Two DVDs, one big Idea

In the past week I've watched two DVDs. The first was Rhythm, one of the Nooma videos By Rob Bell. The second was August Rush.

August Rush was supposed to be really good, and we finally watched it thanks to a Large drink from McDonald's and a RedBox machine that didn't work. Anyway... It turned out to actually be actually quite good. A bit of a cliffhanger ending, but a really great story. The basic idea is that some people can just hear music in everything. They may be an accomplished musician, a struggling rock star, or just an orphan with no musical training, but if they can hear the music, it will guide them, even haunt them, and never let them go. At one point someone (Robin Williams' kind of deranged character) describes music as "a harmonic connection between all things."

In Rhythm, which is basically a 10 minute sermon with some extra visuals and background music, Rob Bell talks about how he thinks of God like a song. This song is a compelling song, one which is in all people but which some know better than others. It's song we can recognize when we see it, in things like love and truth and justice. And some people, Rob says, have studied it, and know all about the technical aspects of it and can hear things other people can't. Other people just have an innate ability, maybe even an unexplainable ability, to know the song and live it out.

I think as Christians we need to combine these two ideas into a theology of connection, where we recognize that in God we are connected to all people and through God we are shaped and tuned and composed. Different people add harmony. Denominations strengthen the melodies. The song is real, it is everywhere and on some level you can't deny it. God describes God's self as "I am."

God is.

Our striving in life should be to also be as God is.