Prometheus

Yes, I watched this movie. Not by choice, but some of my students wanted to watch it. I had no idea what the movie was about until I was sitting in the movie theater seat watching it unfold. Although I closed my eyes through some of it, and although it was definitely not my favorite movie, I'm glad I saw it. If you haven't seen it, I recommend seeing it, not because it's a great movie, but because of the window into lostness that it opens.

God's been breaking my heart for the lost in this part of the world more and more recently (which is another blog, or a whole lot of other blogs!), and it's been good. But at the same time, as I've been surrounded by darkness for almost 2 years, I've been looking forward to living in a place of light for a time. However, seeing Prometheus shattered all of that hope. God showed me a lot through this movie-- one, that lostness is worldwide. It exists in America just like it does here; it just shows itself in different ways.

The premise of the movie is a group of scientists in the year 2089, find drawings in a cave of stick figures pointing to stars/planets in the sky, drawings that match several other drawings from different civilizations at different time periods. These scientists have three basic questions they're seeking answers for: who is man's creator, why did he/they create mankind, and why or what purpose did he/they create man?

Great questions, right?

Questions that every human being asks.

Asians are seeking these answers in tradition, ritual, and a mish-mosh of beliefs including religion. Americans are seeking those answers in science, as seen by this movie. However, the movie ends with science failing to answer those questions. They met their creators, but they discovered that their creators only wanted to kill them. No answers. No hope. Only death.

I came home feeling completely overwhelmed and hopeless and sad and broken for the lost-- in America. And here. I saw this movie with students who are still asking those questions and finding answers in good works and helping the poor and praying and offerings. Yet even in my sadness over their lostness and the lostness of so many in America, I wept for joy as I watched the beautiful clouds at sunset, thanking God that He is my Creator and that He is my Hope and that He saved me from His wrath that would have killed me, that He instead humbled Himself to become human and to die in my place so that I might live in Him forever. I'm so glad my God is greater than the universe, greater than all of His creation, and that His purpose for His creation is to enjoy Him and worship Him and proclaim Him for all eternity. And that He made all of that possible when all we deserve is death. WOW! What an awesome God we serve!! God, thank you for being our Creator and our Hope. May we be faithful to proclaim that truth, whether we live among the lost in America or among the lost in Asia.