CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST

Return to CypresswoodJuly-August2007

August 5, 2007

25424 Aldine-Westfield, Spring, TX. 77373

www.geocities.com/adon77373/cypresswoodbulletin.htm

PRAYER REQUESTS:

Our congregation     Various friends, relatives, and co-workers

Our nation, leaders and military   The persecuted church

EVAN ALMIGHTY

"So make yourself an ark of cypress wood, make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out" (Genesis 6:14).

How would you respond if God came to you and told you to build an ark? How did the people of Noah's day respond as they watched Noah and his sons build an ark for one hundred years? Ridicule? Laughter? The old guy has flip his lid. Do you remember Bill Cosby's Noah routine. "Noah. Noah. This is God Noah." And what does God want? Build an ark. "What's an ark?"

Evan Almighty is a delightful comedy, and it takes quality comedy to make me laugh; and I laughed quite a bit watching this movie. Evan, a television news anchor, becomes a Congressman from Buffalo, New York. He and his wife and three sons move to Washington and begin settling in. The first night there, Evan and Joan have a conversation. The boys prayed early in the evening. Joan prayed that the family would become closer. Evan had run on the theme that he was going to change the world, so Joan suggests that he ask God for help. Evan prays that and that is when things begin to happen.

The alarm clock is a General Electric one and when it goes off, Gen 6:14 is the time. 6:14 plays an important role in the early part of the movie. Animals, which Evan isn't particular fond of, begin following him. He meets God, played by Morgan Freeman, coming to answer his prayer. Wood, animals and God telling him to build an ark. Evan resists and this is part of the comedy. At the end of the movie, God and Evan are talking and Evan states that he resisted God throughout the building process. I thought that was an important recognition and God responds that he still finished the task. How many times are we that way? Jim McGuiggan has a similar thought in an article entitled "For the really fed up!" His point is that even though life has its frustrations, the end is going to be amazing (1).

There is of course a bad guy in all of this and he is played by John Goodman, a Congressman who through business deals, made money at the cost of short cuts in several projects. This all comes to play near the end of the movie. The comedian that played Evan's secretary was hilarious and contributed to the humor in the movie. Most everyone thought Evan had gone crazy and much comment was made about that. Even is wife Joan thought he had flipped out over the stress of Washington.

Needless to say, the ark was built, the flood came, people and animals were saved and Evan and family had their faith strengthened. Computer generated scenes were excellent, the humor was clean, and the themes were thought provoking. 

There were two themes I thought important. The first dealt with prayer. Joan and the boys had left Evan and found themselves in a restaurant. She was hungry and the boys were not. They leave and a waiter comes to her, that being Morgan Freeman. The message given to prayer is important. God, in speaking to Joan, said something to the effect that when you pray for patience, does God make you patient or does He give you circumstances to be patient? Does He make your family closer or does He give you circumstances to make you closer? What a great answer to the subject of prayer and well worth heeding.

Joan and the boys return and help Evan complete the ark building.

The second theme is the answer to Evan's prayer about changing the world. God asks Evan several times how one changes the world. The answer is that of "one act of random kindness." It might be adopting a stray dog, building an ark and saving people, taking care of the planet, and many other acts. 

How do we change the world? We can look at the world and think it is impossible even with God's help. Or we might think that we want to be so famous so as to influence many people. Most of us will never reach such a goal. But we do live in our little corners of the world and it is here that we can influence people to change. That I think is the message given to Evan by God. Look at the phrase carefully in "act of random kindness" and see what you notice (2).

Knowing the Bible helps in understanding the movie and one will catch some of the subtleties of the movie. The produces did capture that part of the text. There are a couple of humorous things from modern culture, like a movie billboard showing a play on a movie that the lead character starred in a year or so ago.

This is a clean and funny movie for all to see.

                                                George B. Mearns

(1) Jim McGuiggan, www.jimmcguiggan.com under weekly archives.

(2) act of random kindness - ARK