Missing the Message

A couple of weeks ago, Cathy and I settled in to watch a cheesy Christian movie. Yes, I realize that that may be a redundant statement, but honestly in recent years, the production quality of Christian movies has gone up and many of them are better than they used to be. This, however, was not one of those. It's five or six years old, and its low budget was evident, despite having some "known" actors involved in it.

Anyway, critiquing Christian movies is not my point today. Nor is providing a review (or even the name) of this particular movie. What struck me was the story of the lead actress, who was somewhat known (I had seen her in other things) and whose performance was actually pretty good. One of her storylines in the movie had to do with an alcoholic friend, and in one scene she passionately implores the friend to come to church with her and find a path toward sobriety through Christ. Honestly, that's a story we've seen lived out time and again "in real life" at our church. In the movie, this actress/character was passionate about her faith and how it would help her friend. And, because it's a cheesy Christian movie, the friend did come to church, get saved and baptized and all ended well.

Life, however, isn't often (or usually) that easy. Nor is it that neat.

Often, when I'm watching a movie, I get on IMDB and read the trivia or background details on the movie. In this case, I read that the lead actress had actually died in her forties, not too long after this movie had been made. Her cause of death? Issues related to alcoholism. She drank herself to death. She died from the same disease she spoke so eloquently against in the film.

What that told me is that the film, for her, was just a job. She missed the message. The hope that her character believed in didn't penetrate into her real life, and she lost her life because of it.

Do we get it? Or do we miss it? If we go to church on Sunday, does the message penetrate deeply into our lives? Does it make a difference, all the Scripture and all the songs and all the sermons we hear? Does it change the way we live? Or is it just something we have to do, something for which we "put in our time" but keep at a distance? Does this faith make any difference in the way we live?

Do we get it? Or do we miss it?

Are we willing to let Jesus get his message inside of us?