I'm definitely more motivated to beat down my obstacles now.
This movie reminds me of all the people in the Bible that "fought" with God or bargained with him or whatever. That's how people in the Bible prayed - like it might actually make a difference, like God was real and had reasons and could listen to your reasons and could respect you.
Does God respect me? This is a weird question I have never thought of before. What does respect mean? According to Google, it is "a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements."
I usually believe God loves everyone just the same and it's not what we do that makes him love us more or less. He loves us because he made us. Everything we are is from him, so maybe he does love us for who we are, but who we are goes back to him anyway. So maybe he does respect us, but it all goes back to him anyway.
This is all a little bit mind blowing.
I still don't really understand free will.
Also, I often think a guy is going to steer me off the path I'm supposed to be taking. Or if I do anything even a little bit wrong, it's going to ruin everything.. all the good things I could have had or been. But sometimes I think nothing I do can change what's supposed to be.
That's sort of why I like this movie, because it plays with the idea that it's a little bit of both.
I do have free will, but it is God's number one plan for me that I am obedient to him and seek him first because then I will truly fulfill my purpose and have the most abundant life.
And I think our hearts matter even more than our actions. Is Matt Damon chasing this girl for purely selfish reasons, or does he really care about her and want to love her for her good? Well I think the second one is true, which is why Thompson used the threat of him messing up her life in order to make him give her up.
This movie was good because it made me think about things, but it really doesn't know anything about what it's talking about.
We can't be satisfied by a lover any more than we can be satisfied by achievement and applause. You could even feel it at the end of the movie, how now that they're allowed to have each other, it's not quite as exciting. They'll just go back to their normal lives, and when they can see each other everyday all the time whenever they want, it will become usual, and they'll start to look for the next pop-up bathroom experience.
The only thing we can be satisfied by is God, and what's awesome is he brings us those refreshing girl-in-the-bathroom-type moments all the time, but so often we worship the moment instead of the creator of the moment.
The Creator never changes, and if we seek him, we'll see him in our everyday, and we will stop caring so much about achievement and applause and about lovers and potential lovers. Our purpose will become something greater. It will become about something bigger than our life on earth, and then we can really be free to be who we are and serve who really matters, and that is the freedom and journey I long for.
**This was not a Roger Ebert movie. It wasn't four-star quality (I agree), but my acting class was talking about it forever last week, and I can see why.
