With football season starting up, I thought it would be appropriate to examine two of the best football movies: Remember the Titans and Friday Night Lights. In both films the head coach challenged his team with being perfect. I want to take a couple minutes and consider both of these speeches and tease out the good and the bad (not that fictional coaches from 20 years ago need my constructive criticism).

Remember the Titans

Remember the Titans takes place in 1972, when schools in the south were forced to racially integrate. The movie follows the T.C. Williams Titans, coached by Herman Boone. Coach Boone is a no-nonsense, my-way-or-the-highway type of coach. When addressing his team before practices began he said, “We will be perfect in every aspect of the game. You drop a pass, you run a mile. Miss a blocking assignment, you run a mile. You fumble the football, I will break my foot off in your John Brown hind parts! And then you will run a mile. Perfection! Let’s go to work.”

Coach Boone has high standards and he wants his team to keep reaching for that next level of excellence, which is a good thing. However, the way he delivers his message could have the opposite effect. If he demands perfection, players might be hesitant to take risks for fear of failing. Maybe the quarterback doesn’t try to squeeze the ball through a tight window and risk an interception. Maybe a defender doesn’t use a certain move in case the ball-carrier breaks their contain.

Another critique I have is that mistakes will always happen and I can’t think of a worse teaching method than running a mile. Running a mile in no ways helps train for football since it doesn’t prime fast twitch muscles. While running the player loses 6-10 minutes of time that they could have used to learn from their mistakes. What happens when a great offensive player goes against a great defensive player? They will probably both win just as much as they lose. At what point would they have to run? If he is set on demanding perfection, he needs to be specific about what he means by perfection. I would also recommend picking a punishment that actually addresses the mistake. I’m thinking something like ‘paint the fence’ or ‘sand the floor,’ something that is physically exhausting, but teaches muscle memory to perform the task correctly the next time.

In the championship game, Coach Boone seems to change his message. He said, “We’re in a fight. You boys are doing all that you can do. Anybody can see that. Win or lose, we’re gonna walk out of that stadium tonight with our heads held high. Do your best. That’s all anybody can ask for.” Surprisingly, a leader on the team pushed back against this. He acknowledges the he isn’t perfect and will never be perfect, but because the team has won every game, collectively they are perfect and he intends to keep it that way. I wonder what it means to give more than your best? Sometimes you can do everything in your power and at the end of the day the other team is just better. There is no shame in that.

Friday Night Lights

Coach Gary Gaines delivers a similar message about being perfect at the start of the season to his Permian Panthers. He tells his team, “It’s a good day to think about responsibility. It’s a good day to ask yourself if, on a personal level, you’re willing to accept the responsibility that you have to protect this team and this school and this town. And make no mistake about it, gentlemen. We are in the business of protecting this town. We’re in the business of winning. The expectations couldn’t be any higher. We will win state. We will win state. Can you be perfect?”

Coach Gaines seems to define perfection as winning state and, in doing so, they will protect the team, school, and town. One wonders why the responsibility to protect the town should fall on the shoulders of 15-17 year-olds? or how winning football games protects the town in any meaningful way?

Similar to Coach Boone, Coach Gaines changes his message about what it means to be perfect during halftime of the championship game. He says, “Now, ya’ll have known me for awhile, and for a long time now you’ve been hearin’ me talk about being perfect. Well I want you to understand somethin’. To me, being perfect is not about that scoreboard out there. It’s not about winning. It’s about you and your relationship to yourself and your family and your friends. Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didn’t let them down, because you told them the truth. And that truth is that you did everything that you could. There wasn’t one more thing that you could’ve done. Can you live in that moment, as best you can, with clear eyes and love in your heart? With joy in your heart? If you can do that gentlemen, then you’re perfect.”

I really love this explanation and fully agree with it. Telling the truth, doing your best, and being filled with love and joy is a beautiful way to live life. My main qualm is that he didn’t explain what he meant by perfect from day one (I guess that would take away from the dramatic effect at the end, huh?).

What Does Perfection Mean?

There are a couple different ways to think about perfection. One way is to think about perfection as an absence of errors. A perfect season is a season with no losses. A perfect game is when the pitcher gets out every batter. A perfect fit is when an item of clothing contours to your body just right. This definition of perfect speaks to being all that one can be. This seems to be the perfection that Coach Boone demanded. Living a sinless life or a lamb without spot or blemish would fit this definition of perfection.

We can also think about perfection as living out the fullness of who you are. A synonym for this definition is integrity. “Integrity” is related to “integer” meaning a positive or negative whole number. There are no fractions or decimals with integers. They are all in, whether positive or negative. This is the type of perfection Coach Gaines talks about. Were you honest? Did you do everything you possibly could? If so, you are whole. You are perfect. That doesn’t mean that you played perfectly, but that you honestly gave it your best effort. Being honest when you sin would fit this definition of perfection.

As humans we are constantly divided. We want to be healthy and we also want to eat McDonalds. We want to be productive and we also want to binge Netflix. We want to enjoy rich community and we don’t want to put ourselves in situations where others can hurt us. We want to pursue God and we also want to pursue the things of the world. Given our divided nature, what does Jesus mean when he commands, “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48)?

How is God Perfect?

God embodies both definitions of perfection discussed above. He is without sin or blemish, and he is wholly who he says he is. He both speaks the truth and is the truth (John 14:6). You don’t have to look very hard to see that even the best people have sin in their lives and aren’t all that they could be. Even to consider the question of what is the best possible version of yourself gets overwhelming because it seems so unreachable.

Hymn writer John Newton once said, “I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.” I think this is a good way to think about perfection. He is honest about his shortcomings, acknowledges that one day he will experience a radical transformation, yet he also celebrates the good things that God has already done in his life.

It seems to me that the only way to be perfect in this life is to admit where you fall short, learn from it, then aim upward. This is what it means to live a life of repentance. Tell the truth. Do your best. Push yourself to new heights. Trust that one day Jesus will return. On that day you will be everything you ever imagined. You will be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.

P.S. A Brief Greek Nerd Sesh

The Greek word for “perfect” as an adjective is τέλειος, and it is used 19 times in the New Testament. It can mean “mature” (1 Cor 2:6, 14:20, Eph 4:13, Phil 3:15, Col 1:28, 4:12, Heb 5:14, Jam 1:4, and 3:2). It describes God’s will (Rom 12:2), God’s tabernacle (Christ in this context) (Heb 9:11), gifts from above (Jam 1:17), law of freedom (Jam 1:25), and love that drives out fear (1 John 4:18).

James 1:4 states, “Let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature (τέλειοι) and complete (ὁλόκληροι), lacking nothing.”

First Corinthians 13:10 states, “When the perfect (or completeness) comes, the partial will come to an end.” This seems to describe the time when Jesus comes back and restores everything that is broken. We see him in part now, but one day we will see him face to face.

In Matthew 19:20-21 a wealthy young man asks Jesus, “What do I still lack?” Jesus tells the man, “If you want to be perfect (τέλειος), go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” In this context, being perfect is the opposite of lacking. The rich man had great wealth, but was empty on the inside. He yearned for eternal life (God has put eternity in our hearts, after all), but the cost was too high for him.

“Perfect” can also be a verb (24 times in the New Testament)- τελειόω. It is often used to mean “finished” or “completed.” For example, “After those days were over . . .” (Luke 2:43), and “I have glorified you on earth by completing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4). There are other examples in Hebrews when it could be translated “completed” or “perfected” (Heb 2:10, 5:9, 7:19, 7:28, 9:9, 10:1, 10:14, 11:40, 12:23). In many of the Hebrews verses, the author seems to have glorification in mind. If Jesus was already perfect, how could it say that he “has been perfected forever” (7:28)?

Both come from the word ‘τέλος’ which means the end, purpose, goal, or consummation. A τέλος is the bullseye of one’s life, the hoop you are shooting at. The more that your τέλος lines up with who God created you to be, the closer you are to perfection.

My wife and I recently watched Forrest Gump. Since I had seen the film many times I was paying close attention to the relationship between Forrest and Jenny this time around. A friend of mine argues that Jenny is the worst character in movie history, and I think he makes some valid points. She led Forrest on. She constantly abandoned him for guys who used and abused her. She only came back to him when she felt like she had nowhere else to go, rejected his marriage proposal, had sex with him and left the next morning before he woke up. A few years after this Jenny invited Forrest to visit and said, “I want to apologize for anything that I ever did to you, cause I was messed up for a long time, and . . . ” This half apology was right before shattering his universe by telling him that he had a son. She then asked Forrest to marry her mere months before dying of AIDs, resulting in Forrest raising their child alone. In so many ways, Jenny is just the worst. But I think the love story between Forrest and Jenny closely parallels another love story: the one between Christ and his church.

A Brief Defense of Jenny

I’m not condoning or excusing any of Jenny’s behavior, but if we consider her past, her future makes sense. In Jenny’s experience, all love with men had a sexual component to it. She learned from her father that she was only desirable as a sex object. There was no warmth, kindness, or safety from the man who was supposed to give that to her. It’s no wonder that she kept picking the wrong guy and felt undeserving of Forrest’s love for her. I imagine that it was uncomfortable for her that Forrest saw her as perfect when she was filled with shame and self-hatred (to the point of contemplating suicide). None of this justifies how she treated Forrest, but maybe we can show her kindness as we critique.

Forrest’s Love for Jenny

Forrest’s love for Jenny is both beautiful and heartbreaking. Their friendship started when Jenny showed kindness to him when others were cruel. She looked past his simple mind and the braces on his legs to see a good heart and a true friend. Forrest was a safe place for Jenny to get away from her sexually abusive father. Forrest and Jenny were like “peas and carrots” until they went to college. Then things got complicated. Forrest and Jenny had one intimate encounter that ended . . . abruptly. Jenny then had various relationships with men, worked as a nude model/stripper, then traveled around the country getting high sleeping around with various partners.

Forrest, on the other hand, protected Jenny from abusive men, thought about her constantly, wrote her dozens of letters that all went unread. He even named his shrimp boats after her. When Jenny showed up at Forrest’s house out of the blue, he took care of her, picked flowers for her, and was a wonderful host. To Forrest, Jenny was perfect. He didn’t see her as damaged goods at all. Jenny once asked him, “Why are you so good to me?” To which Forrest simply responded, “You’re my girl.”

As cynical adults we might look at Forrest and Jenny and conclude that Forrest didn’t have the intelligence to understand that Jenny was taking advantage of him and that he was worth being in a relationship with somebody who reciprocated his feelings and the effort he put in. We might even say that Jenny is toxic and he should have cut her out of his life for good. However, I wonder if we struggle to understand Forrest because his love looks more like God’s love than human love?

Love Like Christ

Romans 5:6-8 says, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” While we were weak and powerless, Christ died for us. Like Jenny, we run after idols, lovers who promise us the world only to leave us feeling empty. God promises that there is abundant joy and eternal pleasures in his presence (Psalm 16:11), yet we constantly turn our backs on him.

Sometimes, like Jenny, I ask God, “Why are you so good to me? You know where I’ve been and all that I’ve done. You see the depths of my heart and soul and still you pursue me and give me good things? Why?”

“Because you are mine. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is my faithful love for you. As far as the east is from the west is how far I removed your transgressions. What can separate you from my love? Neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing can separate you from my love. I don’t see you as trash but as glorious.”

Forrest was Jenny’s faithful protector. Quick to forgive and overflowing with love for her, even when it wasn’t reciprocated. He never asked Jenny for anything except her presence. That love looks a lot like God’s.

Sally Lloyd Jones writes in the Jesus Storybook Bible, “You see no matter what, in spite of everything, God would love his children with a Never-Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love. And though they would forget him, and run from Him, deep in their hearts God’s children would miss Him always, and long for Him — lost children yearning for their home.”

Jenny didn’t know it at the time, but in all of her travels and searching, she was really looking for Forrest’s unconditional love. You might not know it, but in all of your striving and searching, you are really looking for the unconditional love of Christ. Everyone and everything else will let you down, but Jesus never will. Don’t feel ashamed. Just come home.

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Friday Night Lights is one of the best football movies ever made. It is a story about a high school football team in west Texas, the pressures and expectations to win the state championship, and the highs and lows they experience throughout the season. At the center of the team is all-star running back, Boobie Miles.

Boobie is the definition of the total package. He’s fast, strong, and agile, and can block, catch and throw. At the beginning of the film we see every major Division I football program wants him. He is cocky, but has the skills to back it up. When asked about his grades he says that he is a straight A student, because the only subject is football. The team and the whole town put their hopes on Boobie to win the state championship. The stars seem to align. Then the unthinkable happens . . .

Boobie injures his knee in the first game of the season.

Boobie then watches from the sidelines, first as his team struggles and then thrive under the excellent gameplay of Sophomore running back, Chris Comer. Throughout this time Boobie downplays his injury, insisting that he will be back in action in a couple weeks, that him sitting out is precautionary. Which brings us to the clip below. Boobie gets his knee checked out be a specialist. However, the hospital is located in his rival town the week they play each other.

When the doctor tells Boobie that he can’t play because of the damage done to his knee, he becomes indignant. He doesn’t trust that the doctor is being honest with him, rather he believes that the doctor is trying to keep him from playing so that Midland will win the football game. He accuses the doctor of trying to take is football career.

What happens next is predictable. Boobie told the coach that the doctor cleared him, gets put in the game, and injures his knee worse than before. This next clip shows Boobie when it is official that he will never play high school football again.

Boobie starts the scene with the same swagger he always had with his teammates. He cleans out his locker as his teammates look on with sadness, disbelief, and pity. A look that communicates “You were the best of us. This shouldn’t have happened to you. I don’t know if we can do this without you.” Boobie gives them one last encouragement and swaggers out of the locker room.

Once Boobie is in the safe presence of his uncle his true heart come out. He sobs heart-wrenching sobs, “What am I gonna do now? I can’t do nothin’ else but play football.” All the work he put in, wasted. All his dreams of making it to the pros and buying his uncle a house, shattered.

Anger and Grief are Windows to our Heart

Nobody ever told Boobie that he was more than a football player. His entire identity revolved around his performance on the field. Football was his purpose, his passion, and his hope for a future. In short, football was his god. He never considered that his god would let him down, so he never developed other interests or became a well-rounded human being. Boobie’s emotional reactions show us how much being a football player meant to him.

God gave us emotions for a reason. Our emotions reveal what is important to us. They reveal what we love. Anger is the feeling connected to what we perceive to be unjust, a wrong done, or something not being as it should. It can also be a response to fear. Boobie was angry at the doctor because he believed the doctor was unfairly keeping him from doing what he loved. Grief is what we feel when we lose something or someone important. For Boobie, he lost his football career and the potential to use football to have a better financial future. It is not sinful to feel these things. There are many examples in the Gospels where Jesus wept or expressed anger and he lived a sinless life.

As fallen people, our issue is not that we feel strongly, but that we feel strongly about the wrong things. Saint Augustine taught that the essence of sin was having disordered loves. We are meant to love God first then love others. Our love and desire for other things should come after these. Here is an example from my life.

There are times when my 3-month old son won’t stop crying and, depending on my patience level, I will either feel sad or angry. When I feel sad, I am responding with empathy. I hurt that he is hurting. When my response is anger, I feel like he is wronging me by not letting me have some peace and quiet. In the moment, my desire for peace and comfort is greater than my desire to love and empathize with my son. My loves get out of order. (This isn’t me beating myself up. I know God has grace especially for sleep-deprived parents.)

Boobie was not wrong to love football and I am not wrong for enjoying comfort. Both are gifts from God that he gives for us to enjoy. The problem comes when we allow the gifts to become the most important thing in our life. I thank God that Jesus died for my disordered loves and the harm they cause me and others. It is a lifelong struggle to reorder our loves to put God in first place. But he gives grace for when we fall short, and power and wisdom through his Spirit to love what we ought as we ought.

I encourage you is to pay attention when you have a strong emotional reaction. What did you feel? What happened that made you feel that way? What did you desire in that moment? Is that desire properly ordered? How might God be trying to get your attention in the midst of this?

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“Now physical beauty, to be sure, is a good created by God, but it is a temporal good, very low in the scale of goods; and if it is loved in preference to God, the eternal, internal, and sempiternal Good, that love is as wrong as the miser’s love for gold, with the abandonment of justice, though the fault is in the man, not in the gold. This is true of everything created; though it is good, it can be loved in the right way or in the wrong way – in the right way, that is, when the proper order is kept, in the wrong way when that order is upset.”

City of God, XV.22

In order to get into the Olympic spirit, I watched Cool Runnings last weekend. If you haven’t seen it, it is a hilarious movie about the first Jamaican bobsled team. It depicts how they learn a new sport, enter a new world, and strive to compete as equals as four black men in an all white sport.

In the two-minute clip below, the captain of the team asks his coach why he cheated as a competitor, thus costing himself and his team two gold medals. (He asks around the 30 second mark).

Coach responds, “I had to win. You see, I’d made winning my whole life. And when you make winning your whole life, you have to keep on winning. No matter what.”

He then concludes with a beautiful quote, “A gold medal is a wonderful thing. But if you’re not enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it.”

Being a winner and a gold medalist gave Coach Irving Blitzer a sense of meaning and identity. The idea of living as a “loser” was so unthinkable for Irv that he dishonored the sanctity of Olympic competition by cheating. For Irv, winning was his god. And his god required him to sacrifice his morals and integrity.

Making a good thing an ultimate thing is the definition of idolatry, and every human is prone to make idols out of good things. In the quote above you could replace “gold medal” with just about anything and it would hold true:

“A spouse is a wonderful thing. But if you’re not enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it.”

“A house is a wonderful thing. But if you’re not enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it.”

“Wealth is a wonderful thing. But if you’re not enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it.”

“A degree is a wonderful thing. But if you’re not enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it.”

“Relaxation is a wonderful thing. But if you’re not enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it.”

When we look to something or someone other than God to be our purpose and identity, we will be disappointed. We will compromise on what is truly important to attain that which is less important. Majoring in the minors, so to speak. We see examples of this in parents who spend so much time at work to provide for their family that they end up neglecting those they love most. Again, hard work and providing for your family are good and God-honoring things, but when work keeps you from doing what God has called you to do toward your loved ones, then it might be becoming an idol.

“How Will I know If I’m Enough?”

Derice concludes the video clip with a question I believe is in the back of everyone’s mind, “How will I know if I’m enough?” For me, this question loomed under the surface for a lot of my life. Did getting straight A’s make me enough? Being successful in sports? Having a significant other? Getting a Master’s degree? Fitting in and being liked by others? Being a ‘good Christian’? All of these things were based on my performance, and all of them left me feeling insecure (whether I was succeeding or not). Thankfully, God offers a better way.

The basic premise of the Christian faith is that humans are not and will never be enough. We are selfish, self-promoting, and limited in our capacity to do the right thing for the right reasons. In spite of this, God the Father sent Jesus to live a perfect life that we could not live, to die on the cross to pay the penalty for our wrong living, and to rise from the dead in power. If you turn from sin to believe in Jesus, your performance no longer defines you. God sees all of your flaws and still loves you to the point of dying for you. If he accepted us then, how could he not accept us now?

Christ is enough, so I don’t have to be.

As I grow in self awareness I am realizing that I often desire to play the role of hero or savior. I like to think of myself as “the good guy” or the one in the right. I like being helpful, the one people can depend on. The one who cares and whose absence is felt by others. I get defensive in conflict because I think, “Why can’t they see and appreciate my good intentions and why can’t they see how right I am?” I can overlook and minimize my own sinfulness and weaknesses to fit this hero narrative I create in my head.  Surely, I’m never at fault! I like to think I am the Batman of my life. But that is not the role God has for me. For the sake of this analogy, Jesus is the Batman. He is the one with the power to fight injustice and be the hero. He is the only one who is always in the right. He is the only one who can save. So what roles do I play?

The Nemesis

This one is hard for most people to believe. In our Western frame of mind, most people would say that they are generally a good person who does more good than harm. A nice person. “I mean, I do some bad things, but no one is perfect. It’s not like I’ve ever killed anybody.” However, this isn’t the message the Bible presents. Romans 5:10 says, “If, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son . . .” Ephesians 2 says that we are all by nature children under God’s wrath because of our wicked actions and thought patterns. Jesus said in an offhanded comment, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things” (Matthew 7:11).  And Jesus in a parable said, “Bring here these enemies of mine who did not want me to rule over them, and slaughter them in my presence” (Luke 19:27). All of these verses communicate that rejection of Jesus as king of our lives makes us his enemy. “Whoever is not with me is against me” (Luke 11:23). Sin in its many expressions is the result of rejecting Jesus as our king.

Sin is a reality for every person. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Sin is our desire to take the place of God. We can express our sin through an attitude of active rebellion or through passive indifference. Our sin separates us from God. Because we are all sinners, we all start out as God’s enemies, and there is no amount of good things we can do to get ourselves back on God’s good side. I know this is a heavy topic and really bad news, but the story doesn’t end here. God has provided a way for us to move from an enemy to his friend.

The One in Need of Rescue

The next step is recognizing our sin and our need to be rescued.  One of the most common descriptions of Jesus is “Savior” (24 occurrences in the New Testament). God “has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. This has now been made evident through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Tim 1:9-10).

One pitfall people fall into when they become aware of their sin is that they will try really hard to not do that sin again and do good things instead. They might fall into a “If I just…” mindset. “If I just go to church enough, if I just pray enough, if I just read my bible more, if I just add more boundaries, then my sin problem will go away and I’ll be right with God.” However, as the verse above states we are saved “not according to our works”, but by the grace of Christ through faith. We can’t be good enough to save ourselves from our sin. Our sin problem was and is so drastic that God sent his beloved Son to be tortured and killed on our behalf. Jesus went to the cross because there was no other way to bring humanity back to God (Mark 14:35-36).

Christians are not the ones who never do bad things, they are the ones who realize that they don’t have the power to save themselves, and trust in Jesus’ righteousness alone. In the picture above, Harvey could have thought, “I’ve been going to the gym a lot, if I just pull hard I can break these bonds.” Or, “I’m really smart, I can for sure figure out a way to stop the bomb from detonating.” However, if it wasn’t for Batman, Harvey and Rachel would have shared the same fate. Like Harvey, we need a Savior to rescue us from fiery  destruction. We are unable to save ourselves.

The Side-kick

Trinity City Church’s shortened mission statement is “Joining God in the renewal of our city and world.” It is mind-blowing to me that the all-powerful sovereign God who created the whole universe uses sinful, easily distracted, often selfish people to bring about his plan of redemption. In terms of efficiency, it would make a lot more sense for God to do it all himself. Surely God can preach the gospel better, encourage people more holistically, heal and care for people more effectively. Yet, he chooses to use his people, his church, to accomplish his mission: “to reconcile everything to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross– whether things on earth or things in heaven” (Colossians 1:20).

Believers are called God’s co-laborers in his plan of restoration. God empowers his people with his Spirit to do his will. Jesus tells us that those who believe in him will do even greater works than he did (John 14:12), and that it is for our benefit that he leave the earth (John 16:7). These profound statements are true because of the work of the Holy Spirit. Ordinary people do amazing things for God’s kingdom. I’m sure each of you can think of somebody who has had a profound impact on your life. That was the result of God working in and through an ordinary and sinful person for your good.

Think about the dynamic between Batman and Robin. Robin has some natural skills, but is not likely to succeed on his own. Batman has greater wisdom, strength, and gadgets, without which Robin would probably get killed. He is a great helper and side-kick to Batman, but in a lot of ways Batman doesn’t need Robin (he didn’t in the Christopher Nolan movies). In the same way, God doesn’t need us, yet he demonstrates how great he is by doing amazing things through unlikely people. God showed his greatness when he changed the Apostle Paul from somebody who killed Christians into a Christian who would preach Christ even if it meant losing his own life. In his grace, God calls sinful people to make him known and bring restoration to hearts, communities, cities, and the world.

The Imposter

The last stage is when we forget our place and start believing that we can do everything on our own. We start thinking we have everything figured out, and that we don’t need any help. That we don’t have any issues or sins that distort how we do things. We forget that Jesus tells us “You can do nothing without me” (John 15:5). We slowly drift from “Thy kingdom and Thy will be done” to “My kingdom come and my will be done”.

In the scene pictured about, the fake Batman asked, “What gives you the right? What’s the difference between you and me?” To which Batman epicly responds, “I’m not wearing hockey pads.” It was foolish and dangerous for those people to try to be Batman. Not only that, by using guns they were in opposition to Batman’s one rule of not killing people. In trying to be Batman they actually stood in opposition to Batman’s code of ethics. In the same way, it is foolish and dangerous to think of yourself as an all-star Christian who has it all together. When we start trying to be Jesus rather than trying to be more like Jesus, we end up in opposition to God and his plan. Andy Mineo captures this in his song “Superhuman“:

“Even though my pride’s telling me “don’t let the fans know”,
I am not a superhuman though,
I’m a man,
so the grace that I talk about on all my records,
I need it for myself, cause really I’m just a mess.”

Andy has probably impacted millions of people through his music, and with that he recognizes the potential for pride to creep in. God is gracious and calls us to be bold and use the gifts he has given to accomplish his plan. We are made in God’s image to bring forth goodness. At the same time, we are sinners in constant need to turn back to God, and in constant need to grow. My hope is to continue to take bold action for God’s kingdom and glory, while keeping in mind that I’m not as smart or holy as I want others to think. God is calling us to be both humble and courageous. No matter how long you have walked with Christ, you are still a sinner saved by grace, so you can’t boast in yourself. You are also “created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Eph 2:10). The call to live bold and humble seems like a contradiction, but starts to make more sense when we realize he are the Robin of our story, not the Batman.

 

“Hakuna Matata, these two words will solve all of your problems.”- Pumbaa “This is the great life, no rules, no responsibilities, and best of all, no worries.”-Timon.

At the age of 25, I have come to the realization that I have unwittingly become a disciple of Timon and Pumbaa. Their life motto “Hakuna Matata” (meaning “no worries”) is a philosophy that pursues personal pleasure, avoids responsibility, and denies the hurt that one experiences. The song is catchy and the sentiment seems nice, but when we examine it deeper we see how sad this lifestyle really is. I will give examples of how this philosophy falls short in The Lion King, the ways in which I have adopted an ‘hakuna matata’ lifestyle, and why I need a better philosophy for my life.

Timon told a grieving Simba, “When the world turns its back on you, you turn your back on the world.” Simba just experienced a traumatic event. He saw his father killed right before his eyes. He felt the sadness of losing his father. He felt guilty because he thought he was responsible for his father’s death. He felt ashamed to face his tribe. He was afraid because he was all alone in the desert. In the midst of all this pain and trauma, this lion cub is taught “just don’t worry!” “Forget about it.” In order to embrace hakuna matata, Simba lost himself. He was royalty. He had aspiration of being king. He had family, friends, and a kingdom who needed him. He gave all that up to be “happy” and comfortable. Simba needed to process his grief and move to a place of acceptance. Instead he buried the hurt.

And what about Pumbaa? He was lonely. He had no friends because of his stench. His heart longed for companionship (which is how God wired us). He experienced the agony of rejection. He felt ashamed and unloved. Granted, he found a good friend in Timon, but he also had to pretend that the rejection didn’t bother him. I want to be careful here because I know most people are overly concerned with being liked and what people think of them. I know it would behoove many to care less about what others think of you, and care more about what you and God think of you. Why do we sacrifice ourselves to please those who can’t affect our inherent worth? However, the pain of rejection is real. I think it is important to process that pain. In doing so you can understand why their approval can’t satisfy you, rather than pretending you aren’t hurting.

As I write these words I kinda feel like a hypocrite because I follow Timon and Pumbaa’s  teaching all the time. Over the past couple months I have  become increasingly aware that I am out of touch with my emotions. I am capable of empathizing with others and experiencing their feelings, but it is much more difficult for me to feel my own. My personality type is a 9 on the Enneagram, which means my core desire is for inner stability and peace of mind. Essentially, my default setting is to be unaffected by the negativity of the world around me (or inside of me). I rarely let myself feel sad. Not much makes me angry. I don’t get excited about much. I hardly ever miss people. I don’t know the last time I felt genuinely hopeful. When I start to feel painful emotions, I’ll lose myself in a Netflix series, a novel, food, social media, video games, sports, ministry, being successful, etc. Basically anything to numb the pain. Hakuna matata. According to Dr. Chip Dodd, “Whenever you don’t feel, you are blocked from living life to the fullest. Wherever you lack awareness of your heart, no room exists for God.”

The problem is that I try to construct a fake, comfortable world rather than being an active participant in the real world that God created. There is real pain in this world. Terrible injustices. Loss and loneliness. Depression. In an attempt to protect myself from the pain that inevitably comes in this broken world, I cut myself off from my own heart, genuine relationships with others, and, ultimately, with God. But I believe there is a better way.

When God the Father saw the brokenness of this world, thankfully he didn’t say ‘hakuna matata’. (What type of God would be indifferent to wickedness and injustice?) Rather, the bible teaches that Jesus left the comforts of heaven in order to live among hurting, burdened, and sinful people. He experienced loss of loved ones. He felt the pain of the sick, disabled, and rejected. He was misunderstood by his family. He experienced the cruelest form of injustice by being nailed to a cross when he committed no wrong. Jesus went through all of that so that sinful people might have a restored relationship with God through faith. His death and resurrection started the process of reconciling “everything to himself by making peace through the blood of the cross– whether things on earth or things in heaven” (Col 1:20).  Jesus cares deeply about the pains of the world, especially in his Church (1 Pet 5:7). He gave believers his Holy Spirit to empower us to love others truly, care deeply, and hope and rejoice when the world is falling apart around us.

We can either choose the path of love or the path of indifference. Engage the reality of the world, or hakuna matata. Which will you choose?

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”- C.S. Lewis

To learn more about emotions, click here.

Disclaimer- A lot of these thoughts came from the Black Mirror episode “Bandersnatch”.

In most video games the main character has a clear purpose. Mario rescues the princess. Donkey Kong Jr. rescues his father. Ryu is trying to win a world-wide martial arts tournament. But Pacman, if you look at it from his perspective, only has two objectives in life: eat as much as he can and try not to die.

He has no friends. He constantly runs around the same maze, never going anywhere new. He never faces new enemies (although the ghosts do get faster). The only difference he experiences is the food he eats. He is always eating, but is never full. Since he never gets bigger we can only assume that there is no nutritional value in the dots he eats. When he eats he gets points, when he gets enough points he gains an extra life, so that he can keep eating. Maybe he is just trying to have the best score out of anyone who came before him? He also can’t stop moving unless a wall stops him. If we think about Pacman as a character in a story, his existence is pretty sad. I wonder if we are the same as Pacman?

We are constantly consuming  food, Netflix, social media, smart phones, pornography, etc. We are always on the move, rarely taking the time to pause and reflect. We are trying any new health trend to live longer. We work really hard and try to move up the corporate ladder, usually to make enough money to buy bigger and better toys and have bigger and better experiences. We survive to consume and consume to survive.

“All man’s labor is for his stomach, yet the appetite is never satisfied” (Ecclesiastes 6:7). I wonder if Pacman would cry out with the Teacher of Ecclesiastes, “Absolute futility, everything is futile. What does a man gain for all his effort he labors at under the sun? I eat all of these dots, and the board is full at the next level. I increase my achievements and get the new high score, but the ghosts get me in the end whether I’m at level 2 or 20.”

Death is inevitable, whether we get 8 years or 88. There has to be more to life than consuming and surviving. If we don’t know our purpose, we are destined to be the same as Pacman, driven exclusively by our lusts and our fears. Do you have a purpose that is greater than yourself, one that will leave a legacy after you’re gone?

In 1 Corinthians 8:1 Paul says, “Knowledge inflates with pride, but love builds up.” An image that helps me put this verse into perspective is Spongebob Squarepants, or should I say Musclebob Buffpants. In this episode Spongebob purchases inflatable arms to impress people who lift at the beach.

Spongebob is adored by everyone, but there is a problem: he is no stronger than he was before he got the arms. He was all look but no substance.

I was a lot like SpongeBob when I first became a Christian, and am tempted to be that again. I felt a lot of pride in knowing more about God than everybody else. I thought my holiness was based on what I knew. I wanted to show people how “good” of a Christian I was by how well I knew my Bible. The problem was my knowledge didn’t make me love God and people more. I probably looked better than I actually was. And as I’m in grad school learning more about the Bible I have to ask myself, “Am I here to learn a lot and impress people, or am I here to be better equipped to serve the Church and love God more deeply?” If it’s the former I become like SpongeBob, puffing myself up but staying spiritually in the same place. But if it’s the latter, both the Church and my spirit are strengthened.

Consider the Pharisees. They knew more about God’s law than anybody, yet neglected justice, mercy, and faith (Matthew 23:23). Christians, as we strive to know more about God may it not be at the expense of intimately knowing and loving God. As we learn may we not puff ourselves up, thinking we are better because we are aware of theological concepts, but rather strengthen our character and build up the Church as we are conformed to the image of Christ. May God humble us, give us courage to be honest about the state of our hearts, and grant us grace to persevere as we struggle to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Underneath the ridiculousness, slapstick humor, hilarious quotes, the movie Hot Rod actually addresses some deep struggles that I believe all men have. Throughout the movie amateur stuntman Rod Kimble (Andy Samberg) performs/fails ridiculous stunts with his crew. Essentially the plot is Rod doing stunts in order to raise money to fund a huge jump (15 buses.. One more than Evel Knievel jumped, I know cause I checked. Online.) for a heart transplant to save his dying stepdad. However, Rod wants to save Frank in order to beat him in a fight and thus earn Frank’s love and respect, which he cannot do if Frank dies (Maybe he should’ve thought of that before he sucked at being a man all his life). When his step-brother Kevin asks Rod why he has to fight Frank Rod tells him, “You wouldn’t understand, Kevin. He’s your real dad, so he automatically loves you. He’s my stepdad. I have to earn it.” Also, Rod believed his biological father to be a stuntman, so he then does stunts to honor his memory. This movie is all about a young man struggling to become a man and earn the blessing and validation from his stepdad.

Rod’s story reminds me the biblical story of Jacob. Jacob also struggled his whole life for validation of his identity as a man and he did not receive it from his father. Genesis 25 tells us that Isaac loved Jacob’s twin brother Esau because he was a big hairy hunter, while hairless Jacob (“You know I have a hormone disorder!!”) was a quiet man who stayed at home. Isaac’s favoritism for Esau deeply wounded Jacob. Jacob was constantly struggling with Esau, even from birth, for who would be the future leader of the family. Jacob convinced Esau to give up his inheritance for a bowl of soup, and he also tricked Isaac into giving him the blessing meant for Esau. Pastor Tim Keller believes Jacob stole the blessing because “Jacob, even under false pretenses, longed to hear his father say, ‘I delight in you more than anyone else in the world!’ Jacob’s life had been one long wrestling match to get blessing.” (Counterfeit Gods, 158) Since he didn’t have his father’s love Jacob looked for validation in a woman, Rachel. The price for her hand in marriage was 7 years of service, upon which her father deceitfully gave Leah, Rachel’s older sister, to Jacob, and required another 7 years to marry Rachel as well.

The climax of Jacob’s life comes the night before he was to meet Esau and his army. We are told that a man wrestled with Jacob until daybreak. A man so strong that he dislocated Jacob’s hip just by touching it.  Jacob told the man that he would not let him go unless he blessed him. The man told him, “You will no longer be Jacob, it will be Israel because you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.” Jacob then said, “I have seen God face to face and have been delivered.” At some point that night Jacob realized he was wrestling with God, and rather asking him to let go so he doesn’t die, Jacob did the opposite and clung to him. Jacob received a new name. He was no longer defined by his struggle, but by his victory. This reminds me of the final scene in Hot Rod where Rod is fighting Frank and holding him in an armbar saying, “Tell me I’m a man, Frank! Say it!” Frank then smiled at him and said, “You’re a man, son.”

I think in all men there is a desire to hear their father say they are proud of them. We long for validation. We want to know we are enough and have what it takes. I think it is important to receive this validation from our earthly fathers, but ultimately the validation that matters most is from our heavenly father. Hebrews 2:11 says, “For the one who sanctifies (Jesus) and those being sanctified (believers in Jesus) all have one father. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers.” Paul also says that we are co-heirs with Christ because we have the same father. We did not earn this identity. Rather it was given to us through Christ’s death on the cross. He took our sin and gave us his righteousness. So the Father no longer sees our sin on us, it has all been defeated on the cross. Now all he sees is Christ’s holiness. We receive the same blessing the Father gave to Jesus at his baptism, “This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.” Christian, rest in the fact that we don’t have to win a fight to be sons and daughters of God. It’s all by grace.

Here is the final fight scene from Hot Rod 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKxbL8Sh8mU