I don't watch a ton of movies. You'd be surprised how often I'm that person staring blankly at people when they quote a line from a mainstream hit or try to make a clever reference to some ten year old "classic" that everyone who's anyone has seen. I guess that's because I read more than I watch, and also because I would rather see a great movie ten times than ten okay movies. I have to think there's an insane amount of wasted brain power involved in that whole industry, but I do love a good action or sci-fi movie if it has an interesting plot.
The types of movie plots that a lot of people, including myself, seem to be drawn to are essentially based on victory in unlikely circumstances. We love to see a strong, confident main character that is somehow sharp enough to sense that there's more going on than what's out in the open; a hero who won't stop until they uncover what's been hidden and then take action to revolutionize the circumstances. Then by the end of the movie, seemingly against all odds, they manage to pound the schemes of the bad guys right into the ground. Bad guy pounding always creates that great emotional response in the audience and experiencing that triumph, on whatever level, is what makes the whole movie worth watching.
People put a lot of time and money into the movie industry, and the reason for that is not complicated: because it's interesting. It offers an escape from reality into a pretend world where we get to "experience" something different. Living vicariously through these screen characters for a couple of hours feeds our inward longing to be someone important, someone heroic, and someone with a real mission in life. Then when the credits roll we look around and admit that whatever we have going on in our mundane existence back here in reality is significantly less interesting than what we just visually experienced.
But the way I see it, reality isn't actually that much less interesting than those movies we're so enthralled with...
If we look around, we find ourselves in a world that is positively overrun by the bad guys. We experience opposing forces practically battling it out in front of our eyes on a daily basis. But we're told that this is just the way life is, and that over-thinking it is a waste of time. Something doesn't seem right though, it never does. Somehow in the most honest corners of the back of our mind, we always sense that there must be more to the story. We're drawn to characters in fictional movies that keep searching and fighting for answers against ridiculous odds, even alone if they have to, but the important question then becomes whether or not we will do that in reality when it actually matters.
Just like a character in a movie that uncovers some information of crucial importance that has to power to change everything, we have not been left without sufficient evidence to understand even some of life's greatest mysteries. The purpose of the Bible is not to be a charm for people who call themselves "Christians" to carry around. It IS that pivotal collection of evidence that leads to the answers and defines our role in this cosmic war between the God of the Universe and the Great Deceiver. We've been admonished that this war is no game so we better get our armor on (Ephesians 6:11) because we're wrestling with some dark and dangerous forces (Ephesians 6:12), but we're also encouraged that the ultimate victory has already been won (John 16:33). According to the Bible, we are all in this story with a role that matters. What we have to decide is if we're willing to fight for truth like our much admired movie heroes in a battle where our choices could hold eternal significance.
I've heard quite a collection of reasons why people are either uninterested in Christianity or give up on it, and pretty high on the list is that there are too many unanswered questions, too many reasons for doubt. If there is a God of the Universe, they say, He would have revealed Himself in a much more absolute and definite way, making everything about Himself so obvious that we would have to acknowledge him as Lord.
...I'm not so sure.
Jeremiah 29:13 says, "And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart." The idea of seeking and searching implies that finding truth is something that takes a level of effort on our part. We were not left here empty handed and without a way of finding truth. We were given a book full of immeasurably valuable information and clues about the war being waged around us, the identification and mission of the enemy as well as how he operates, and hope in the victory of Jesus Christ, being confident that the way things are now is not the way they will be for the conclusion. We will not uncover every answer right now, but what we can do is keep our eyes open and seek after truth to understand the bigger picture ...one piece at a time.
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