Bruce Almighty
From the Series—God at the Box Office
February 24, 2004This evotional begins a new series titled God @ the Box Office. We’ll explore the spiritual themes in four blockbuster movies—Bruce Almighty, The Passion, Seabiscuit, and X2.
Bruce Almighty is about a channel 7 eyewitness news reporter named Bruce Nolan. Nolan dreams of becoming a news anchor, but a colleague named Evan Baxter gets the job. Bruce blames God, ends up with God’s powers, and finally surrenders His life to the Almighty at the end of the movie.
Raw Honesty
At points, the movie made me uncomfortable. In an interview, Jim Carrey himself said, “It was scary screaming at God.” He says some things in the movie that are so blasphemous that you feel like lightning could strike any second. But here is what I loved about the movie: I loved the raw honesty.
Let me go out on a limb. I found the movie more honest about God than some churches. I think too many churches are places where you have to pretend that everything is alright. But that isn’t reality.
I think some of us assume that when we start following Christ we ought to live happily ever after, but I love Phillip Yancey’s perspective. “I used to believe that Christianity solved problems and made life easier. Increasingly, I believe that my faith complicates my life, in ways it should be complicated.”
Let me just say this: spiritual maturity does not equal immunity. I’m not saying that living inside the guardrails of God’s will won’t save you lots of headaches and heartaches. It will. But we aren’t immune to the harsh realities of life!
Messy Spirituality
This week I read a great book titled Messy Spirituality by Michael Yaconelli. I love the title and I love the first sentence of the book. Not too many Christian authors start their books this way. Here’s the first sentence: “My life is a mess.”
I found the book refreshing for the same reason I found the movie refreshing: raw honesty. Yaconelli said, “For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a godly person. Yet when I look at the yesterdays of my life, what I see, mostly, is a broken, irregular path littered with mistakes and failures.” I think this is where most of us are at.
If you were to graph spiritual growth, it wouldn’t be a straight line ascending along a 45 degree angle. There is nothing linear about spiritual growth. Spiritual growth is a jagged line full of ups and downs and awkward angles! It’s not nice and neat. It’s messy!
Yaconelli says, “Accepting the reality of our broken, flawed lives is the beginning of spirituality.” I think spirituality begins when we’re able to admit that we’re not ok—we are broken and flawed. And we need God’s help. I think that is the turning point for Bruce Nolan in the movie. He says, “I’m not ok. I’m not ok with a mediocre job. I’m not ok with a mediocre apartment. I’m not ok with a mediocre life.”
I think some of us are just good at putting on a brave face when we’re dying inside. We’re full of doubt and pain and hurt and disappointment and guilt. The last thing God wants is for you to pretend that everything is alright when everything isn’t alright. I think Phillip Yancey is right. He said, “God prefers honest disagreement to dishonest submission.”
We watched this movie as a staff and Pastor David said something pretty poignant. He said, “God is not offended by our feelings.” I think sometimes we repress our doubts about God or our disappointments with God and it only makes them worse. The truth is: if your conversations with God aren’t occasionally laced with anger or frustration or confusion I think you’re being disingenuous.
One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Bruce prays this superficial generic prayer for the world. Morgan Freeman, who plays the part of God in the movie, says, “That was good if you want to be Ms. America.” He tells Bruce to try it again and Bruce prays a heartfelt prayer. Morgan Freeman says, “Now that’s a prayer!”
God already knows what you think and what you feel so what’s the point in trying to mask it? I think what God wants is raw honesty. And that’s what I found in this movie.
Rock Bottom
I like the book of Job for the same reason I like Messy Spirituality and Bruce Almighty—raw honesty. William Safire said, “The Book of Job delights the irreverent, satisfies the blasphemous, and offers at least some comfort to the heretical.” It’s a messy book. I think part of it is the fact that it’s the oldest book in the Bible. Its writing actually predates Genesis. It has a very primeval feel to it because of its age. But I think the other part is that it is such an honest expose on the human condition. It helps us deal with the harsh realities of life.
What do you do when you hit rock bottom? How do you handle doubts and disappointments? How do you handle letdowns and setbacks? What do you do when life doesn’t fit into nice, neat categories? What do you do when Evan Baxter gets the job instead of you? What do you do when you lose a loved one or your spouse says they’re leaving or a child is diagnosed with cancer? I think Job models the answer to those questions.
Job has it all. He tops the Forbes list of richest people at that intersection of history. And God himself says, “There is no one else on earth like him; he is blameless and upright.” He is the real deal. But then the bottom falls out. He loses his flocks to raiding parties and natural disasters. He loses his children in a tragic accident. And then he loses his health. Job 2:13 says his suffering was “too great for words.” Job 3:1 says he “cursed the day of his birth.” He says in Job 6:2, “If my sadness could be put on the scales, they would be heavier than all the sands of the sea.” Job hits rock bottom.
Bitter or Better
I never cease to be amazed at the way two people can experience the same tragedy and one person becomes bitter and the other person becomes better. One person develops a critical spirit and shrivels up spiritually. It’s almost like bitterness poisons them to death! Someone else can go through the same exact circumstances and become a better person because of it.
When we first moved to DC ten years ago I started a ministry called the Urban Bible Training Center. I had a student from Nigeria named Charles who I’m guessing was somewhere around sixty-five years of age. He walked with a cane because he had suffered several strokes that effected his speech and motor skills. Sometimes I would give him a ride home from classes and I had to physically lift his leg so he could get in the car. One day I picked him up from the public housing tenement where he was living and I’ll never forget the hat he was wearing. Maybe it was the juxtaposition that struck me. He could hardly walk. He could hardly talk. And he was wearing a hat that said, “God is good.” I remember being so convicted and so impacted. Many people going through similar circumstances would have become bitter. But Charles was one of the most upbeat people I’ve ever met. He had a sweet spirit and kind heart. Tragedy made him better, not bitter!
Look at the way Job responds to tragedy. Job 1:20 says, “Job stood up and tore his robe in grief. Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground in worship.” Then Job says something so powerful. It’s so easy for us to read these words. But it had to be so hard for Job to actually say them on the heels of tragedy. “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked will I depart. The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” And Job 1:22 says, “Job did not sin by blaming God.”
Explanatory Style
In his book Learned Optimism, Dr. Martin Seligman says that all of us have what he calls an explanatory style to account for life’s experiences. He says, “Explanatory style is the manner in which you habitually explain to yourself why events happen.” Let me explain.
You’re at a restaurant waiting for your date. You were supposed to meet at 7 O’clock sharp, but forty-five minutes later your date is a no show. At some point, you need to explain to yourself why they aren’t there. Here are some possible explanations. You might think, “He stood me up,” causing you to become mad. You could jump to conclusions, “She doesn’t love me anymore,” causing you to become sad. You could think, “He was in an accident,” causing you to feel anxious. You might think, “She’s working overtime so that she can pay for our meal,” causing you to feel grateful. Naïve, but grateful. You might think, “He’s with another woman,” causing you to feel jealous. Or you might think, “This gives me a perfect excuse to break up with her,” which causes you to feel relieved.
Same situation. Very different explanations! There are lots of different explanations for every experience. You can’t control your experiences, but you can control your explanations. And the truth is: your explanations are more important than your experiences! Dr. Seligman says, “Your way of explaining events to yourself determines how helpless you become, or how energized, when you encounter everyday setbacks as well as momentous defeats.”
What does that have to do with Bruce Almighty? I think Bruce Nolan has the wrong explanation for the bad things that are happening in his life. He has a martyr mentality. He says, “I am a victim. God is a mean kid on an anthill with a magnifying glass and I’m the ant.”
If anybody could have developed a martyr mentality it was Job. He could have come up with any number of explanations. “God has forsaken me.” “God doesn’t care.” “God is angry with me.” “God has given up on me.” Or “God doesn’t even exist.”
His own wife said, “Curse God and die.” But I love Job’s response. He doesn’t blame God. He worships God.
I got an email from an NCCer this week and she gave me permission to share it.
Pastor Mark,
I’m a freshman in college and a cheerleader. Back in December I was cheering at a game and I completely ruptured my Achilles tendon. I had surgery to repair it and was in a cast for 8 weeks. This was devastating to me, because it meant I probably wouldn’t be in the national’s routine. I didn’t understand what God was trying to tell me through my injury, or why he let this happen to me. Then, 4 days after I got my cast off, I stepped over a patch of ice on my way to class and POP! Part of my Achilles RETORE. I had a second surgery two weeks ago.
Last Sunday I was unable to get to Church, so I read the evotional just now, and it really struck my heart as one of the reasons WHY I have spent half of my freshman year in a cast and on crutches. God was giving me dreams. Among MANY other ways that I have seen God work in my life through these two surgeries, they have birthed or rebirthed two dreams I have had. One is to be an athletic trainer.
The other is a dream I’ve had ever since I began gymnastics at the age of 7. That dream is to do college gymnastics. If I had not gotten hurt and had cheered the entire year here, this dream might not have been reawakened so strong in me, but it has been, and this summer when I go home I will be working hard to regain all my skills and then walk on to the gymnastics team next fall. I can’t wait.
What made me realize all of this was partly due to your evotional that I just read, about how God’s primary goal is not what we achieve, but what we become in the process. These surgeries have definitely changed me and God has worked in my life in innumerable ways.
I think some people put in a similar circumstance would become angry or bitter or depressed. But I love the way this NCCer is allowing God to rebirth dreams through these tough circumstances. She is allowing Him to use this experience to make her better. And it all comes back to this: how she explains the experience. Aldous Huxley said, “Experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you.”
I think that is what the Bible is for: it helps us explain our experiences. It can infuse meaning and hope into the most meaningless and hopeless situations.
Sigh
I know that sometimes it feels like God isn’t hearing a word we’re saying. Bruce says, “He’s ignoring me completely. He’s far too busy giving Evan everything he wants.” And sometimes it feels like God is a million miles away.
I think one of the most painful and disillusioning experiences I’ve gone through in my life was the loss of my father-in-law six years ago. He was fifty-five years-old. Not only did we lose a dad, but he was a mentor and a model. He planted and pastored a church in the Chicago area for more than thirty years. I don’t think I’d be doing what I’m doing if it weren’t for his influence in my life.
In January of 1998 he had a complete physical. The doctor didn’t just give him a clean bill of health. He said you could drive a Mack truck through his arteries. One week later he died from a massive heart attack. And I remember two distinct feelings. I remember feeling helpless. There was nothing I could do to bring him back. And I remember feeling overwhelmed—you almost go into a state of shock because you experience emotional overload. The grief is almost too much to handle. Those of you who have lost a loved one know what I’m talking about.
During the funeral, I realized that I couldn’t stop sighing. I read later that psychologists tell us that sighing is one way we process grief. It is a physiological response to distress. I didn’t know how to vent or verbalize what I was experiencing so I sighed.
It was during that season of grief that I discovered Psalm 5:1. It has become one of my favorite verses. “Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my sighing.” That little phrase—“consider my sighing”—has become so meaningful to me. Even when we can’t put our frustration or anger or doubt or discouragement or grief into words, God hears those low-frequency distress signals we call “sighs.”
In his book Guerillas of Grace, Ted Loder shares a powerful and poetic perspective on prayer.
How shall I pray?
Are tears prayers, Lord?
Are screams prayers,
Or groans
Or sighs
Or curses ?
Can trembling hands be lifted to you,
Or clenched fists
Or the cold sweat that trickles down my back
Or the cramps that knot my stomach?
Will you accept my prayers, Lord,
My real prayers,
Rooted in the muck and mud and rock of my life,
And not just the pretty, cut-flower, gracefully arranged
Bouquet of words?
Will you accept me, Lord,
As I really am,
Messed up mixture of glory and grime?
The answer is yes! In fact, that is the only way God will accept us!
Sometimes it feels like He’s not listening or at least He’s not answering. But the truth is this: He hears every sigh. He knows all about those hurts and worries and fears that we can’t put into words. And He doesn’t just hear them. Romans 8:26 says, “The Holy Spirit helps us in our distress. For we don’t even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.” I love The Message translation of this passage. It says God makes prayers out of our “wordless sighs” and “aching groans.”
Here is an incredible thought: long before you woke up this morning and long after you go to bed tonight, the Holy Spirit was and will be interceding for you.
Surrender
It’s tough for me to describe, but here is one dimension of spiritual growth: the more you know the more you know how much you don’t know. I Corinthians 8:2 says it this way: “The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.” The only way I can describe it is this: the longer I walk with Christ the fewer theories I have about God and the more trust I have in God.
John Wilmot said, “Before I got married I had no children and six theories on bringing up children. Now I have six children and no theories.”
I would describe my spiritual journey the same way. I have fewer theories and more trust. I think part of spiritual growth is this process of unlearning and dis-illusioning. God deconstructs our prejudices and preconceived notions and erroneous illusions about who He is. That is what happens to Bruce.
Bruce has all kinds of false notions of who God is. And in the words of Morgan Freeman, he’s been “doing a lot of complaining.” But God patiently helps him unlearn. He kills his critical spirit by letting him play God for a week. Bruce can’t handle it even though he’s only given part of Buffalo from 57th street to Commonwealth. Eventually Bruce gives up! That is what happens to job.
Here’s a prescription for pride: read Job 38-39. God asks Job question after unanswerable question. Then He says, “Do you still want to argue with the Almighty? You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?” God says it like it is: quit complaining. And Job comes to his spiritual senses. He says, “I am nothing—how could I ever find the answers? I will put my hand over my mouth in silence. I have said too much already. I have nothing more to say.” Job shuts up and he gives up! He surrenders.
Fyodor Dostoevski said, “The whole law of human existence lies in this: that man be able to bow down before the infinitely great.” That is what Bruce does at the end of Bruce Almighty. He’s tired of playing God. He falls on his knees and surrenders. And I think that is what we need to do. We need to quit blaming God or fighting God. We need to quit criticizing God or playing God. We need to surrender to God.
Free Will
One of the most powerful dialogues in Bruce Almighty is when Bruce wants to make Grace love him, but he can’t do it. He feels helpless. He feels powerless. And he asks Morgan Freeman the $64,000 question: “How do you make someone love you without affecting free will?” Morgan Freeman says, “Welcome to my world kid.”
Revelation 3:20 is the powerful picture of Jesus standing at the door and knocking. It says, “Here I am. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
But here’s the trick: the door to the heart opens from the inside.
Knock. Knock.