"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
~Deuteronomy 31:6
We watched "Courageous" last week when it came out. I had been looking forward to it so much! We tried to see it in the theater, but by the time we were able to line up a sitter, it wasn't playing in any of the theaters that were within an hour of our house. I was totally bummed, but we got to watch "Happy Feet 2"... Wait... where was I going with all this? Oh that's right, "Courageous".
I ended up with mixed feelings about this highly emotional film. I guess that if I had to summarize it in one sentence I would have to say that it was about a group of men who decided to make a pledge to be good fathers. However, for me, there was just too much going on in the movie. Too many stories intertwined. I also noticed that the gospel wasn't mentioned... at all (please correct me if I'm wrong). You see, the goal behind the movie was great, but we can't leave our men expecting that they should be perfect; that they can fulfill all of Scripture out of their own good intentions. People fail. We just simply can't be perfect on our own, we have to look to God for our strength, and forgiveness when we fail.
I also don't feel like we should pledge to be perfect parents. First and foremost, we should strive to serve God in ALL aspects of our lives. One of the Scriptures or points that they touched on was that we are to teach our children to be godly, and we can't do that if we are not first and foremost seeking to please Him. We can't live a Christian life out of desire to be good parents. If we did, we would be living a lie.
Yes, we are called to be courageous in our Christian faith. But not just for the sake of our children. We are to love the lord our God with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our minds. We should make the right choices and honor our morals, not to teach our kids right and wrong, but because it's what God wants from US. Anyway, those are just some of my thoughts about this movie. I would love to hear some of yours.
I liked the movie. My husband isn't an emotional movie type of guy, so he wasn't crazy about it (but then he's already an excellent father!). I think think the message is pretty sound. They didn't overtly talking about the Gospel, but church and God were so intertwined in the plot that you really couldn't miss it. I guess the overall message I got was, "You need to be a good father and a man of integrity. That requires tough decisions and you need God to help you." All of the men ended up going to church and praying and seeking God at one point in the movie. So no, I don't think the gospel was central to the movie, but hopefully, this movie will make some men think and decide to seek after God. It does make a point about Family Worship and going to church, and those are great places to here the gospel! Overall I think it's a great movie for it's intended purpose.
ReplyDeleteI read what you're saying. Here are some of my thoughts. It was predictable in most spots and I do agree that they had quite a few subplots going on, yet we still enjoyed it as a movie in itself and also in the message. No, the Scripture was not overt in this film as we might expect from a "Christian" film, and that could be because Sony Pictures distributed it or not. I don't know. But I do have to say that part of me wonders if it wasn't our expectations this was aimed at. The world grows darker as time goes on and the culture of death, occult, violence, etc. might think this is over-the-top in Scripture because it does show Bibles being searched and read (for example, the character of Adam Mitchell doesn't go to the tv gurus or parenting experts to find out how to be the father he thinks he should be, but he goes to the Bible and searches it out to discover what God has planned of fathers/husbands). Someone who is seeking God (and perhaps doesn't realize it) might see this and if it were what we expect, it might have been too much for him and in rebellion might have turned away from the message. Yet God can and does turn anything to good. If it's not overt in our eyes, maybe to someone on the fence, someone who is just going through the motions, maybe this movie will help them seek out the Word of God and discover a deeper or even new relationship with our Father.
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