Slumdog Suffering

Report on yesterday's post: I crashed last night. Got 15 hours sleep. Back on my feet. All good.

Tonight, Dr Laurel and I watched Slumdog Millionaire again. I've reviewed it before. I now know what I like about the film. It is a picture of this truth: that one's suffering can be one's ally on the road to Glory. That Glory comes not despite suffering, but in it, through it, and then beyond it.

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

That's from Romans 8:16-17.

Thanks be to Christ, who went before us.

_______________

Movie Review: Slumdog Millionaire.

Please see it. Now.

Thank you.

(P.S. I must send you to my friend Brandon Fibb's Review of Slumdog on Christianity Today, and also his own Movie Review website.)

_______________________

Once: Ordinary is never Ordinary.

Rotten Tomatoes gives it 97%. Jen lent us the DVD. Nathan and Cassie said we had to watch. Brandon called it a 'sacred piece of filmmaking'. Tubeo drew parallels to the gospel. They were right. Once is simply a beautiful film. I've now watched that first duet 4 times.

Raise your hopeful voice you have a choice/
You've made it now.

Here is my thought: the synopsis on the DVD jacket describes the movie as 'chasing your dreams'. But I think that this description is wrong. I think the movie is about the fact that if we are willing, we might see possibilities amid the ordinariness of living.

Granted, not many people write music as extraordinary as they did. But many of us feel very ordinary and incapable. Just about everyone has been broken-hearted. Many of us recall a memorable week in which we were carried along by the possibility of love. Lots of artists record their songs hoping for others to recognize their creative skills. Many of us have 'Hoover-Guy' jobs. We stumble over our words. We say dumb things. And we all want more than we have right now.

This movie takes an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and lifts them up above the fray: Ordinary is never ordinary.

Take this sinking ship and point it home/
We've still got time.

A ordinary English Anglican once said:

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations--these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit--immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.

__________________
PS Jen -- Movie is back to the store -- with no fine. :)