on Transformers

I saw transformers last night. Midnight showing.
It was exactly what I expected, and exactly what I wanted to see- a highly produced action movie full of alien robots and lots of explosions.

But here's the deal.
For that 2 and a half hours in the wee morning, I was completely engaged in the movie.
Halfway through, I caught myself thinking, "i don't want this movie to end.. ever."
And then it ended.
And I got up slowly from my seat and trudged wearily out of the theater.
And then I went home.

This morning, during the ride to work, here's what i started thinking about.

Even though I was incredibly tired from the long night of watching Transformers, I was completely "pumped up". I had difficulty falling asleep because I was still thinking about the movie. It had seeped into my mind.
And I realized one of the reasons i felt so empty immediately after the movie ended: because I had become so engrossed in the film, when It ended, I suddenly had to return to reality.
Reality, which is so much less awesome than the fictional world of transformers.
There are no massive alien robots fighting a war on our planet.
There is no Shia LaBeouf to save the world.
There is no ancient mystical "energy" that holds the universe together.


Micheal Bay and his contemporaries have figured out how to tap into our heads.
He can make a movie that engrosses us, makes us feel a part of the action.
And movies like that sell. We consider such movies "good movies".


50 years ago, movies didn't have to be that good.
Most young people don't like to watch anything made before the 90s.
Why?
Because production budgets weren't what they are now.
60 years ago, nobody spent 80 million to make a movie.
It seems like a natural thing that movies would get better and better.
But how come we don't like old movies anymore?

Here's what I think.
I don't think that it has anything to do with getting "used to" the highly produced nature of modern films. I think we need it.
We need movies to "move" us.
we need movies to make us feel there.
we need something to get us riled up and want to get out and do something.


because real life is boring.


that's what i think.
As our society gets more advanced, we don't spend time on tasks like we used to.
Washing clothes and the dishes is now a matter of loading and unloading a machine.
Getting somewhere is a matter of driving or flying there.
Communicating is as efficient as typing.
Re-connecting with old friends is a facebook search.

we've removed all of the adventure from life.
and we've created a longing for a cause.

that's why people play video games.
they don't just need a way to kill time.
they need to be a part of something.
That's why people spend months of their life dedicated to participating in advertising campaigns.


but here's the problem.
life isn't boring.

if people lived lives that glorified God and strived to be more like Him every day, they wouldn't find themselves needing "something more".


Here's what I think.
If someone created a movie half as good as Transformers about reality, as it really is, as it should be, no one would leave the theater feeling bummed out. They would want to participate. If only a few people put as much energy into Reality as they did into viral ad campaigns, there would be no world hunger problem. There would be no economy collapse. There would be no poverty.
Just the Love of God showing through people's lives.

On Questions that Aren't Really that Difficult to Answer

I was going to post a blog today attempting to recap a stream of consciousness i had last night about reality.
then i opened a bible and the first passage i started reading caused me to change that plan.
Reading the bible has a funny way of messing with your thinking.
in a good way.

Anyway, the passage is Mark 8, 1-10.
It's where Jesus feeds 4,000 men along with women and children, off of seven loaves of bread and a few small fish.
It's a familiar story to anyone who grow up in church or has spent time in or around a church for any time- a simple message of faith, right?
Just believe in it and God can feed thousands of people off of nothing.

And as I was reading that, here's what I was thinking, in chronological order:
1: "God can do anything"
2: "God could feed all of the starving people all over the world with zero effort"
3: "Maybe the reason He doesn't is because of a lack of faith."
4: "No way. Millions of people have faith in God and pray for hungry children every day"

And I realized that this is one of the common traps that nonchristians try to spring to see if a christian really knows what he's talking about: "If God's so good, why are people dying from hunger?"

And you know, usually you consider that one of those "really difficult questions", the kind that you sometimes have to admit that no one really knows and the best we can do is pray.

And then I kept reading from that passage.
Mark 8:11-13 goes as follows:
"The Pharisees [religious leaders] came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven. He signed deeply and said, 'Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it.' Then he left them, got back into the boat and crossed to the other side."

This passage follows immediately after he fed north of 4,000 people.

a) that's quite a bit of a miraculous sign.
b) Jesus answered the "difficult question" right after I thought about it.

It's there in writing.
We complain about how God isn't feeding a few million people.
Quite frankly, we should be doing something (more) about it.
Rather than tell God we want to see him do something spectacular, we should be thinking of ways to solve the problem.
Remember, it was the disciples who physically handed the food to the crowds.

So why doesn't God feed all the starving people in the world?
I'm sure he wants to.
But he can't just come down and throw food at them, because our generation just wants a miraculous sign. He's telling us to start breaking our own bread and to give it to others.