On a mission from God?

One of my favorite movie lines comes from The Blues Brothers, in which Elwood often repeats, "We're on a mission from God." Last night, we watched the movie Evan Almighty. Jen and I LOVED it! I thought it was a good, wholesome movie the whole family can enjoy. But I also thought of how Evan saying that God "told" him to build an ark ranked right up there with hearing voices and believing they are someone else. In other words, the whole thing screamed, "Insanity!" (Another movie, Frailty, highlights that very same downside of receiving messages from the Man upstairs.)

This reminds me of a joke I always get a good chuckle over.

One night at the asylum, a man exclaimed from his cell, "I am Napoleon!"

"Who told you you are Napoleon?" a cellmate asked.

"God told me."

Another man from a cell down the hall replied, "I did not!"

How sad that, these days, receiving a message from God is akin to having a psychotic episode or mental illness. I could see how people going around killing certain races or religions all in the name of the Almighty could have something wrong with them in the head, but when God tells someone to do a certain task (like build an ark -- hey, it's a free country, ain't it??) or make a change for the better in their lifestyle (stop drinking, stop smoking, pray more often, etc.), what's the harm? Why is it so bad? As long as they're doing something that doesn't hurt anyone or something that's really quite innocent, who cares if they got the "message" to do so from Donald Duck??

As I watched that movie, I also thought about something else. The fact that the story included a remake of Noah's Ark. I remember another movie, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, and of how, when asked, "Who was Joan of Arc?" Ted replied, "Noah's wife?" Ah, yes. Joan of Arc. Yet another recipient of a message from the Man upstairs. And look at what happened to her. Maybe that right there made God rethink this whole "giving people messages" thing. Maybe He decided it was better to be a little more subtle on the whole giving part and also a little more heavy on that "proving I mean business" part. (Though I think the whole "Genesis 6:14" thing in the movie was a bit overdone.)

With the kind of world we live in today, people are not so accepting of the idea that God is giving people messages. Our first impression is that they are crazy or...having some kind of midlife crisis. But I think what's important is that, despite society's reluctance to accept the fact that God speaks to His people, His people never lose faith. That's what most important. That we don't lose faith in what God has planned. Evan never lost faith in God that a flood was going to happen, even though he had a little doubt. He never lost faith. His wife learned of the importance in having faith in her husband. (At first I was mad that she just left him like that. You don't just drop someone if you love them! You stick by them and try to HELP them!) These people were not perfect. They were not religious fanatics. But they learned of just how important it is to "keep the faith" despite EVERYBODY thinking they were crazy, and of how strong that faith will make them when God rewards their faith in the end.