Have you ever laughed at yourself? There are plenty of times in my life where I have laughed at the decisions I made or the things I said. It is through those times that lessons can be learned through laughter.
Recently, my wife and I were trying to decide on a movie to watch on a Friday night. Our kids were in bed and watching a movie in our quiet house is a little piece of heaven for us. We searched through several movie titles, but nothing caught our attention until we came across a movie called Believe Me. The synopsis sounded interesting to us and we thought we would give it a try. The basic plot is about a college student about to graduate who recruits his friends to help him pay off some unforeseen debt. The debt would keep him from graduating, delaying his plans to attend law school in the fall. He goes to church because he is invited by someone and hears a girl talk about the church's upcoming mission trip to Hawaii (real tough, I know). Sam, the college student, asks the girl after the service about the trip, specifically how much money they had raised so far. The group had to raise $20,000 and they had already raised $14,000 in a week. And, this is where the light bulb goes off in Sam's head.
The rest of the movie is about Sam and his friends creating a fake charity to raise the money Sam needs to pay off his tuition bill. Along the way, the group learns the ins and outs of Christianity even though they don't believe themselves. What's entertaining about this movie is that it takes an honest look at some of the things we do as Christians and encourages us to laugh at ourselves so that maybe we can learn some lessons along the way. Sam and his group take us on a journey into Christianity through the eyes of the unbeliever and what it does is helps us see the things we do in an honest way, challenging us to rethink some of the things we do.
This movie was an honest Christian movie. The one thing I loved about it was that the Jesus moment (if you've seen a Christian movie, you know what I'm talking about) felt real and not forced. Most Christian movies I have seen have a Gospel presentation that seems out of place and forced. In Believe Me, it was quite the opposite. Sam has a real encounter with Jesus and he was not given a Gospel presentation with an invitation to accept Jesus into his heart. He encountered Jesus in a real way, realizing that paying off his school bill was not the ultimate goal in life. He realized that law school was not what life was all about. He realized that Jesus was life.
People need a real encounter with Jesus and if we, his followers, continue to do things that don't make sense to people, the greater the distance between people and the church will be. We need to laugh at ourselves and admit that maybe some of the things we do are a little silly. Being humble enough to be honest with ourselves is the first step in the right direction. The Church in this country needs a new direction. People today want to change the world and the Church was designed to be an agent of change. We don't need more pastors who ask for a new jet or churches who are exclusive social clubs. We need to stop focusing on our numbers and start focusing on people. We need to laugh at ourselves, learn from our mistakes, and let the Holy Spirit teach us and use us to reach new generations for the kingdom of God.
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