Lisa and I rarely go to the theatre. We’re happy to wait until a movie comes out on DVD, and for good reason. Our popcorn is a lot better and we don’t have to strike oil in the back yard to afford it!
Last night was an exception. Our good friends invited us on a double-date to go and see, The Theory of Everything.
What a masterpiece. It’s a true story about everything that matters. I’m going on record, right now, that this movie will win Best Picture. How’s that for a guy who almost never goes to the theatre?
It’s the account of atheist, theoretical physicist and cosmologist, Stephen Hawking’s struggle with Lou Gehrig’s disease through his courtship and marriage to Jane Hawking. She is one amazing woman who beautifully loves him through every hardship severe disease or injury brings to them. (You can review the move here: IMDB Be sure and review the “Parent’s Guide” for specific objectionable content. It’s PG-13.)
Life is filled with the most excruciating, bitter struggles but love is there to meet them – to triumph.
So much of this movie took us to our own struggles . . . which accounts, in part, for the many times we found it necessary to wipe away tears.
{One caveat – Hawking comes off better than he deserves because the movie shows his wife committing adultery and then he follows suit, which isn’t true. Even in his debilitated state, he commits adultery and leaves his wife for his caregiver.}
The minor afflictions and major troubles of this life can mount up to seem like a wall of obstruction and discouragement on so many levels but nothing believers are called to deal with, face, endure is to be compared with what our Lord has planned for them who love Him.
Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered the heart of man what the Lord has prepared for them that love Him. 1 Corinthians 2:9
If this life was all happiness, ease and triumph, we would come to love being here so well that we would forget this world is not our home and what’s more, is passing away. If we never faced hardship, this world would be to us the prison it is to so many . . . a gilded cell we would never want to leave.
But no, the longer we live and the more that challenges mount (physical or relational . . . persecution for some) the more clear the illusion of this world becomes so that we see on the horizon a future far brighter than any passing moment we experience here.
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:15
The Christian’s hope is not in this life. I’m reminded just now of a few lines from an old hymn I love . . .
“My God, I Thank Thee” by Adelaide A. Proctor.
I thank Thee more that all our joy
Is touched with pain,
That shadows fall on brightest hours,
That thorns remain;
So that earth’s bliss may be our guide,
And not our chain.
An eternal perspective reminds us not to love the world, which is why the final message of The Theory of Everything was so utterly void of truth, leaving the soul empty. At the movie’s end, after the disease had ravaged his body and his morals had ravaged his marriage, atheist Hawking speaks of “Hope”.
Hope in what? Of doing whatever you choose and then dying? There’s more to hope in than that, isn’t there, Stephen?
In pop-media culture, Dr. Hawking goes unchallenged as the guy with insight and wisdom. Brilliant Oxford University Professor, Dr. John Lennox says: Not so fast! Check out this video. Speaking on “God and Stephen Hawking” Lennox asks the question, “Do the Laws of Physics make God Unnecessary?” It’s fascinating. **SPOILER ALERT** . . . God doesn’t think so!
But, you don’t have to take Lennox’s word for it. We’re all terminal, which is why Dr. Hawking (and the rest of us) will have the opportunity to discover, first-hand, God’s opinion as to whether or not physics make Him unnecessary.
It is appointed for a man once to die and after that, the judgement Hebrews 9:27 (MLJV)
Come Lord Jesus! We want to go home.
God bless you all.
~Matthew
Matt Jacobson is the founder of FaithfulMan.com a biblical marriage, parenting, and discipleship ministry providing written and audio teaching, as well as couples marriage coaching. He is the co-host (with his wife, Lisa) of Faithful Life Podcast and is author of the bestseller, 100 Ways to Love Your Wife. Matt is pastor of Tumalo Bible Fellowship and is married to Lisa, founder of Club31Women.com (they have 8 kids!).