movies – Salvaged Faith

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=amomono&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B000WCN8PA&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrThe other night, I sat down to watch a film that has been in my Netflix queue for a while now: King of California. It’s the story of a young woman and her mentally questionable father and his quest to find buried treasure beneath their suburban community. It’s quiet, a little quirky, but all and all a really good flick.

I think the thing that stuck with me long after the movie ended was the idea that you could follow along with someone – even if you weren’t entirely sure you believed. The character, Miranda, is about 90% sure that her father is full of crap, and yet she loves him and is interested in the possibility that he might be on to something. She follows him all over the countryside. She listens to his ramblings. She does some reading and research of her own. She gives up her job in order to get hired on with the Costco her dad thinks the treasure is buried beneath. In spite of every instinct in her body that tells her he is absolutely crazy… she goes along with the plan. She is there. But she doesn’t believe.

There are many days that I feel that way about my faith. I know that God loves me. And I want to love God with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength. But I’m not always sure what on earth we are all doing. I’m going along with the plan… seeing how things turn out… but there are absolutely doubts. I listen. I read. I would love to believe it all hook, line and sinker. But there is too much of a scientific rationalist in my heart. So I’m here. I’m doing it. I’m sticking it out. But…

There is that “but”. And I often worry about that “but.” I worry that I’m not faithful enough. I worry that the little “but” in the back of my mind is going to be my downfall. I worry that maybe I am just going through the motions.

King of California reminded me that it’s okay to have questions. Miranda was a faithful and loving daughter. She would have done anything for her father. She did the best that she could with what she had – and that included having questions, and doubts, and acting out in faith in spite of them.

Maybe that’s the key… acting in spite of our doubts. Taking the leap of faith – even when it goes against every instinct in our bodies. Deciding to follow – even if we are pretty sure that we have no idea where we are going. Taking all of those doubts and carrying them with us and not ignoring them… but not letting them keep us from finding out the truth, either.

There is a scene at the end – and I don’t know that I’ll ruin any of the plot if I say this – when something that Charlie (the dad) said actually came true. Miranda is standing by the ocean at sunrise and a bunch of chinese men and women come running out of the ocean wearing only their underwear. And she gets this look on her face – this look of curious wonder. She saw for her own eyes the truth. I pray that I might keep my eyes open and someday see for myself… see it all as it really is… and finally know. Until then I’m going to take my doubtful leap of faith and see what happens.

For a few weeks, I have felt a bit off in my sermon prep. The pieces I wanted to come together hadn’t, and it just seemed like the message wasn’t connecting with people where they were.

This week, I surely had a much different focus going into the sermon than what was produced, but I for some reason got into a roll on a modern interpretation of the passage from Acts this morning. I talked about a group of guys heading to the big city to see this crazy preacher lady. They just wanted to see the spectacle, but they were moved and were baptised by Jane B. in the river. And they headed home and while they wanted things to be different, nothing really was.

A few years went by and suddenly this traveling preacher came to town named Paul and he told them about what they had been missing out on – that they only had half the story – and immediately those believers were filled with the Holy Spirit.

I hope to post on this in a few days, but I read the book “The Shack” last week. It absolutely amazed me. Yeah, there are some theological points that I don’t agree with, but if I’m honest with myself, there are far more that resonate with my own theology than don’t. Especially when it comes to really being open and trusting that God can dwell within you. That your life can be different because God lives within you.

In my sermon this morning, I tried to move from that story of missing pieces to talk about how we don’t fully understand the power of the Holy Spirit that is given to us in baptism. We underestimate its power. We don’t trust it. And so we are not able to do the things we know we are called to. We get caught up in fear and hesitation instead of resting in the knowledge that God is within us, God has filled us, God loves us and God is for us.

In the service we also had a time to remember our baptisms and I think the morning went very well. I had a number of people come up to me after the service and talk about how meaningful it was for them. And what was even more amazing about the service is that I felt like I really worshipped this morning too.

Afterwards we had our first ever worship committee meeting to talk about plans for Lent and Easter. Getting answers and ideas out of them was like pulling teeth, and I’m not sure if that’s because I’m asking the wrong questions or if they just aren’t used to being asked these kinds of questions. I think we did come up with a general theme for the lenten season: Simplicity and Spiritual Disciplines… about what we need to let go of in order to really enjoy our relationship with God… as well as some songs to guide us through the season. We talked about plans for Holy Week, Ash Wednesday, and then Easter Sunday.

To my amazement, someone suggested that we scrap the Sunrise Service – because it doesn’t have a large attendance, and the youth aren’t really involved in it anyways. And then someone agreed. And someone actually said: just because we’ve always done it that way doesn’t mean that it’s worth doing. WOO HOO!!! Last year’s Easter Sunrise service was something the youth group helped me put together – complete with hard rock songs instead of hymns… and then none of them showed up. So this gives me permission to not do it… yay!

The rest of the day was spent on the couch watching moves. Lots of movies. “I Now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry” “Music and Lyrics” “Burn After REading” “Hancock” “Ratatouille”… it was just one of those kinds of days.

Posts Tagged with movies

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