Bruce Almighty

I’m sure there are many Christians, afraid of participating in a sacrilegious act of blasphemy, who will never see “Bruce Almighty.” That’s too bad.

Having just come from the the theatre, I can only marvel at how once again Hollywood has preached a better sermon than can be heard in most churches on Sunday morning.

I found “Bruce” to be a thought provoking, theologically stimulating, and heart warming meditation on the challenge of free will from the divine perspective, as well as the difficulty of hearing and answering prayers in a complex world where everything and everyone is interconnected. It’s not always easy to bless one person when the result is bringing down a curse on someone else.

I left the theatre with a fresh appreciation of how difficult God’s job is, especially since he has chosen to give us some responsibility for the outcome of this project we call life.

Yes, when Bruce finds himself endowed with the powers of the Almighty he does some ungodly things. If I were given the same powers, I would do the same. There is a powerful message about our inability to play the role of god imbedded in the hilarity of it all. It made me glad that I’m not God. Same goes for all the other jokers I run around with.

As far as the potentially offensive scenario of seeing Jim Carrey act like God goes, I found it no more challenging (or hilarious) than the notion that God chose to make the church His ambassadors in the world and entrust to us the treasure of the gospel. Trust me. Watching us try to be Jesus to the world is more troublesome than watching Jim Carrey walk on the water.