"But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise" - 1 Co. 1:27
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see...And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." - Hebrews 11:1, 6
We live in a fallen world. I see it everyday...dying plants, rust growing on metal beams, fading paint on the streets, roadkill, faded street signs, potholes, car accidents, traffic jams, ads using sex appeal, second-hand smoke, countless scandals in the business world, that homeless girl with her dog on the corner, those gimpy pigeons in the Port Authority with missing toes, that handicapped guy who rides the same bus I do each morning, those days when my boxers never seem to be on right, lust, pride, hate, murder, suicide...the list goes on...
In view of all that, it's expected that faith is difficult to have, and even harder to keep. It's so hard to see the point in it all. The immediate rewards of faith, if any, seem so few...
But this morning, I believe God spoke to me through Brendan Fraser. Yes, the guy in The Mummy movies. He was being interviewed by Al Roker on the Today Show about the new Looney Toons movie he's appearing in. They talked about how in this movie, and in a lot of his other movies, he's had to deal with acting with imaginary characters. He had to pretend that they were there while filming, and then in the production room, they add them in by using computers, and you can see the finished product in the final cut of the movie, and it all turns out "well." He said, "You just have to believe that they're there."
He had faith in those imaginary characters...he had faith that they would appear in the actual movie, and that all those seemingly foolish hours acting by himself would be rewarded when those characters are finally seen on the screen. If Brendan Fraser could have faith in that, how much more are we to have faith in our lives?
Of course, in this present life, here on this fallen earth, our acts of faith and the way our faith seems to mold who we are seem utterly foolish to the world. Why waste your time at church? Why stay away from getting drunk and smoking? Why should you stop cursing? Why do you pray before you eat? Why embarass yourself in front of everyone? All the small things that our faith manifests itself in are mere pretending, child's play, to the eyes of the world. To them, and maybe sometimes to ourselves, it seems as if we are living in a way that is so foolish all because of our faith...it seems as if we are acting out scenes all by ourselves, with a phantom, false hope of anything good resulting from it. It's so hard for us to see and understand that the Director will take care of it all.
This movie (or as Mr. Lewis likes to call it, this "play") we are acting in will eventually be made beautiful. It seems as if we are acting it out by ourselves for now, but we can surely trust that our Co-Star (or, in reality, the Star) who is not tangibly here now, will show Himself in the end. All those times you gave up your seat for an elderly person, all those times you gave that homeless girl a dollar, all those times you refrained from yelling at your mom, all those times you spent that hour to talk with a friend in need when you could have been studying for that big exam tomorrow...in the end, they will be made complete, fulfilled, and it will no longer be foolishness.
So let us act with confidence here on earth, knowing full well that our present "foolishness" will be seen as unspeakable beauty and divine wisdom when this movie is finally finished for all the world to see, when the true Star will finally be revealed in full, undeniable glory. Oh, what an ending this movie will have...
Ah, the echoes of redemption...of the Gospel...of God...everywhere around us. :)
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