I am a pretty big Will Smith fan. He has certainly succeeded in transitioning from kid-rapper to family TV show star to the silver screen. So when I saw the previews for his latest project with son Jaden I was excited. And the movie based-on the true rags-to-riches story of Chris Gardner was no disappointment.
It was an inspiring story of perseverance, hope and hard work in the face of seemingly never-ending obstacles. The moral I picked up was…if you work hard enough long enough you can make your way out of the pit. It is a story that embodies the American Dream.
But don’t mistake the American Dream for the Christian story. For if you think that message of the bible is …if you work hard enough long enough you can make your way out of the pit… then you are mistaken. That is certainly a religious mindset but it is not the way of Jesus.
and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. Psalm 50:15
The Christian message is that man is spiritually paralyzed and is completely incapable to climb out of the pit that we are in. Our only course of action is to cry out for mercy, for help, for God to throw us a rope and to lift us out of our despair. We need resue. But we can’t only He can. And when we have been delivered we overflow in joy and give him
When delivered we find happyness and joy that we were incapable of even considering while in the pit. Our joy is rooted in the One who has delivered us and done something for us that we could not do for ourselves. He makes us happy.
God’s greatest interest is to glorify the wealth of His grace by making sinners happy in Him. –John Piper
No comments:
Post a Comment