Where’s Your Center?

2015-10-11 Pastors CornerI’m currently reading the classic adventure “Journey to the Center of the Earth” by Jules Verne. One thing that I appreciate about these older novels is that men do hard things without the lure of romance or sex. A group of men, venture into the unknown, withstanding extreme physical and mental hardship with courage, integrity and raw pluck. These books go on chapter after chapter … perhaps their entirety without a kiss or flirting or even a woman present. The only romance in the book mentioned above is that the narrator, Henry, often calls to mind his love for his fiancé Gretchen and it gives him strength.

But if Hollywood touches any of these classics, a love interest has to be introduced into the movie (sometimes at sacrifice of the plot). Gretchen would be at Henry’s sides battling sea serpents in the bowels of the earth. Henry and Hans would have to fight over Gretchen, and in the end Gretchen would have to save the ignorant brutes from their own testosterone fueled stupidity. The truth is that both men and women have done hard and valiant things throughout history. Sometimes separate … and sometimes together. The American West would not have been settled without stalwart women. My complaint is not the presence of women in adventure movies … it’s the implication that the driving force of history has been romance and sex.

The thing I don’t like about classic adventures is that they can go on chapter after chapter with no reference to faith in God. In fact, many view God as a person that real men put away in their youth and only return to in the direst times of extremity. This is an accurate portrayal of many men, but certainly not of all. While historians and Hollywood have tried to obscure the fact, Christian faith has been not only a companion, but the driving force in many world changing adventures. If anyone knows of a classic adventure novel where faith in Jesus plays a central role, please recommend it to me. In the meantime, I pray that Jesus is the central figure in all your adventures! Proverbs 3:5-6


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