You read the title correctly. Hollywood’s most sought after director/producer (of “Star Wars” fame) this past week in USA Today inadvertantly commented on worldliness. In an interview with the newspaper, Lucas was seeking to squelch the rising hopes and high expectations being placed on his upcoming installation in the “Indiana Jones” series which is due out in the end of May.
This is what he said: “When you do a movie like this, a sequel that is very, very anticipated, people anticipate ultimately that it’s going to be the Second Coming, and it’s not. It’s just a movie. Just like the other movies.”
That’s right George: it’s just a movie, just like the other movies.
I’ve been there many times, the theater lights come on at the end of film (that everyone’s talking about!) and there is that sense of, well, disappointment. Movies just don’t satisfy. They’re just movies.
Lucas would be shocked to find his statements line up with the great church father, Augustine of Hippo (a place, not the animal), when he said in his famous “Confessions”: “Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless until it repose in Thee.”
A Bach cantata, Switchfoot concert, Clapton guitar solo, sit-com episode and George Lucas movie all have this in common: entertainment and culture never deliver.
Worldliness can be simply defined as “love of the world and its trappings” (1 Jn. 2:15). To love the world is to purposefully set aside God and His priorities for the joys and satisfaction that this world promises. Sometimes the worldliness that creeps in our hearts takes the form of a dullness that paves the way for a distractible, restless desire to be entertained. Do you know that feeling?
It is possible to enjoy culture and entertainment to the glory of God, but we must take care that our hearts do not become fazed from the reality of the Savior and His life-encompassing gospel. Worldliness comes quickly to the soul that even slightly loosens its grip from Christian priorities that flow from the Gospel.
Far different from worldliness and the insatiable desire for entertainment, Christ always delivers on His promises. The soul that finds its repose on Him will not be easily entertained or satisfied by the sights or sounds of this world.
As a music lover, I must purposely retreat from the hope that seeks its fulfillment in guitar tones or vocal technique. In all the enjoyment I receive from a George Lucas film, or any other trapping of our culture’s art and music, I must endeavor to enjoy it with this squarely in mind: The Lord Jesus alone is able to save and to satisfy.
One thought to ponder and to ask a friend or family member: Do I invest too much time, thought and desire into entertainment and culture?
Whenever faced with the hopes and desires of fulfillment in the things of our culture and the joys that entertainment promise us, let’s reconsider, with Lucas, that in the end, “it’s just a movie, just like the other movies.”
