Grace & Hollywood

I thought about writing about the Super Bowl and all the hoopla that comes with it, but quickly got bored with the idea. I instead wanted to comment one more time on End of the Spear. I came across a post on another blog via another blog I read regularly. He touches on an interesting subject which I myself wondered about, but in a slightly different vein. I'll post a link to his blog at the end.

As someone who is concerned about the faith journeys of other people, I wonder how a film like Spear affects the people involved with its production. This is a movie with an obvious Christian message. It is, afterall, about missionaries. I wondered the same thing when The Passion of the Christ came out two years ago and you don't have to be a rocket theologian to know what it's about. I have no reason to believe that everyone involved called themselves a "Christian" just like I have no reason to believe that everyone in my church on any given Sunday would call themselves one either.

I posted last month how overtly Christian themes pop up with regularity in movies all the time. Are the people in those films affected in any way by the presence of those themes and ideas? Do they see and recognize the hands of grace at work around them? For that matter, do we always see the hands of grace at work around us? Do we see the gazillion ways that God is talking to us through the everyday events of our lives? Judging from my own experience, I'd say no. Usually it happens after the fact with a big "a ha" moment. Whether we recognize grace or not, I think it it still working and I think it is steering us in the right directions for our faith journeys.

How have you seen grace working in your life? How has God been talking to you?

BTW, here's the other blog.