La La Land Plan
March 2, 2017
Just a quick update before sharing a guest blog today. The winner of the Oscar Night Bragging Rights was me! I hate to brag (okay, I really don’t) but my ballot submission won, even with the Best Picture Blunder! I voted for the wrong Best Picture, but I still won, and this year the ante was upped from just bragging rights to an AMC Movie gift card! I guess I’ll have to use it to see the real best picture winner!
However, today, a good friend from Canada, Dr. Marsha Boyd Mitchell, is sharing her insights and reaction to La La Land.
Dr. Mitchell is a the principal of Sussex Christian School in Sussex, New Brunswick, Canada.
Here’s her musing of the “not best picture of the year”, La La Land, entitled “La La Land Plan”:
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 6:33
Have you ever had a moment where your whole life flashed before your eyes? Sebastian (lead character) in La La Land has a moment like this in the Oscar Nominated movie. He has a moment where he wonders —a life with different choices could mean the difference of a life with the woman he loves or a life without her.
I saw this movie on a recent business trip to the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). While this movie does not follow prescribed Christian morality, it is an old-fashioned love story and much more heart-warming than most Hollywood movies nominated for best picture. While on my trip I reconnected with a lady whom I’d gotten to know a few years ago on a similar trip.
The last time I saw Mrs. T____, she and her husband were looking for a university for their son. He was a young man looking to study theology and science. In our conversations I mentioned Crandall University. Crandall University in Moncton, NB is a long way from GTA, but a great school that could offer both of his areas of study.
Now three years later, her son is well on his way to finishing his second year at Crandall, studying both of his passions science and theology. Although mom doesn’t like the distance, she feels God’s hand has been leading all the way. In her prayers she sensed the Lord had a special young woman out East for her son. Indeed, this young man has met a young lady who loves the Lord and wants to serve Him in the sciences. If different choices had been made would these two have found each other?
I watched La La Land and, honestly, it took my breath away thinking about my dear husband, Colin. Oh how this movie reminded me of my own youth. What is it about the folly of youth to think you’ll be young forever? At risk of sounding too sentimental, Colin is: the love of my life, my best friend, sounding board, and confidant. However, it did take me 6 years of dating to get it all figured out. Seeing this movie took me back 20 years and reminded me we live and die by the choices we make.
It can be daunting for youth to make dating choices and consider a partner for life. We can in fact simply rely on following God’s Kingdom. Throughout our lives God blesses us; our loving Father has good gifts for us and He blesses many in marriage and with children. The theology of “all these things” is a bit mysterious to us, but it is just so important that we concentrate on the first part of the verse—seek first the Kingdom of God. He has a plan for us and when we live for Him we can trust His plan. When we fear the Lord we do not have to fear Sebastian’s moment in the movie—if we seek first God’s Kingdom He directs our paths. –MBM