Tag: hero

Categories
Christian Living

What are you watching? And should you be watching that?

Like everyone else, Paige & I enjoy watching Television and Movies. But we all need to ask ourselves: Should I watch this?

Below I want to provide you with six questions for you to consider regarding movie watching. These questions were drawn from two articles:
3 Questions to Ask Before Watching A Movie, and
5 Questions to Ask when Watching Movies.

If you want more than just the brief summary below, I recommend you read both of those articles in their entirety – They are helpful.

1. Should I really watch this movie?
This is a good starting question.
Why are you wanting to see this movie?
What are other people saying about it?
Read some reviews such as pluggedin.com, commonsensemedia.org, and the parent’s guides for the movie at imdb.com.
There are some movies that you do not need to see. Some that you know will trip you up. Some that you know have material in them that isn’t healthy for your mind, your language, and your purity.

2. Where are the true and false depictions of reality?
Because movies are made for our entertainment, every movie has some true depictions of reality and some false ones. Let’s make sure that we can identify these. Often the morality that is presented by Hollywood is problematic. And they like to sneak stuff in on us. For example, because the ending of the movie The Notebook was so sweet and touching, we easily forget that the relationship started by a girl cheating on her fiancé. Are we willing for the person who makes a commitment to marry us to go enjoy sex with someone else to find out if that person is their “soulmate”? Of course not.

So we must be careful that Hollywood’s depictions don’t lead us down paths that have us holding to false beliefs about life or romance.
What themes or ideas within the movie are God-honoring, and which ones are unbiblical? What qualities in the characters imitate God and vice-versa?

3. What kind of hero does this movie really need?
Every movie has a hero. But the hero won’t be Jesus. The question is how can we use the hero in the movie to think more clearly about Jesus? In what ways is the hero flawed? In what ways is he like our great Hero?

4. How is this movie trying to teach me something?
There’s no such thing as a movie without a message. So what is the main point of the movie?
Similar to question 2 above, this question is about trying to determine what the main message of the movie is and whether or not you agree with it. To help determine the main message, Listen for key lines & Determine the main character’s goal.

5. How is this movie affecting me spiritually?
Usually the most important aspect of the movie is not the rating, but the message of the movie and how it will affect me spiritually.
Movies can and will affect your walk with Jesus. If, after checking the reviews, you think a movie will likely hurt your walk with Christ, then it’s probably wise to remove it from your “to see” list.

6. How can I use this movie to talk to my friends about Jesus?
Not everyone is a critical thinker when it comes to movies. But almost everyone watches movies. Therefore conversations about movies will take place all around you. So be willing to talk about movies and use them to change the conversations toward spiritual ideas that arise from the movies you see.

“Many non-believers won’t accept an invitation to come to church, but they will talk about a movie they’ve seen recently, so we want to turn that conversation into an eternally significant discussion.”

Part of disciplemaking is helping each other process information using a God-focused worldview instead of a secular worldview. Discuss movies and other media (TV, music, books, even commercials) with your family, children, grandchildren. Use every opportunity available as a disciplemaking moment. Ask your children some engaging questions after watching a movie or TV show together, such as:

  • What is it trying to teach us?
  • What was the main point?
  • Was there anything in it that reminds us of God – His character, word, or commands?
  • Was there anything in it that directly goes against God’s character or His word or His commands?
  • How can we use this film to talk to others about Jesus?

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    Categories
    Christian Living

    Courage to Do the Right Thing when Others Push in the Opposite Direction

    Doing the right thing will cost you. This is true no matter who you are, but I especially noticed this reality with high school students where the number of people you can interact with is limited to the people in your school and/or class. Any student who is willing to leave their comfort zone to reach out to someone who has very few friends finds out that it can be social suicide. You quickly get labeled as “weird” if you try to be a friend to a person who everyone else ridicules.

    Photo by lauramusikanski at Morguefile.com

    Any student who is willing to do the right thing, even when everyone else is pushing them to do the wrong thing, is a hero in my book. It takes a lot of courage to do the right thing when your peers are pushing you toward the opposite direction. When I was a youth minister, I saw a few students willing to step up and reach out to others no matter the social pressure, and I was always impressed. I also saw a whole lot of students doing just the opposite – caving to the pressure to do the wrong thing.

    How many of us have ever let someone push us down the wrong path, push us into doing something we knew we shouldn’t do, but we let them pressure us into doing the wrong thing anyway?

    I had plenty of times where I did just that – let people push me into doing the wrong thing, even when I knew it might get me into trouble and knew for certain that God didn’t want me to do it. Why are we so weak when it comes to standing up for what is the right thing?

    One of the areas where we can really mess this up is our striving to fit in. To make sure we fit in, we might find ways to make sure that those who don’t fit in very well are “made fun of” even more. We pick on those who have less friends than us, less money than us, less fashionable clothing than us just so that we can feel better about ourselves. And even if we don’t do it to their face, we find ourselves engaging in conversations behind their backs so that we lift ourselves up and put them down in the eyes of those around us. Why is it that just to fit in, we are willing to join in making fun of others?

    Take a stand for what is right. It’ll cost you some social status. But I have found out that doing the right thing often will.