Go Ahead - Be Fanatical

Last night Dave and I watched a pretty stupid movie. We thought it would be funny, but it was hardly mediocre. I won't even share the name because it was that bad. However, I do want to share a few things that I learned.

"Christian" has become a negative word in today's society.

As a matter of fact, "Christian" is normally prefaced with the word "fanatical".

One of the characters in the movie last night was a Christian. She littered her speech with hallelujah and praise God, was a staunch creationist, vehemently and angrily defended her beliefs, never cursed, swore or "fornicated", and spoke with a somewhat King James type vocabulary.

Until she was convinced that God didn't exist.

Then suddenly everything she had lived for was thrown out the window. Apparently it is satisfying to make fun of Christians and then show them converting to atheism, which apparently means to desire to "fornicate" and swear at will.

This character was really just a side note, but it was definitely meant to be comical. At one point in the movie the comment was made about her fanatical and angry Christian preacher/father, "Why is it they never learn?"

So here comes the moment of honesty - a lot of the things that this character said when she was still a Christian are things that I have said or that I have heard readily said in the church. The writers may have exaggerated the character, but they were accurate in their usage of our terminology and beliefs.

Here's what I learned:

• We are not responsible for what people do with our message
• We can't let movies and Hollywood portrayals of us place a bushel over our light
• If we're labelled "fanatical" we're probably doing what we're called to do
• If we're not considered fanatical, we may be being too quiet with our faith
• Eternity is a long time for us to not speak about Jesus Christ
• Fornicating and swearing really isn't as glamorous as Hollywood wants it to be
• We have been given the Great Commission - we are responsible for the message, God is responsible for salvation
• The world's opinion of us is changing for the worse, which will only make our job harder - that's okay because if God is for us, who can be against us?

So, I guess even rotten movies can be educational. Remember, "if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you..." John 15:18. Their angst is towards God, towards His precious Son and the Holy Spirit. We're in good company...

"Let everything that has breath praise the Lord..." Psalm 150:6