Facing the Giants…

I just finished watching the movie “Facing the Giants.” I had heard lots of very mixed reviews (from Christians and non-Christians) about it, but had not yet seen it myself. Perhaps I was avoiding it out of snobbery or maybe the opportunity just hadn’t come up. I honestly don’t know. Either way, I’ve seen it now. And I really enjoyed it.

For those who don’t know (are there “those” anymore?), the movie was made by a small church in South Georgia for about $100,000. Every single position from writing the script, to acting, to editing was filled by members of the church who had never been involved in making a film before. They paid some professionals to come down and train them and then set out to work, eventually getting national distribution.

I had heard that the acting was terrible (no one’s going to win an Oscar, but it wasn’t that bad) and that it was pretty cheesy (no worse than just about any other sports movie I’ve seen). What I wasn’t expecting was the problem I would have with the theology presented in the film.

It’s pretty 2+2…you get your life right with God, you adjust your attitude, and you win football games. It’s really your basic prosperity gospel. I’m not saying God doesn’t bless those who are faithful to Him. I absolutely believe that…to a point. I just don’t believe the blessings are always so material.

As western, American Christians, we tend to get so caught up in being able to point to things and say “There, that’s the goodness of God manifest in my life.” I don’t see this happening a lot in the New Testament. We know God had a chosen people in the Old Testament (a discussion saved for another day) and that He was very hands-on in leading them to victory or preventing it from happening. Many times this was based on obedience to Him. I believe God is always the same, so I’m not saying that’s not still part of the way He operates.

However, in the New Testament, Jesus offers a lot of blessings that aren’t that easy to literally point to…peace, grace, dare I say it – eternal security. These things are mentioned as sidebars in the film, and I think that’s the way we treat them a lot of the time.

I’m in the middle of building a beautiful house and getting very “blessed” right now with a lot of regular, steady work in a field I love. However, if those things are taken away somehow, does that make me less “blessed”? Does it mean I no longer have God’s favor? Does it mean I did something wrong and now I’m being punished? Maybe.

But maybe not. Sometimes bad things happen. Sometimes they’re a direct result of bad things in our lives, sometimes they’re because of the fallen world around us, and sometimes we won’t understand why they happened until we have complete communion with God in eternity. How can we know?

I have no idea what the answer is there, but I think it’s incorrect for us to think the answer is quite as simple as the portrayal in this film (and lots of Sunday morning sermons and Christian talk shows). Our relationship with God is so much more complex, so much more beautiful, so much more than just material things. Maybe this simplified version of what that relationship looks like is why so many people get frustrated with Christianity. They’re expecting simple math and instead get Calculus (I don’t know that much about math, so I’m not sure if that analogy really works, but you get my drift).

I’m so proud of this little church for thinking outside the box and making a product that is truly excellent. And maybe the point here wasn’t to challenge people theologically…maybe they just wanted to crack the door a little bit and start the conversation about serving a good God. I’m not criticizing that or any of their other motives. I’m just processing.

Peace. Out.