Work in Progress

Ok, I know I’m a bit behind the times with this one. I just watched Pay It Forward. I’ve wanted to see this movie since it came out way back in 2000, and I’m glad I eventually got round to it! I decided to celebrate being done with the semester by taking the day to read my Bible and watch a movie. I see God’s hand in the 8-year wait to watch this. This movie contains so many of the themes that God has been teaching me over the last year and I guess it wouldn’t have had the same impact on me if I’d seen it way back when.

The premise of the movie is that you do a favour that really helps someone, and rather than having them pay it back to you, you get them to pay it forward to three people. The key however, is that the favour can’t be easy… it has to be something that costs you, something that is hard for you to do!

Several things impacted me as I watched:

• The movie really shows the result of costly love. Relationships take time, energy, commitment… and sacrifice! To love well, we have to give up things we want. Do you live selfishly? Or do you live spending yourself in loving people? God sacrificed more than I will ever be able to when he gave His Son. He asks us to Pay It Forward asking us to love others in return for His incredible gift!
• It is interesting the people who are targeted: a homeless man who has been brought low by his drug habit; a mother who has been the victim of an abusive husband; a criminal; a child who has grown up in a loveless home; a victim of bullying; a suicidal woman; an alcoholic mother. So many broken people are represented in this movie. I love the innocence of Trevor as he invites a homeless man into his house helping him to get on his feet for a time. Jesus came to the broken, the oppressed, the downtrodden. He socialized with the social rejects… He touched the untouchable… He loved the unloveable. No matter how much we have it together, we all have areas of brokenness in our lives. We all need to experience spontaneous acts of love!
• Love is dangerous! Jesus never said “follow me for a safe and happy life”. He told us to love people, and prepared us to “take up our cross and follow him”. Often we relegate this to allowing our selfish desires to be killed off, but it’s more than that. It’s about dangerous love. Now, by that I don’t mean stupid love. But a love that steps out of the boundaries of comfort and safety to love those who need it most. Imitating Jesus to the max could mean my life finishes hanging nailed to a tree. Oh Lord I want to love dangerously for you!
  
• Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite in their book Deadly Viper Character Assassins talk about Radical Grace. Jesus calls us to forgive others for what they do. In the movie, forgiveness is seen to be a huge aspect of loving others - Whether it’s restoring broken relationships by forgiving someone who has hurt you; being merciful when people make mistakes and instead of condemning them you help them to get back on their feet; or even simply believing that someone can change.
• As hippy as this may sound, love can change the world! This is exactly what God intended. If everyone loved, we wouldn’t have locks on our doors, we wouldn’t have starving people in the world, we wouldn’t need jails, people wouldn’t be homeless. So many of the issues in the world today could be solved if we gave up on our selfishness and looked for ways to serve the needs of those around us. God’s love for me changed my life. The love of people around me has changed me. How many lives could you change if you chose to live a life of love?

I’ll finish with a quote from the movie.  I hope I never become this kind of person, but instead live a life of radical love:

I guess it’s hard for people who are so used to things the way they are - even if they’re bad - to change. ‘Cause they kind of give up. And when they do, everybody kind of loses.