Tonight I watched a fine movie, Signs, starring Mel Gibson. Gibson plays a former pastor who has walked away from the church and his faith because his wife died in an auto accident. He claims to no longer believe in God, and that life is therefore without mercy or the intervention of the divine. If there were a God, especially the Christian God of love and mercy, then surely his wife would have been spared! Yet, as the movie unfolds, glimpses are give to the struggle really taking place in the soul of this former minister. In reality, he is very angry with God. At a particularly trying moment, he actually looks up to Heaven and proclaims, "I hate you."

On the surface, the movie is a science fiction thriller about an invasion of aliens. Gibson and his family are within the line of sight. It seems rather obvious that the aliens are clearly a vehicle of the movie to make the statement that, sometimes, matters we consider with skepticism and disbelief may actually prove to be true. Flying saucers may actually be real, and by not-so-subtle inference, so may be God! His son has a book about space aliens that Gibson scoffs about. It ends up being a reliable guide. The parallel to the Bible is rather obvious. The aliens mount their invasion. Reminiscent to War Of The Worlds, in which the aliens are killed off by cold weather, in this movie the aliens are killed off by the acid-like effect of water.

Gibson is restored to faith by a miraculous event. His son has an asthma attack, in which his lungs close up and he is unable to breathe. With his son in such a precarious state, the father continues his anger toward God. The boy is picked up by an alien. The alien sprays poison gas into his face in an attempt to kill. However, the boy does not breathe the gas because of his condition. Gibson is able to seize his son, and resuscitate him. He considers the matter to be a miracle, an affirmation of faith in a higher power, and thus returns to the ministry.

What do I think? All of us can find reason to be angry with God, if we choose. Bad things happen to all, and not in equal measure. You cannot convince me that Christians intentionally have targeted toward themselves more singularly miraculous and happy things in life than non-Christians. How life treats humanity seems to me quite an impersonal matter. Some people have a lot of happy experiences in life, and some have a lot of crappy experiences in life. That's just the way life shakes out. So, if you are angry with God and insisting that He cater to your demands in order for you to believe and serve, then I think you are likely to continue to be sorely disappointed.

God does not serve you.
This is not a dance in which you lead.
Perhaps you can manipulate some people with your anger. But not God.

The crisis of anger towards God is an important spiritual event, a journey if you prefer. I think it is important for everybody to go through this experience. You do yourself and God no favors by avoidance or too ready explanation. I think it best to let the matter linger a bit, without the false drugs of shallow platitudes and easy religion. It is a deep and dark valley. I've been there, and perhaps I will be there again.

How do you get through it, and emerge with a healthy relationship with God? For sure, I think, we must stop this silly insistence that God must respond to our demands, and behave according to our understanding and dictates. Equally important, you and I must grasp the essence of our part in this human/divine connection. It is faith. Faith in God is a wonderful discovery. But, by it's very nature, it does not and cannot demand irrefutable proof. I cannot prove God or anything about God. Every argument of logic has a valid alternative. More than believe, I trust. And such is The Essential.

Unlike the erroneous lesson learned by Gibson's character in the movie, if your faith hinges upon a singular miraculous event in life, then I think you are on thin ice. A faith that can be singularly gained can be singularly lost.

So, it is a good movie. It dares to do more than entertain. And it cause one to think about what I consider to be the most important matter of life and eternity, faith in God.

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posted by: fractalmom (reply)
post date: 05.27.08 (4:56 am)

I remember that movie. I quite like it. however, when fairh is present already, but absent at the moment, a miraculous happening can restore that which was already there, and it can stay strong.

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posted by: OldSchool (reply)
post date: 05.27.08 (6:10 am)

I am not really a fan of Mel Gibson, so I never saw that movie. I might give it a try some time. Thanks for the insight.

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posted by: bawdy (reply)
post date: 05.27.08 (1:12 pm)

Interesting thoughts the movie provoked from you. After The Sixth Sense, I haven't liked any of M. Night Shyamalan's films myself.

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posted by: Barbara (reply)
post date: 05.27.08 (3:08 pm)

Signs is one of my favorite movies. It makes you see there is no such thing as coincidence: i.e. the glasses of water left around by the daughter, the dieing wife telling her brother-in-law to "swing away", the asthma attack. God brought all those things together at the right time. Your insights were very good. Congratulations to Brock. When does he leave for the USMC?

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posted by: toztee (reply)
post date: 05.27.08 (4:59 pm)

I loved SIGNS, it a favorite. I like ones that make me go Hmmm and see deeper than I expected. Friends from church and I got together to watch it. It was fun afterwards as we began discussing what we each thought about this or that.

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posted by: PastorDave (reply)
post date: 05.27.08 (7:03 pm)

Reply to: fractalmom
Just how real is a faith that can either be destroyed or renewed with a singular life experience? I decided quite a while back to stick with God, whatever life brings my way. Life is hard. And there are no allusions otherwise from Biblical Christian faith. I've no doubt I will have some good experiences and some bad experiences. God will be the only constant, mysterious though He may be.

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posted by: PastorDave (reply)
post date: 05.27.08 (7:07 pm)

Reply to: OldSchool
Too bad. Mel Gibson is a big part of 80's and 90's cinema. Mad Max, Lethal Weapon, Braveheart. Interesting to me is his journey of faith, which obviously has become more prevalent in his films of the last decade.

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posted by: PastorDave (reply)
post date: 05.27.08 (7:09 pm)

Reply to: bawdy
Sixth Sense, a good movie. Would you believe I never caught on, until the end, that Bruce Willis was already dead?

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posted by: PastorDave (reply)
post date: 05.27.08 (7:11 pm)

Reply to: Barbara
Begrudgingly I must admit that often you surprise me with how very smart you are. The sound on my tv is a bit tinny, so I never caught on to the "Swing Away" element. And I totally missed the water thing. So, seems you may be implying, the return to faith is based upon a series of miracles and not just a singular matter? Plausible.

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posted by: PastorDave (reply)
post date: 05.27.08 (7:14 pm)

Reply to: toztee
I'll be using some of this as appropriate illustration as I teach or preach. Tonight as I led my Bible Study for a group of Hispanics, I asked if any of them had seen the movie Signs? Then I asked about Mel Gibson, and got the same blank stares. then, one little lady said she like Leonardo DiCaprio. So, I guess my illustrations about this movie would be wasted on this particular audience?

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posted by: PastorDave (reply)
post date: 05.27.08 (7:21 pm)

Reply to: kgurl1166
Do you think so? There is something good to come out of every experience of life? I'd like to think so. I want to think so. It seems, in places, the Bible moves in this direction.

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posted by: fractalmom (reply)
post date: 05.28.08 (5:50 am)

Reply to: PastorDave

hmmm. Now, the journey of 'faith' can be a long and treacherous one. I think that many people have a deep faith, but not very deep sometimes, reality of faith? I don't know if that is a good way to put it.

I always had faith. But there were times I convinced myself that I didn't believe in God. I realize there is a dichotomy there.

The faith was still there, but the intellect took over? Does that make sense.

Then, when the intellect eventually failed, all that was left was my faith. That's when God stepped in and said "See, I have been there all along, watching over you, showing you what I wanted you to do, while you blithely ignored Me every single step of the way...but, I still love you and I am still here for you."

That is what happened to me, and I believe that is what was portrayed in the movie.

And, THAT particular story is sprinkled in just about every single chapter in the Bible.

So, I don't think the author of that script, or me are the only ones.

I also think that it is a bit of being on the 'high horse' for you to take the attitude that those who reestablish their faith through something like that, well, it's a bit like saying ...

My God is the ONLY God and MY God is better than YOUR God, and MY faith is purer than YOUR faith, etc. etc.

I am happy that you have never had a temporary misplacement of your faith. But perhaps your faith has not yet been tested to that degree. Perhaps it never will. Mine was, and although my faith was still there, I FAILED the test. Not my faith, my intellect. Fortunately for me, God understood.

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posted by: bawdy (reply)
post date: 05.28.08 (11:45 am)

Reply to: PastorDave

Yes, because that twist surprised me too.

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posted by: Barbara (reply)
post date: 05.28.08 (2:30 pm)

Not just a return to faith, but that God knew in advance that this alien invasion was going to occur and that the one thing that could defeat the aliens was water. He knew the daughter had a water fetish, Gibson's screen brother would be standing next to his bat, and that Gibson would remember his wife's dieing words for her brother-in-law to "swing away". Thus a way to defeat the enemy. And the asthma thing protected the boy. What did you think about "The Village"?

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posted by: PastorDave (reply)
post date: 05.28.08 (5:26 pm)

Reply to: userfriendly
Ah, but this movies is about so much more than entertaining on a surface level. The theme of alien invasion is really the smaller part of the movie. Why the flashbacks? Why the anger toward God? It seems pretty clear there are multi-levels to the movie, which is true to any good work of art.

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posted by: ggirl (reply)
post date: 05.30.08 (11:11 am)

I've definitely been angry with God. Over a period of many years when I was younger. Now, I believe everything is a miracle and I know that I'm not in control of much. Let go and let God. That's what I learned during my breast cancer lesson. It was truly a gift.

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