What a powerful story of some of the largest dialectics of life. I highly recommend this one. Thanks, Blake, for inviting me to watch it.
Part of what is good about the movie, is that it is provoking. I'm still rolling it around in my mind. I think it has affected me personally, in some of the ways that it did for Jackson's character. It makes you ask questions...about your point-of-view in life and why you have reached the conclusions you have.
Here are some of my reactions, as I wrestle through what I believe:
If God is not personal, then He is largely just an idea…just another explanation of things, and there are many of those. All you can do then, is pick one...or try not to. But, even that is usually picking one.
But, when we get personal with God or when He gets personal with us, God just as an idea evaporates. He becomes very real…because He becomes very personal. And, this 'personalization' often happens through the pain of this world. Not an abstract pain, but a personal one.
Both characters obviously knew some of the pains of life. But, that was about it; from there, they took really different paths.
This is what struck me about ‘the professor’: We never really got the (personal) details of his experience. We were only confronted with his conclusions in theory form, not in personal form. And, we weren’t drawn to him because of the lack of personal nature of his conclusions (though they were obviously personal to him). He kept those things hidden (even when invited over and over to reveal them), perhaps as much from himself as from us. This is also what was drawing about Jackson’s character. …we could see the personal part of his story. It was clear to him and to us; where he ended up, what he needed, why he turned to what he did...and in sharp contrast to Jones’ character.
I've said before, and it seems true again:
God isn't personal, until He's personal.
Until that happens, He is largely an idea...capable of indifference and rejection, just like every other 'idea'.
