Irony In a Life of Comfort
As I walked briskly through the streets of St Ives this morning in a hopeful attempt at getting fit, images from films viewed in the past week flooded my mind.The first came from an African film, in which a child was forced to quit school to pay for his mother's medicine. The boy and his friends dreamed of winning millions of dollars to not only help his mother, but also prevent the thousands of deaths from malaria and HIV in their country every day. This comment was merely a second in the short film - just like the way the realisation of these situations remains in our minds as we enjoy our comfortable lives each day. To us it seems impossible that such a different life could exist, one where a child cannot even afford a pencil for school, or even food or basic medicines.
But it does.
We are comfortable in our lives. What will it take to keep those images in our minds and change our hearts?
The second clip was from an Iranian film in which a teacher attempted to explain the september 11th attacks to children of no more than 10 years of age. What struck me was the way these children, at such a young age, debated God's involvement with this tragedy. Although questioning how God could allow so many to die, many of these children seemed to trust that He knew what He was doing. The wisdom of a child!
Thursday night saw me finally viewing the film In My Father's Den after a strong recommendation from a friend. And I loved it. It was so powerful. While feeling tempted to be overwhelmed by the tragedy in the film, I was also confronted with a number of lessons and life truths in the film. At one point the main character says "Who you set out to be is not always who you become." Now as we read that is seems quite obvious, doesnt it? However I think this fact can easily be overlooked in our lives. I was reminded therefore of a quotation a friend had posted on his blog which reads: "Your life...ought to lead you to places you'd rather not go."
Now how did i make this connection you may ask? Well, to me, in both contexts it is clear that we have absolutely no control over our life and that there is only one with whom we can trust it - our Heavenly Father.
The irony of escapism of film has struck me. We so often watch films to escape reality and our lives yet are confronted with more challenging images and ideas.
Without intending to, the viewing of all three films pointed to the power of God, His ultimate control, and the need to trust Him with our lives.
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