Hopeless Emptiness

Have you seen it? Revolutionary Road? If not, you may not want to.

I went to the movie rental place down the road looking for a good movie. I actually wanted a comedy, but I'm always a bit iffy about comedies. Unless it is a surefire winner that I've heard about, I usually just don't go there. Most comedies, if not very good (and many aren't), just leave me feeling like I totally wasted 2 hours of my time (I'm talking comedy comedy here, not romantic comedy). But, even the dramas that I find not good I can almost always pull some kind of insight out of.

Enter Revolutionary Road.

This movie was horrible as far as being just entertaining and heartwarming. If you are looking for that, go elsewhere for sure. There were a few parts that we just had to fast-forward through (ugh...I get so tired of that). It was just, in general, a horrible movie...especially regarding the feeling that it left you with.

But, then, that's what I wanted to talk about.

There is a part in the movie where the characters acknowledge something...hopeless emptiness. Hopeless. Emptiness. They talk of it as if everyone walks around in this state.

The Special Features (the making of the movie documentary) was also very telling. They talked about just how realistic it was, how the dialogue was so realistic, how the relationships were so realistic...how this is real life. "Nothing is clear" they kept saying.

A-mazing. It tears at me. Of course, so many of us know the Truth. That you don't have to live in this "hopeless emptiness" state. That things have been made perfectly clear.

I made the comment to Joel about how it was appalling to me that they really think that that is reality...for everyone. I said, "Who are these people hanging out with?" Joel just said that that is indeed reality for those who don't know Jesus...REALLY know Him. Those who don't really know Him don't have that clarity. They don't have that peace. They can't possibly live without hopelessness or emptiness or despair. They don't have freedom.

It's always a bit startling to be jolted back to the reality that most people live in such despair and discontent. Even the really 'happy' ones. No, to be clear, the thing that is startling is that they realize it, acknowledge it, and see no other way...that it is normal and universal. They made the statement that you have to be really brave to change those circumstances. You have just one chance to break out of that hopelessness. Surprising how incredibly dead on they are...and so sad how completely blinded they are to the One Way that can truly change it for them.

Oh God, open their eyes!

I pray that we will all be the kind of people that are attractive. That we are real, honest, genuine, normal, caring, non-freaky, relate-able little Jesuses running around on the earth. That when we run into those people caught in their hopeless emptiness, they will be attracted to the light and peace and clarity within us. Nothing phony, nothing fake, nothing cheeseball (!). Nothing rigid, nothing pious, nothing stuffy, nothing put-off-at-the-least-little-world-like-behavior (cussing, etc....we all know the sweet little innocent, drop-their-jaw types that couldn't relate to a non-Christian if their life depended on it). None of that. Just love. Just REAL reality. Just Jesus.

Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. --John 13:35

But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? --Romans 10:14