I remember when my youngest daughter discovered the “Chronicles of Narnia” movies.. They are based on a series of books by C.S. Lewis. It didn’t take her long to understand the symbolism of the Lion representing Jesus and the Witch representing Satan. “Jesus,” she said, “wins over them all.” She was too young at the time to read the books, so the movies had to do. When she was old enough, I encouraged her to read the series. There is a principle that the book is better than the movie. Always. Grudgingly, she read them and agreed. The books were far better than the movies.
You have to read the book
I love the Narnia series. While I enjoyed watching the movies when my daughter was young, I preferred reading the books. Movies are limited by time. They are motivated by box office profits. They can’t paint complete pictures of the stories. The original books, on which the screenplays are based, provide the complete tales. At best, a movie is a summary of a better story.
Life is full of screenwriters who tell us what life should look like. Buy this product and life will be fabulous. Read this book and follow the instructions for a better career. Take this course and you’ll make millions. We’ve all fallen for it at one time or another. The screenwriters want us to pay for the ticket to see the movie. However, if we would read the Book, we’d get all the details.
Made for relevance
Unfortunately, many have fallen for the “relevance” movie sold to Christians. Screenwriters put on display what they think the world needs to see so that the church can “fit in.” To make the message and movement of Christianity “relevant.” We loved the trailer. It came with the promise of extra popcorn. We also get perks if we sign up for the movie app.
Maybe you’ve been watching a movie trailer or even seen the movie itself. And maybe you’ve read excerpts from the Book but the movie sounded amazing. The details of the Real Story have faded a bit in your memory. But the Book is better than the movie. It is far better! Maybe the movie has changed your mind a little bit. It’s made the truths you know fade into the recesses of times past. Perhaps the screenwriter version has become so popular that you find yourself wondering if the Book is worth reading at all.
The Greatest Storyteller and the Greatest Book
Did you know the Best Selling Book of all time (the Bible check the link), obviously written by the Greatest Storyteller of all time, has made His Book available to us for free? Nowadays, a family of four can’t go to the movies for less than $50 (popcorn not included). Still, we find it difficult to read the Book in preference to attending the movies of relevance.
Do the stories we watch today really make us feel better? The compromise, the belief that God’s standards are somehow “out of date” or “irrelevant” and need to be altered to fit in today’s society, has left us broken and empty. Language, color schemes, and hairstyles change (I’ve read somewhere that on average, every woman sports somewhere between 5-7 hairstyles in her lifetime) but the Best Selling Book of all time remains the same.
Exchanging the Book for a movie
Because relevance, the message of fitting in, has become so important to us, our hearts are easily swayed off course. If we aren’t connecting with God daily, we’ll forget how He changed our lives for the better.
“Do what God’s teaching says; when you only listen and do nothing, you are fooling yourselves. Those who hear God’s teaching and do nothing are like people who look at themselves in a mirror. They see their faces and then go away and quickly forget what they looked like.”
James 1:22-24 NCV
When we spend time away from connecting with God, what was once precious to us slowly becomes irrelevant. We exchange the Book for a movie.
There’s a proverb here in Africa that describes how a rat wounds stock animals like sheep and goats. He will go in quietly and begin gnawing on the animal and blow on the wound to distract the animal from its pain. The rat’s end goal is to take the animal down so all his rat friends can join him for a feast. In the same way, Satan lies to us quietly at first. He brings partial truths to us, and leads us into error. He’s a rat that will slowly chew away until there’s little left to life as we knew it when we were reading the Book.
Back to the Book
I have grown tired of trying to fit in. I used to call my blog “The Cultural Misfit.” I based much of what I wrote on my misfit status. Indeed, we’re all misfits as we’re only pilgrims here on this earth (see 1 Pet. 2:11). We are misfits because we aren’t made for this world. When we try to fit in and be relevant, we feel stifled and conflicted.
Still, we hope for understanding, for acceptance. Unfortunately, this world is harsh and unforgiving. It is when we return to the Book that we’ll find the rest our souls are aching for. The movie, this world’s message of relevance, always ends in tragedy in one way or another. There’s nothing we can ever do to make us and the message of God’s love fit in the world’s system. It’s not meant to fit in and neither are you.
Put down that movie app. The Book is better than the movie.
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