Movies, Lids, and the Imagination of God

Hey everybody,

If you hadn't noticed. I discovered the power of youTube recently. As one of my internet friends, Shannon Smith, said recently, "technology, I think it is here to stay." In the past month, we have been able to do some pretty amazing things with new technology- talk to our missionary friends in Portugal and my sister and brother n law face to face through IChat, download videos at a click of a button, create websites to get out information, and send pictures to family all over the country. Pretty cool stuff that we could not even have imagined when I was born.

I posted that last video about the Flea Circus because I think it is a great thought-provoker about how we choose to live and the limits we set for ourselves in many different arenas of life. We've been watching a lot of movies recently, and this has been a theme I've picked up from Gattica, Stranger than Fiction, Cinderella 3 (that's right, I've got two daughters now and there is more where that came from for me), and Amazing Grace which I saw last night (and the button from Lost of course). In their own ways, each of these movies challenges the limits that we as individuals and the societies, structures, and cultures around us set for ourselves. In stranger than Fiction, Will Ferrell is the paradigm of a controlled, secure, and efficient life until he starts hearing this voice inside of his head that is narrating his life for him. At one point in his quest to figure out who is talking to him, he realizes that all of his controls in his life have kept him from really living life- no dreams, no passion, no significant relationships, no risk, no real meaning, and he was the only one imposing that on himself.

In Gattica, there is a striking contrast between one person who has been completely marginalized by the futurist society and one person who has every privelege and adavantage in the world. It was striking to me that the advanantaged one was suiscidal and depressed while the marginalized one became the hero by overcoming his obstacles and pursuing his dream by making great sacrifices and taking great risks. In the end, life was not worth living for one, but incredibly rich for the other.

Last night, we saw Amazing Grace and it was as inspirational as I thought it would be. (yes me and wife got to go on a date thanks to David and Vicki Paxton) William Wilberforce fought for twenty years through incredible pressure from outside forces and internal struggles, but persevered to end the dehumanizing slave trade in England. His actions had ripple effects throughout the world that eventually led to the end of slavery in America and the rest of Europe.

The one point in the movie that stuck with me came closer to the beginning of the movie after Wilberforce had a profound experience with God and contemplated leaving the parliament to join the ministry. His good friend, William Pitt, came to him and said: are you going to praise the Lord or change the world? This mindset is what stirrs fire inside of my soul. We cannot praise the Lord without being willing to follow Him to change the world. This is really the point of the movie that I loved: it showed how being a follower of Jesus and sacrificing to change the world is one and the same thing.

Each of these movies showed someone removing the lids of the particular situation and living for more than the status quo around them. We live in a culture when imagination has created great technology and great movies, but I wonder what lids need to be lifted in our lives to pursue the imagination of God?

In Ephesians 1-2 Paul reminds us that God's imagination dreamed each of us up before the world began to bring His goodness and hope to people on this earth in creative and imaginative ways. When we connect to God and others through Christ, we let loose the divine imagination in the world. I love how the church in so many places is asking questions based on the application of a redemptive imagination in our world rather than just trying to get more people in the church and present an abstract message about God. I think Paul would be very sad to think of us settling for entertaining ourselves with good movies and teachings and maintaining the status quo, but very excited to hear about us dreaming about how we can use the unique gifts, resources, and creativity as communities to bring restoration and hope to our world around us.

Let's take the lid off life (that was my little e-sermon)

Peace

Corey