Freeing My Mind

I’m working on some other writing projects this week. Don’t be surprised if my blogs get a bit more concise. At times, it’s difficult for me to switch between writing projects. My thoughts flow in one direction and if I try to hard to switch currents, frustration ensues. I just got Jason Upton’s new album, “On the Rim of the Visible World”. Jason and I are merely aquaintances, but I seriously love the guy. As far as I’m concerned, he’s the clearest prophetic voice in Christendom. He doesn’t pull punches and his willingness to express his ideas and beliefs, albeit unpopular at times, comes out in every word he sings/says. If you haven’t already, you can grab the new album from his website. It’s not quite available on iTunes, yet, but whould be fairly soon.

Anyway, so I finally watched “Slumdog Millionaire” last night. Let me begin by saying that I loved it. Really great character and style and a really fresh concept. Hopefully, I won’t lose my street cred with this statement, but my favorite aspect of the movie was the love story. Let me explain: I have an aversion to most love stories depicted in movies. For one, the story never changes. Boy meets girl. They fall in love and usually frolic in a field somewhere. Boy makes girl mad. Girl runs to her girlie friends. Boy wins girls back through various exploits. Boy and girl get married. While in a deeper sense I believe that most modern depictions of “love” in film, do nothing more than to promote a utopian form of love that ruins people’s, mainly female’s, perception of what love actually is. I somewhat jokingly refer to most romantic comedies as “female pornography”. The reason being is that most love stories depicted in books and film, create an expectation of a life in love that doesn’t exist. Men are visual. Women are emotional. One of the traps of pornography for men, is that is creates a fantasy version of their spouse. Modern love stories create the same ideas in the emotional arena of women and young girls. If your picturing me standing in the town square on a soap box, you’d be right.

For the most part, “Slumdog Millionaire” stays away from the previously mentioned cliches. Instead it gives an honest portrail of one pivitol truth… most of the time, love sucks. (SPOILER WARNING) Sure, in the end Jamal and Latika wind up together and millionaires, but the road there was hell. If you’ve seen the movie and really thought about it, Jamal and Latika barely knew one another. It wasn’t a story of tryng to figure out of he/she was “Mr./Mrs. right”, but rather a story of love surpassing the need for perfection. The truth is that relationships aren’t easy and love isn’t selfish. Usually love isn’t going to ride in on a white horse, but it might limp in on a dirty rickshaw.

The world, and much of the Church, is looking for a God that sits among the clouds. All while God showed up as a carpenter. We’re looking for a utopian form of revival, all while God is moving amongst the poor. We’re expecting a word from God by the man with the slicked back hair and nice suit, all while God is speaking through a child. Love is never what we think it should be. If we embrace what it is, we might not always be happy, but we’ll be whole. For those of you aspiring to marriage, remember… love sucks, but it’s worth it.

be inspired