Theatrical release poster for "Fireproof"

While the world tuned in Sunday (early Monday morning here in the RP) to the red carpet buzz around the 81st Academy Awards, US news outlet National Public Radio covered a quieter filmfest that few of us have heard of: the San Antonio (Texas) Independent Christian Film Festival.

NPR gave us this encouraging bite: the highest grossing independent film in 2008 was not “Milk” or the Oscar-sweeping “Slumdog Millionaire.” It was the Christian-helmed “Fireproof,” a story about a man who finds Jesus’ redeeming love and works to repair his marriage.

SAICFF organizer Doug Phillips told the crowd that day, “We’re going to see significant production houses that will be funding $200 million films done by Christians. We’re going to have our own Steven Spielbergs. We’re going to have our own filmmakers that can tell great stories, produce tremendous films, but they’re going to be doing it with a Christian worldview, and they’re not going to be embarrassed by that.”

People at the SAICFF seemed to get the message that it was time to pull out of Hollywood and build a whole new Christian-only film industry.

Movies blogger Mark Moring at Christianity Today said afterward, “I appreciate Phillips’ passion for good content, but the feisty rhetoric about creating ‘our own’ industry just doesn’t sit well with me… Why light candles in the church and in the Christian community — and, indeed, in a “separate” film industry — where there’s already light? Some of the candles should be going to Hollywood, not running away from it.”

Moring’s words remind us of Paul’s, in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23. Rather than pull away from the world and stay in Christian-only enclaves, Paul familiarized himself with the ways of non-believers around him to be better able at winning them for Christ.

We get disgusted with the behavior of people around us — in school, at work, in the community, etc. Often, the first instinct is to flee from places that seem so dark. But God has given you your own candles to light, whether you’re a new Christian filmmaker at Hollywood’s edge or an audience member in the cinema seat. How can you let your light shine where you are today?

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Links:
CCF on Facebook!
The NPR news story
Mark Moring’s blog post

By Cata S. de Jesus

If I were to write a Filipino version of Wilbur Rees’s “$3 Worth of God,” it would probably sound like this:

I would like to buy Php5 worth of God, please — not enough to blow my mind or make me burst out in song, but just enough to make me feel good, like a warm cup of taho or a lazy afternoon siesta. I don’t want enough of Him to make me love a terrorist or pick up garbage with an urchin on Smokey Mountain. I just want enough of Him to pray for peace on earth and give money to charity. I want gratification, not transformation. I want to stay the way I am, not be born again. I want a kilo of the eternal in a plastic bag. I want to buy Php5 worth of God, please.

What a gem of an idea — to buy just enough of God to put into a neatly labeled box, stowed away for future use, and to be opened only as the need arises! He is not supposed to rock the boat or make waves in our lives. He is just supposed to keep us afloat while we man the oars and steer the rudder. He is not supposed to disturb our sleep or give us pangs of guilt and indigestion. He is just supposed to smooth the creases and compromises we make in our lives.

He is not supposed to call sin “sin” — too Victorian and archaic for our times. Rather, He is merely to call it a mistake, weakness, oversight, or indiscretion. He is not supposed to surreptitiously creep into our conversations, lest people think we have turned corny with age, finally flipped, or turned fanatic. He is supposed to be mentioned only when talking to another Christian who “understands.”

How many of us just want enough of God to make us feel safe or better? Enough of Him, at least, to not be called a godless, twentieth-century heathen. How many of us don’t want Him to come too near? Having Him any closer might endanger our lifestyles, curb our predilections, prick our prejudices, annihilate our demons, sanitize our vocabulary, realign our thinking, stereotype our wardrobes, freak out our friends, and make us definitely UNcool. Being creatures of comfort, do we just want God at a safe, comfortable distance?

What about those of us who say that we have actually committed our lives to Him? “Committed” is such a dog-eared euphemism these days. It can sound tiresome. It has lost its meaning. We have diluted it in translation.

Paul, in the book of Romans, tells us how we can be sure that our commitment is real and not just lip service:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – which is your spiritual worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:1-2

When we put God in a cubbyhole, we are actually putting ourselves in a cubbyhole. No room to grow. No room to discover the best version of ourselves. No freedom to do what truly matters.

When we just want to buy Php5 worth of God, we are shortchanging ourselves pitifully. We are actually AFRAID to put Him in control. Petrified at the thought of sacrifices we might have to make. Uncertain of the things we are willing to give up and will be allowed to keep.

That’s why there is one thing that we would do well to remember in a world that is in constant flux, in this world that continues to spin and wobble in strife and uncertainty: God is UNCHANGING and TRUE. God’s promises are unchanging and true. God’s Economy is the only economy that will never go under, never suffer a meltdown, never hit dirt, never scrape the bottom of the barrel.

God’s Economy is perfect. His currency never devalues. In fact, its value increases infinitely. Thus, He is able to, and will always bless us beyond our highest expectations — if we obey Him and do things HIS way.

God doesn’t want just Php5 worth of us. He wants ALL of us — the best and the worst of us. And He promises that if we give ourselves completely to Him, we will see, experience, and ENJOY His good, pleasing and perfect will.

Tell me, would you settle for anything less? Sounds like an offer only a fool would refuse.

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Catherine de Jesus is a writer, lecturer, and a Christian counselor on Marriage, Life Issues, and Work Ethics. She is married to one of CCF’s Elders, Pastor Ito de Jesus, and they have four children. Cata serves with the CCF Women-to-Women Ministry and the Elders’ Wives Group. Prior to her involvement in CCF, she headed Corporate Communications and Media Relations departments in local/international organizations. She immensely enjoys reading, writing, and traveling. She has been working on a book of essays that will be published this year.

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