Movie Review : God's Not Dead

Our professor instructed us to write our thoughts about the movie "God's Not Dead" and how it can be related to our topic about spiritual convictions that a guidance practitioners apply to their profession.

GOD’S NOT DEAD

            The story is about a college freshman, along with other key characters, and the different ways of standing on and holding on to their own set of life principles which would later on be focused on their philosophy about God’s existence. The story shows how people’s set of belief or principle affects how they run their lives and make choices and decisions according to it. The following are my observation and insights about the film:

The story opens up showing mundane activities of the characters. This kind of opening reminds the viewers about the existentialist orientation of the film. Is God really dead? Is he really present in each man’s activity, in every day of his life?

The story continues on showing the different life conditions of each key characters and the dilemma in it that they are facing. (Example: The Islamic girl who seems to feel caged on her religious orientation, the confused Chinese guy who has just immersed on a strange country, the curious media girl who gathers many answers from people, etc.) This depiction begins to get the audience into thinking “If God is not dead, how is He working on the lives of these characters?” or “How will God reveal himself to them?”

The challenge of the professor to his students to write “God’s not dead.” on their paper is a metaphor of reality that exists in schools. The opinion of our teachers easily becomes a reality for us especially to those who do not have a clear stand on things. I just realized how influential a teacher can be in forming attitudes of his students especially to those who are intellectually vulnerable.

The Islam girl caught by her brother listening to a Christian podcast and was reprimanded by her conservative dad. But the girl holds on to her belief and accepts her father’s rejection. She is strong enough to bear the consequence of her choice even if it means disowning by her family. Such a bravery!    

As the scene goes on, the background music plays a song with lyrics, “What I know is you, my God, are real; no matter what I feel..” This is a kind of attitude that we should always have in mind as believers. God is God no matter what you are going through. Sometime we just recognize God when we are in the peak of our emotions (either when we are so happy or when we are deeply sad). What about when God seems to be silent in our lives? Do we still acknowledge Him?

My favorite part of the film is when the lead actor and the professor debated in front of the class and the scene went on like this:

Prof: “So you’re saying that it all boils down to choice: believe or not believe?”

Guy: “That’s right, that’s all there is. That’s all there’s ever been!..(but) you take away their choice.

Why the guy becomes successful at convincing his classmates to affirm their long-held belief and not be swayed by what the rude professor pressures them to believe in is that: he successfully overcomes it himself. It takes bravery and courage to stand by what you think is true. The redeeming part of the story was when the Chinese guy stands up and said, “God is not dead”, and everyone else follow. That scene was powerful at conveying the change of hearts among the students who were intimidated by the professor, and profess their personal conviction about God.

I also liked the scene when the professor was hit by the car and was about to die then the pastor came and help him reconcile with God by processing his own belief with respect to his bitter experiences. At the end, the professor murmurs, “So are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts..”  My personal opinion in relation to it is this: if we believe in God we should also believe that He is God. Acknowledging that there is God is not enough. We should also believe in his Godness. That is we submit to His will because we acknowledge that his Godness means he is all-knowing, ever-present and almighty God. Many times we profess our faith in Him but we unconsciously make ourselves the lord of our lives. So it is helpful to remind ourselves that God’s thoughts and ways are better than ours. Surely, it delivers rather than incarcerates us.

            Now how does the movie relate to the philosophical foundations of Guidance? I cannot think of certain relevance but it helps when I go back to the line of that rude professor when he say, ““So you’re saying that it all boils down to choice: believe or not believe?” I realized how important it is to have your own personal conviction of things, which is why our professor taught us to form our own philosophy of human nature. We shall benefit from that.

Like what the famous line says, “IF YOU DO NOT STAND FOR SOMETHING, YOU’D FALL IN ANYTHING.”