When your film is on the screen for the first time in front of a packed house, the audience becomes a living, breathing organism. You hear every cough, every breath, every snicker, every cry. Just like the boy pouring his heart out for the girl, the artist pouring his heart out for the audience is completely aware of every bat of an eye and every uncomfortable twitch.
The reality of the film is that while life may not be full of elaborate ruses and mysteries fueled by wealthy industrialists, it is full of pain and unrequited love. The film makes us uncomfortable because given the opportunity, any of us could attempt to heal our wounds with our obsessions. People destroy each other every day in vain attempts to fill the holes in their lives.
The latest consumer tie-in, a self-help book created because of a movie, is the perfect storm. A guy I know told me that a lot of good has come from this movie, and I would be the last one to disagree. God moves. But a lot of good has also come from Romeo and Juliet, and for a long time. Most recently, Donald Miller made me love that play in new and brilliant ways in his book Searching for God Knows What, and it wasn’t another self-help plan. I wonder if the latest Christian movie and its book will still be examined four hundred years from now.
I’ve always considered my sense of humor to be self-deprecating, witty, sarcastic, and satirical, and I always felt that somehow that type of humor wasn’t acceptable for good Christians. Good Christians were positive and uplifting. While I have never been one to tear people down, I have often wondered why we always have to pull our punches. Sometimes the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes. I’m glad that Donald Miller, Jon Acuff, and many more new writers aren’t afraid to talk about naked emperors.
The inevitable question is why am I just now getting into “Lost”, when the entire country figured it out years ago? “You’re not watching Lost??” they would ask me. I always wanted to catch someone with a mouth full of water when I told them, so I could get that stereotypical, hilarious liquid-spit, as if my life were a screwball comedy. The truth is that at the time “Lost” began, I was in a short-lived men’s Bible study, and I knew I couldn’t just jump in the middle of a show like that.
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Matthew and Lizi The Meaning of It All "Soulful vocals and heartfelt songwriting"  |
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Andy Melvin The Human Engine Waits "Catchy and exquisite, energetic and mellow" |
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Peter Nevland Just My Mouth "Laugh, and then cry. Smile big" |
