One of my favorite movies ever is 'Say Anything' with John Cusack. It's a great coming-to-age movie that is filled with great quotes and memorable moments. If you've ever seen anyone hold a radio above their head and play 'In your eyes' by Peter Gabriel, then you know one of these moments. If you don't know that moment... you didn't grow up in the 80's and 90's and should rent the movie.I thought about this movie recently after having several conversations with people at home, work, on the phone, etc about religion and theology. It seems everyone believes something a little different when it comes to the 'things of God'. You all know a lot of my views from these blogs. You also may have picked up on a theme that I really don't think I know that much and I'm not sure I'll ever have it figured out totally.It can be overwhelming when someone asks you 'What do you believe about.....' or 'What are you going to do when.....'. In trying to go through all my doubts, convictions, hypocrisy, dogmas and other musings I usually just wish I could love Jesus and have Him love me. It really seems that it should be that simple, but the world will not allowfor such a relationship. You have to know all the facts; you have to know every Bible verse and all the evidence that supportssuch views. You have to be able to pronounce fancy words and complicated theological theories and philosophies. And God help you if you don't know the difference between a hymn and a chorus.There is a scene in 'Say Anything' that I love. The main character, Lloyd Dobbler is meeting his girlfriends father for the first time. Jim, the father, is having several friends over for dinner and they begin to inquire of Lloyd what his goals are in life. Lloyd is obviously 'out of place' in this setting and after making an attempt to placate the questioners, he simply sums up his goal.
ACCOUNTANT: So Lloyd, you graduated Lakeside, right?
LLOYD Yes sir.
ACCOUNTANT What are you going to do now?
JIM Yeah Lloyd. What are your plans for the future?
LLOYD Spend as much time as possible with Diane before she leaves.
JIM Seriously, Lloyd.
LLOYD I'm totally and completely serious.
JIM No, really.
LLOYD You mean like career? Uh, I don't know. I've, I've thought about this quite a bit sir, and I'd have to say considering what's waiting out there for me, I don't want to sell anything, buy anything or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or... process anything sold, bought or processed, or repair anything sold, bought or processed, you know, as a career I don't want to do that. So, uh, my father's in the army, he wants me to join, but I can't work for that corporation, so what I've been doing lately is kickboxing, which is really a, uh, new sport, but I think it's got a good future. As far as career longevity goes, I don't really know, because, you know, you can't really tell. Your training sticks (?) as a fighter, you know, but it's no good, you know, you have to be great, but I can't really tell if I'm great until I've had a couple of pro fights. But I haven't been knocked out yet. (everyone looking confused)I don't know, I can't figure it all out tonight sir, I'm just going to hang with your daughter.
The guests exchange nervous glances.
Why I love this is because this is what too many churches do to 'average people'. As soon as they show interest in their church they begin to bombard them with questions of faith and theology. We want people to have it all 'figured out'. We, in the church, have this idea of what the average churchperson should be like. We think they should have strong opinions of politics, money, abortion, gay marriage, divorce, TV violencedrinking, smoking, etc. We want them to fall in line with our line of thinking and when they don't necessarily fall in that linewe stare at them and wonder why they are so 'strange'.The reality of it is this: most people that believe in Jesus and fall in love with Jesus, at the end of the day, just really only want to 'hang with Jesus'. It's not a bad philosophy really. We can get way to bogged down in each of our denominations 'key talking points'. The Catholics have confession and communion. The Baptists have water Baptism.The Calvinists have 'Election'. And we Quakers have our peace and 'quiet time'. I'm not talking down to any of those beliefs. I'm just saying that when faced with so many different options in the Christian faith and so many different ideas within each of those denominations and faiths, I usually just want to say, 'you know, I can't figure it all out tonight sir, I'm just going to hang with Jesus'.
