Home > Work > Movies Are Prayers: How Films Voice Our Deepest Longings
1 " This is what makes Christian meditation distinctive. It is not a retreat, an escape from the realities of the brokenness around us. Instead, it is a pause inward, in order to move outward--a considering of others and a communing with God in order to better serve the world. "
― , Movies Are Prayers: How Films Voice Our Deepest Longings
2 " The purpose of theology—the purpose of any thinking about God—is to make the silences clearer and starker to us, to make the unmeaning—by which I mean those aspects of the divine that will not be reduced to human meanings—more irreducible and more terrible, and thus ultimately more wonderful. This is why art is so often better at theology than theology is. "
3 " Christian lament is not simply complaint. Yes, it stares clear-eyed at awfulness and even wonders if God has gone...Yet at its fullest, biblical lament expresses sorrow over losing a world that was once good alongside a belief that it can be made good again. Lament isn't giving up, it's giving over. When we lift up our sorrow and our pain, we turn it over to the only one who can meet it: our God. "
4 " Christian joy, after all, is itself a response to the silly, the absurd: the good news. That God would come down to reclaim us through the sacrificial and atoning work of Jesus, rather than simply scrap it all and start over, is laughably illogical. "
5 " We do not worship a cruel God who demands quotas of praise in rigidly prescribed formats, as if he is an anal-retentive king and we are his sycophantic courtiers. He wants our praise to be creative, to involve the full richness of the Earth (the Pandora he has made) and to reflect our own ingenuity as created beings. "
6 " As much as we try to corral it via rigorous religious tradition (for good and faithful reasons), prayer also takes place beyond the boundary waters, in places and ways we might not expect. This human instinct to reach out in praise or lament or supplication or confession to the divine does not take place only in church, guided by liturgy and pastors. It isn't limited to early morning devotions, in that serene space before silence gives way to the day. It isn't strictly the domain of dinner tables, where families gather to recite familiar words. And it isn't an instinct shared only by Christians. Prayer can be expressed by anyone and can take place anywhere. "
7 " Inexplicably, few prayers feel as heard as my doubting ones. None are more genuinely offered. "
8 " There was a big world out there, full of all sorts of people with all sorts of ways of living. The one thing we all seemed to share, if I was to understand the prayers these films were offering, was a yearning for reconciliation. "
9 " We must recognize before we can reconcile--especially in instances where we are too blinded by privilege, comfort, and tradition to even notice that reconciliation is needed. "
10 " When we reach this point--when we've meditated on Scripture but still run up against the mystery of God--we must surrender to the art of contemplative prayer. Here, meaning and purpose are relinquished. Emptiness is accepted. Experience is open-ended. "
11 " In serenely enjoying the rain together, in planting acorns that hold the potential for new growth, and in sitting among the branches of the resulting tree to observe the stars, Totoro teaches them how to cultivate prayerful joy in their own lives. Even in the midst of the emotional upheaval their family is experiencing, they experience and express deep-seated delight. I like to think that Totoro has shared with them a secret, a key to the universe: the knowledge that all can be endured, because one day their joy will be complete. "
