Gravity

While on our way to see the Bama-Kentucky game tomorrow, we stopped in Nashville tonight and saw the movie Gravity:



Having seen this trailer weeks ago, I had looked forward to seeing it very much, and I was not disappointed.

I expected a thriller with the suspense of whether the astronauts played by Sandra Bullock and George Clooney could survive. But it went way beyond that. It addressed questions like...

• How does our life experience affect us when we encounter a crisis?
• What would I think about if I believed this was the day I was going to die?
• What is it that makes us want to keep fighting when everything is against us?
• Do you and I have something like that in our lives?

All these questions addressed against the backdrop of lonely souls high above the earth. Throughout the movie, you could see the earth below, a mass of water, land, and clouds. And it made me think about the billions of stories going on below, all obscure and of little importance to our characters.

While those stories are unknown and in the background, the desire to be part of the earth's big story is at the heart of all of us. Gravity, drawing us back to earth. 

Not a bad night at the cinema. Now...on to Lexington for some football.

Psalm 47 and national health care

What do we do when we get frustrated with life? How about when we are frustrated with the world and the power structures that seem to have dominion over our lives? There seems to be a lot of that lately, and it has exploded onto the pages of Facebook and Twitter. National health care, government slowdowns (called a shutdown, but let's face it - the government has not stopped), and politics in general.

One place we can go is the the Psalms, referred to by Dietrich Bonhoeffer as the "prayer book of the Bible." And one Psalm in particular showed up in my reading plan this morning - I think just in time. Read it carefully, slowly, digesting every word. Let it sink in where the real power is. Psalm 47:

Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy.

For the LORD Most High is awesome, the great King over all the earth.

He subdued nations under us, peoples under our feet.

He chose our inheritance for us, the price of Jacob, whom he loved.

God has ascended amid shouts of joy, the LORD amid the sounding of trumpets.

Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises.

For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise.

God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne.

The nobles of the nations assemble as the people of the God of Abraham,

for the kings of the earth belong to God, he is greatly exalted. (Emphasis mine) 

 What a marvelous Psalm! In it we see that the God of Israel is not just the king of the chosen people; he is the King of all the earth. Every king, every power, every authority has been made subject to his rule. There is no power that exists outside of his control. Pharaoh's Egypt. Nero's Rome. Stalin's Russia. Idi Amin's Uganda. Who was in charge?

God. God reigns over the nations...the kings of the earth belong to God.

So when I'm tempted to get bent out shape about earthly powers, I can come back to this prayer, this Psalm.

Will everything turn out like I want it to? Will my health care remain affordable for me? Will government provide every service I need? Will I continue to experience the lifestyle I've grown used to?

Maybe, maybe not. Probably not. But it doesn't matter, because life is not about my comfort, my needs, my happiness. It's about bringing glory to the only true God, whether in plenty or want.

So I will sleep well tonight, knowing that YHWH is the King over all the earth, and above all kings. Whatever they do to me, it will be for his glory. Bring it on.

Prisoners - addendum

I left out an important point in my blog post last night. (Before finishing this post, please read it here.)

Multiple times in the movie we see Keller Dover reciting the Lord's prayer. There is little doubt in my mind that the faith-based depiction of evil is intentional. So it was powerful when Dover was sitting outside the room of the man he was torturing - the man he was convinced had kidnapped his daughter - and started praying again.

Our father, who art in heaven

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our trespasses, as we.....................................

At which point he broke down. Because he could not forgive the one who, in this horrific act, had trespassed against him.

So this is the essence of the kingdom of God. Jesus came to enable us to do the impossible. Anybody can forgive those they love. But this kind of forgiveness is beyond natural - supernatural - and comes from God.

So how does evil triumph? When we stop short in praying the prayer. Forgiveness - that's where the power to defeat evil comes from.

Prisoners

[Note: When you are done reading this post, please click here to read an addendum. Thanks!]

Last week I went with a friend to see the movie Prisoners. It's a very intense movie and not exactly family fare. But a couple of things stood out that were worth sharing in this space.

For those of you who are not familiar, here is a brief plot summary:

When Keller Dover's daughter and her friend go missing, he takes matters into his own hands as the police pursue multiple leads and the pressure mounts. But just how far will this desperate father go to protect his family?

The first thing that was striking, really disturbing, was watching the lengths to which Keller (played by Hugh Jackman) would go. I think we can understand it, and those of us with children certainly can, But as I watched the evolution of the character from a grieving father to someone who was so desperate that  nothing - and nobody - else mattered, I could see what evil does to us if we let it. The forces against which Keller Dover was fighting were as dark as they come. But evil is insidious - it wins by transforming us into itself even as we fight it.

As I watched, I was reminded of Mr. Jackman's most recent acting effort, Jean Valjean in Les Miserables.  In that performance, he played a character where the opposite happened. Valjean encountered an ultimate display of grace and forgiveness shortly after being released from prison, and it changed his life. The two films released in less than a year gave Jackman a chance to show both sides of the coin - how giving in to grace or to evil can determine your path.

There was a scene about halfway through the movie that pretty much defined the theme. A priest who had encountered a notorious child murderer quoted the murderer as uttering this phrase: "I'm waging a war against God." And he was. Not just by doing evil things, but by doing things that would cause people to question God's goodness and to respond with hate. This is how evil has always waged war on God. How do we beat it? Not by responding in kind, but by putting into practice the words of Romans 12:21 (Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.)

Prisoners. The movie title referred to the children. And to the alleged perpetrator that Keller tortured. But it also, I believe referred to Keller and to all of us who allow allow evil to capture us in its web. What do I allow to imprison me?