“EAT PRAY LOVE”
(2010) (Julia Roberts, Javier Bardem) (PG-13)
(2010) (Julia Roberts, Javier Bardem) (PG-13)
The above is a mini-review of “Eat Play Love”, the new Julia Roberts film. It comes from www.screenit.com. As I scrolled down the review, there were lots and lots of specifics that I would never even place on this blog. There seemed to be just a barrage of trash can material, especially in the category of imitative behavior: phrases. Suffice it to say that it makes me very sad to see and hear people of God endorse this movie on their facebook pages, blogs and/or in their casual conversation with others, especially in their conversations with people of the world, who are often sizing up the church simultaneously as they assess us, personally. I am ashamed that my Lord has to see His people endorsing Hollywood’s entertainment cesspool, when he has so clearly given us the call to “abstain from the very appearance of evil” (I Thess. 5: 22). We cannot pretend to be sanctified when we are choosing raunchy entertainment. We don’t have to see it. We don’t even need to see it. Entertainment, on the whole, is optional. When we, as his people make rational choices to ingest unholy and spiritually destructive media, mark it down: we will be negatively affected. Our characters will suffer. Our influence for Him will deteriorate. “As [a man] thinks in his heart, so is he,” (Prov. 23:7) Can I beg you to honestly answer the question before pursuing any optional path in life? Here it is: “Is this the choice I would make if Jesus were right here– going with me?” If the answer is no, then YOU are the reason you are not still walking with Him. He has not moved. Oh, he still knows your choices and those choices to be entertained by sin are still hurting Him; the One who died for you. But you get to choose. Will you make choices that will pull you over onto the broad path of the world? He is still beckoning with blood stained hands on the narrow path that leads to life. May we see the hypocrisy in singing “Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary,” and “Purer in heart O God, help me to be…” and “More and more like Jesus,” while we continue to enjoy the works of the flesh as Hollywood presents them to us. We will be unable to convince lost people to leave sin if we are enjoying it on the screen from a comfortable seat in the theater. Let’s be real.