could just go through with all this and it would end and be over with and he would be fine. Honestly! This is their "excuse." (Nevermind the fact, they are all but admitting they believe the whole thing and that it had to happen, but they are just finding their own loophole or excuse).
The problem is when Christians do the same thing. They do not truly understand and comprehend the scope of pain and suffering. They chalk it up to just something Jesus had to do or it was somehow easier for Jesus to endure than anyone else. I understand it was something Jesus had to do. But it was no more easier for him than it would have been for anyone else, ever! No matter anyone else's upbringing or life.
Sometimes, we take certain liberties about events and writings in the Bible. I believe this is mostly due to the fact that hindsight is 20/20 and we already know the story and how it ends (or will end).
For instance, think of Abraham's leap of faith? How easy is it for us to think that it was easy for Abraham to just uproot his whole family and move to a new land that he knew not to one day become a great nation. We know what happens, so we just assume how easy it must have been. But if it is easy, why do we all stuggle and wrestle with moves, job-changing, etc.? What about when he was going to sacrifice Issac? Come on, no one can say they would do it themselves. But many of us do not realize the massive amount of faith that Abraham had at this time. Tie in his own human emotion and you wonder how he even got the nerve to ask Isaac to join him on a mountain climbing trip. We build up so much nerve when all we are doing is asking our spouse if we can go to the baseball game with the guys. Imagine telling her you are going to sacrifice your only son!?
Also, I always wonder about Moses coming down from the mountain after talking with God and bringing the tablets that GOD WROTE WITH HIS OWN HAND, and finding Israel worshipping a golden calf, how did he not kill someone? How did he maintain himself to just throwing the tablets and breaking them? How did he not blow a gasket and just walk away? No, he interceeded with God to not kill them and by so doing to not fulfill his promise. We seem to gloss over that fact, because we understand that Israel does march into Canaan under God's protection. But think what amazing grace and passion it took for Moses to do this?
While reading about the crucifiction, we know he will rise from the grave and ultimately ascend into heaven. So, to an extent, the full impact of the crucifiction isn't felt by us. Not the way the eye-witnesses felt it and saw it. This makes it easier for us to not fully grasp something. Do not take me the wrong way, please. We all understand the importance of the crucifiction and its impact on all of mankind. But, I think if we fully understood it (like The Passion did) we would live our lives a little less careless and truly understand what Jesus meant when he said, "Take up your cross and follow me." Because Jesus understood how hard that would be for any human to do at anytime.
HE LIVED IT
Friday, October 21, 2005
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Dear Ann,
Remember those old Ann Lander's letters in newspapers? Readers would write to Ann and ask her opinion on all sorts of matters. Family, home, life, cooking, etc. Ann would provide written responses to those people on how to handle the situation and it seemed she had the answer for everything.
Honestly, I never much cared for that section of the newspaper. The questions were cheesy as were the answers. Many times the situation was very obvious and I always wondered if made up. Is it really that hard to realize that if your boyfriend of 3 months comes to you saying we should date other people, that he already has someone in mind and you should move on? It seemed funny that someone from say Millport, AL felt the need to deal with this problem this way. The letter was probably mailed a couple weeks before it made it into the paper. Hopefully, by then they are ok and over it. Even after all that, I wonder if Ann even read them all and answered them all.
Anyway, I have digressed quite a bit. What got me started on this thought was this:
I truly believe that God felt betrayed when the fall happen. The pinnacle of his creation was no longer perfect and he lost a cherished relationship.
Most all preaching, teaching, and studying on the fall of man always mentions the fact that man was betrayed. But what about God? He somehow gets lost in the shuffle. Ultimately, he was betrayed by man and lost the hearts of mankind, forever. He can get them back, but think of the price it takes? His own son had to die. Not just die but feel completely forsaken by God and lose every ounce of blood. Which led me to Ann Landers.
Imagine if God wrote Ann a letter (I am wired differently sometimes, these are thoughts that keep me up at night...God writing Ann Landers):
*****************************************************************
Dear Ann,
I spent 5 days creating a perfect earth full of animals and the
sun with rivers and beaches. Trees, fruit, waterfalls, and
singing birds. It was perfect. Everyday I marveled at this creation.
But Ann, it didn't stop there. On the 6th day I created something
in my image. Man! Flesh, blood, eyes, ears, a brain. I literally
breathed life into him. Every day I walked with him in the
cool of the day. This part of the day is the moment I look
forward to everyday. I loved the relationship I had with him.
Even when he told me he was lonely, I responded immediately.
I brought every animal to him. Let him name them all.
Gave him complete dominion over them all. During many of
our conversations over the years it took him to name them
all, he still expressed his loneliness. When he was done,
and his need for companionship was still wanton, I put him
in a deep sleep, took a piece of his body and grafted it into
a new creation. When he awoke, the look on his face, in
his eyes, and his body posture, told me all I needed to know.
When he finally spoke, his words echoed throughout the
Garden as he named her Woman. This creation was flesh
of his flesh and his loneliness was gone forever.
Our talks continued for untold years. I could do this for
eternity. All was good. Then one day, I came into garden,
and no one was there to meet me. This never happened.
I began to call out his name. No reply. A knot began to
form in my pit and rose up through. My pace quickened
through the garden as I continued to call out. Finally, a
response from behind a tree. I was relieved. As I walked
forward, man and woman hid themselves from me. Why
were they hidng themselves? I suddenly realized, they
are ashamed! So I asked them why they were ashamed?
That's when the dagger struck me. They hid themselves,
they told me, because they were naked! My old friend,
an angel I loved so deeply and made the greatest of all,
turned his back on me eons ago and now he has destroyed
my masterpiece.
Oh, I have lost a relationship that I so desperatley want to
have. So much so that I will offer my own Son to be murdered
just to keep this relationship. Just to one day, walk in the cool
of the day with my creation again. To allow them to have a
heart that is like mine, incorrucptible. I will create a new
heaven and a new earth as well! One that is not devastated
and ravaged.
You see, I love this creation more than anything. I want to
have a deep, personal relationship with man. I crave it.
Quite literally, it kills me. You see, My Son is me, and I
will give his life. Just to allow man the option to accept it,
believe it, and have a heart cleansed in my Sons' blood
and one day, many years from now, they can sit with me
on the throne and drink from my cup and live out eternity
as it was meant to be. Perfect, spotless, my Son and I
surrounded by glory and celebration. The lion lying with
the lamb and no tear to be found.
That will be heaven. Pearly gates and gold roads. Everyone
living in mansions and wearing crowns. I can see it now.
Oh what glory and majesty! I must get to this now Ann.
It will take over 6,000 years to go through this. I know
I will be broken and betrayed by this creation until such
time, but to me, God, it is worth it to know this relationship
will one day be back to normal and go on forever.
*****************************************************************
I believe this "letter" is a rather large, vastly paraphrased Bible. Don't get me wrong, we need all 66 books and every verse of it. But, this is the message of the Gospel. The Good News. God's unrelenting message to us on how to get back to a relationship with him. God (for lack of a better word) craves this relationship with us.
Think about this.....
He has spent all of known time creating everything and then giving it to us, then watching us destroy it and ourselves, only to let his Son be killed so he can give it all back.
Wow.
Honestly, I never much cared for that section of the newspaper. The questions were cheesy as were the answers. Many times the situation was very obvious and I always wondered if made up. Is it really that hard to realize that if your boyfriend of 3 months comes to you saying we should date other people, that he already has someone in mind and you should move on? It seemed funny that someone from say Millport, AL felt the need to deal with this problem this way. The letter was probably mailed a couple weeks before it made it into the paper. Hopefully, by then they are ok and over it. Even after all that, I wonder if Ann even read them all and answered them all.
Anyway, I have digressed quite a bit. What got me started on this thought was this:
I truly believe that God felt betrayed when the fall happen. The pinnacle of his creation was no longer perfect and he lost a cherished relationship.
Most all preaching, teaching, and studying on the fall of man always mentions the fact that man was betrayed. But what about God? He somehow gets lost in the shuffle. Ultimately, he was betrayed by man and lost the hearts of mankind, forever. He can get them back, but think of the price it takes? His own son had to die. Not just die but feel completely forsaken by God and lose every ounce of blood. Which led me to Ann Landers.
Imagine if God wrote Ann a letter (I am wired differently sometimes, these are thoughts that keep me up at night...God writing Ann Landers):
*****************************************************************
Dear Ann,
I spent 5 days creating a perfect earth full of animals and the
sun with rivers and beaches. Trees, fruit, waterfalls, and
singing birds. It was perfect. Everyday I marveled at this creation.
But Ann, it didn't stop there. On the 6th day I created something
in my image. Man! Flesh, blood, eyes, ears, a brain. I literally
breathed life into him. Every day I walked with him in the
cool of the day. This part of the day is the moment I look
forward to everyday. I loved the relationship I had with him.
Even when he told me he was lonely, I responded immediately.
I brought every animal to him. Let him name them all.
Gave him complete dominion over them all. During many of
our conversations over the years it took him to name them
all, he still expressed his loneliness. When he was done,
and his need for companionship was still wanton, I put him
in a deep sleep, took a piece of his body and grafted it into
a new creation. When he awoke, the look on his face, in
his eyes, and his body posture, told me all I needed to know.
When he finally spoke, his words echoed throughout the
Garden as he named her Woman. This creation was flesh
of his flesh and his loneliness was gone forever.
Our talks continued for untold years. I could do this for
eternity. All was good. Then one day, I came into garden,
and no one was there to meet me. This never happened.
I began to call out his name. No reply. A knot began to
form in my pit and rose up through. My pace quickened
through the garden as I continued to call out. Finally, a
response from behind a tree. I was relieved. As I walked
forward, man and woman hid themselves from me. Why
were they hidng themselves? I suddenly realized, they
are ashamed! So I asked them why they were ashamed?
That's when the dagger struck me. They hid themselves,
they told me, because they were naked! My old friend,
an angel I loved so deeply and made the greatest of all,
turned his back on me eons ago and now he has destroyed
my masterpiece.
Oh, I have lost a relationship that I so desperatley want to
have. So much so that I will offer my own Son to be murdered
just to keep this relationship. Just to one day, walk in the cool
of the day with my creation again. To allow them to have a
heart that is like mine, incorrucptible. I will create a new
heaven and a new earth as well! One that is not devastated
and ravaged.
You see, I love this creation more than anything. I want to
have a deep, personal relationship with man. I crave it.
Quite literally, it kills me. You see, My Son is me, and I
will give his life. Just to allow man the option to accept it,
believe it, and have a heart cleansed in my Sons' blood
and one day, many years from now, they can sit with me
on the throne and drink from my cup and live out eternity
as it was meant to be. Perfect, spotless, my Son and I
surrounded by glory and celebration. The lion lying with
the lamb and no tear to be found.
That will be heaven. Pearly gates and gold roads. Everyone
living in mansions and wearing crowns. I can see it now.
Oh what glory and majesty! I must get to this now Ann.
It will take over 6,000 years to go through this. I know
I will be broken and betrayed by this creation until such
time, but to me, God, it is worth it to know this relationship
will one day be back to normal and go on forever.
*****************************************************************
I believe this "letter" is a rather large, vastly paraphrased Bible. Don't get me wrong, we need all 66 books and every verse of it. But, this is the message of the Gospel. The Good News. God's unrelenting message to us on how to get back to a relationship with him. God (for lack of a better word) craves this relationship with us.
Think about this.....
He has spent all of known time creating everything and then giving it to us, then watching us destroy it and ourselves, only to let his Son be killed so he can give it all back.
Wow.
Thursday, October 06, 2005
The toughest, most unrelenting question ever asked!
All this makes me wonder what God must have felt,
arriving on the scene just after the Fall, knowing all
He had made was ruined, and understanding at once
the sacrifice that would be required to win the hearts
of His Children from the grasp of their seducer. I see
Him in my mind walking the paths, calling to the couple,
meeting their eyes for the first time, and Adam and Eve
shaking in absolute terror, wondering what had happened,
confused at the broken promise of a snake, feeling at once
the trustworthiness of their first love and wondering if God
would ever love them again, feeling the hot breath of His
anger and emotion, hearing Him speak for the first time,
not as a friend, but as One who had been betrayed.
"Who told you that you were naked?"
-Donald Miller "Searching for God Knows What"
arriving on the scene just after the Fall, knowing all
He had made was ruined, and understanding at once
the sacrifice that would be required to win the hearts
of His Children from the grasp of their seducer. I see
Him in my mind walking the paths, calling to the couple,
meeting their eyes for the first time, and Adam and Eve
shaking in absolute terror, wondering what had happened,
confused at the broken promise of a snake, feeling at once
the trustworthiness of their first love and wondering if God
would ever love them again, feeling the hot breath of His
anger and emotion, hearing Him speak for the first time,
not as a friend, but as One who had been betrayed.
"Who told you that you were naked?"
-Donald Miller "Searching for God Knows What"
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
The complexity of human life
I should apologize up front. The subject heading was a play on words. I am not going to wax poetic about how layered and deep my thoughts are. How love and emotion and sadness and euphoria can sweep my body all over at once. You know, the usual "artsy fartsy" talk that follows a line like "The complexity of human life."
No, I am talking about how human life is the construction of a bunch of complexity (confused yet?). Protons, neurons, double helix, mucus, bone, freckles, hair, etc., etc. compose the make up of the human body, and we haven't even got to the emotions, sensations, and feelings part of the whole thing. You know, the physics of this whole thing. Life and creation is a complex subject. Volumes of work, findings, and studies have been published and broadcast for thousands of years, and yet, not everything is known. Theories abound about human life, science, physics, and the complete makeup of the earth.
Except to one person...GOD.
************************************
He understands the complexity and physics of all of it, he created it. This current, living, breathing, and wonderful life. Everything else that goes with it too. To God, there are no theories just the facts.
Take a honest, giant step back and think about that for a minute. Just ponder this fact. Peel off the layers. Realize that God is truly the creator of everything living right now, everything that has died, and everything that will. There is no majic formula to this. It is what it is. God literally "breathed life into Adam."
Continue to think about this and keep peeling those layers back.
God hasn't stopped there. He created an afterlife. AN AFTERLIFE!!!! This is phenomenal. It is promised to every human being.
But you know what, do not stop there, keep peeling the layers back.
God has created all this, "he gives and he taketh away." He is responsible for birth and death. Yet, he has not experienced either, nor will he. This is mind-shattering. Take an even bigger step back and contemplate this? Is it even possible to comprehend this?
This fact consumes my thoughts sometimes. It is too much for me to comprehend. All my life I have seen things born and die. Everything starts from something and everything ends. Except God.
You cannot stop there though. Peel another layer back and you realize that God created all, God understands it all, God was not born, created, or will die, and God does not inhabot space.
What?! Huh!! That is right. He doesn't really live in a space.
He is there.
That sentence almost seems too simple but is truly majestic. He is all of it and he is everywhere. Truly eternal, truly omnipotent, and truly a Supreme Being.
All of these facts, when wound together and laid out like this, quite frankly, freak me out completely. Sometimes while laying in bed at night, this thought consumes me and I lay awake trying to wrap my mind around it. The more I try, the more I cannot. Butterflys build in my stomach, my heart beats harder and faster, and breathing becomes short. I eventually roll onto my back and stare up at the ceiling, like I'll see something besides the flat white painted plaster ceiling. It is terror and fear. Not Freddy Krueger terror, but genuine terror.
Most times I wonder why I feel this? Should I feel this? Should I be concerned, that as a believer, this fact terrorizes me? I believe in all of it, but am scared by it just the same.
Why?
No, I am talking about how human life is the construction of a bunch of complexity (confused yet?). Protons, neurons, double helix, mucus, bone, freckles, hair, etc., etc. compose the make up of the human body, and we haven't even got to the emotions, sensations, and feelings part of the whole thing. You know, the physics of this whole thing. Life and creation is a complex subject. Volumes of work, findings, and studies have been published and broadcast for thousands of years, and yet, not everything is known. Theories abound about human life, science, physics, and the complete makeup of the earth.
Except to one person...GOD.
************************************
He understands the complexity and physics of all of it, he created it. This current, living, breathing, and wonderful life. Everything else that goes with it too. To God, there are no theories just the facts.
Take a honest, giant step back and think about that for a minute. Just ponder this fact. Peel off the layers. Realize that God is truly the creator of everything living right now, everything that has died, and everything that will. There is no majic formula to this. It is what it is. God literally "breathed life into Adam."
Continue to think about this and keep peeling those layers back.
God hasn't stopped there. He created an afterlife. AN AFTERLIFE!!!! This is phenomenal. It is promised to every human being.
But you know what, do not stop there, keep peeling the layers back.
God has created all this, "he gives and he taketh away." He is responsible for birth and death. Yet, he has not experienced either, nor will he. This is mind-shattering. Take an even bigger step back and contemplate this? Is it even possible to comprehend this?
This fact consumes my thoughts sometimes. It is too much for me to comprehend. All my life I have seen things born and die. Everything starts from something and everything ends. Except God.
You cannot stop there though. Peel another layer back and you realize that God created all, God understands it all, God was not born, created, or will die, and God does not inhabot space.
What?! Huh!! That is right. He doesn't really live in a space.
He is there.
That sentence almost seems too simple but is truly majestic. He is all of it and he is everywhere. Truly eternal, truly omnipotent, and truly a Supreme Being.
All of these facts, when wound together and laid out like this, quite frankly, freak me out completely. Sometimes while laying in bed at night, this thought consumes me and I lay awake trying to wrap my mind around it. The more I try, the more I cannot. Butterflys build in my stomach, my heart beats harder and faster, and breathing becomes short. I eventually roll onto my back and stare up at the ceiling, like I'll see something besides the flat white painted plaster ceiling. It is terror and fear. Not Freddy Krueger terror, but genuine terror.
Most times I wonder why I feel this? Should I feel this? Should I be concerned, that as a believer, this fact terrorizes me? I believe in all of it, but am scared by it just the same.
Why?
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