Soundtrack/Backpack

All of the blog posts have a "soundtrack" listed. I firmly believe we feel things more deeply when we associate a thought or experience to a song. I pray the Spirit will use my words and these songs to draw you in deeper into the love and grace of the Triune God!

Some posts have a "backpack" item. Simply, these are books that I would suggest for further reading on a given topic.

12/01/2012

Forrest Gump Faith


Dedicated to Wompi J, and Do-Dah; the lovely ladies who used to call me Bean.  

Forrest Gump released the summer between my freshman and sophomore years of high school.  I consider it to be one of the most culturally influential movies of the last 30 years and personally influential movies of my life.   In high school some friends and I even took to calling ourselves the "Gumpisms."  When we hung out we usually watched Forest Gump, drank Mello Yellow, and I remember there being a lot of pixie sticks.  At this vantage point I mostly remember the laughter and the great friendships we formed.  Needless to say between this peculiar relationship and the TBSing of movies, I have watched Forest Gump dozens of times.  I believe that good culture both reflects and challenges society; sadly very few movies ever reach this high bar.  Forest Gump achieved this and so much more.  I could probably write a whole book using truth in Forest Gump to espouse theological truth.  However, today I am considering the theology of Forest Gump the character and his understanding of what happened to Jenny as a little girl.  

The significant relationship between Jenny and Forest dominates the plot, and Jenny's abusive relationship with her father informs her understanding of men, life, trust, self and even her value system.  Eric Roth and Robert Zemeckis manage to explore this dynamic without exposing the audience to the abuse itself.  Three of the more emotional moments are foundational to this exploration.  Early in the movie we see Jenny and Forest run into the field as her father drunkenly hunts her down.  Jenny's prayer is haunting and profound, "Dear God, make me a bird so I can fly far, far far away from here."  

One afternoon after Jenny comes home she and Forrest go for a walk.  When they happen upon her childhood home and she is confronted with hell on earth, her personal demons appear across her face in a mixture of disgust, anger, and bit of a protective instinct for her inner child as she stands looking at the setting of her childhood horrors.  She begins to throw her shoes and then rocks at the house because that is all she can do.  Forrest appears seemingly helpless, but complicit in allowing her to feel her feelings.  When she falls down in the complexity her pain, he simply says, “Sometimes I guess there just aren’t enough rocks.”    

Toward the end of the movie movie Forrest stands at Jenny's grave and narrates the events following her death.  He tells her that he had her father's house bulldozed to the ground, and the audience sees him standing there watching as it crumbles, as fragile as Jenny must have felt on the inside.  We understand what Forest must have pondered.  I could argue that this brief moment is one of the most emotionally complicated moments ever portrayed on film.  

Forrest takes action for the one he loves. As a person with special needs, we can assume that he doesn't fully comprehend why or how Jenny's father hurt her.  He knows that he loved this woman; he knows she experienced deep pain; and he needs to do something tangible to protest the abuse.  She deserves to be avenged.  He is literally moved to act out of emotion with only a simplistic understanding of the circumstances.   Isn’t that what it means to be faithful?  Knowing there is more happening than we understand, being compelled by the emotion present in the situation, and finding ourselves moved to action out of an intense need to participate in making outcome right?  

I often wonder whether simple faith is legitimate faith.   I have a difficult time taking things at face value, and that makes me hesitant to believe that some people are capable of doing so.   But instead of debating who deserves what kind of health care, or what requirements a person must meet to obtain food stamps and the steps they should take in order to leave assistance, shouldn’t we do something for the hungry, for the sick, the mourning, the tired, the weary, the scared, the lonely...the lost?  How often are we distracted away from kingdom work in which God calls us by debating the circumstances around the situation.  What if we simply acted more out of love and compassion?  What would our world look like?  

I confess this question about simple faith originates in the place that houses my arrogantly analytical faith.  I want to think that I am better than they are.  But I am compelled to recognize (because I’m wasting all this time contemplating it) that there is room for both.  Both are indeed legitimate, and neither is necessarily better than the other.  I think the Church needs both to be healthy.  Even with the knowledge and insight I have been lucky enough to receive, sometimes it feels like I’m just holding a handful of dirt and thinking I understand what it means to be a mountain.

I know I will always fall on the side of Paul at Mars Hill: interested to make sense of God Almighty in both the intellectual landscape and cultural context in which I live.  And I will always be like Jacob needing to engage Truth in a wrestling match.   But what if I didn’t need to try to understand every facet of theology for myself?  

Forrest does the very thing Jenny needed out of his naive understanding.  It was sacred; fraught with meaning, meaning that was lost on the one doing it.   Dare I say it was sacramental?  Did he do something more valuable out of his ignorant but earnest understanding?  What weight should we give emotion in our faith?  When do we give reason too much authority?  I can’t help but wonder, if given the opportunity, was Jenny strong enough to have pushed the house over?  Do we complicate and thus prevent ourselves from doing the most righteous things by paying too much attention to the details?   Don't you already know God's heart for the world?  If you don't, it's simple.  He grieves for our brokenness.  He is constantly crying out for reconciliation and Kingdom Come in all situations.  How can you participate in that?   

I’m not saying we need to check our minds at the door.  I could never say that. 

But, no matter how brilliant you are; may you never forget that you’re just holding a clump of dirt.  

Soundtrack:  Famous One, Chris Tomlin; Against the Wind, Bob Seager and the Silver City Bullet

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