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One movie that I found
like, really inspiring was an American film called
"Lars and the Real Girl." It's about an emotionally stunted young man
played by Ryan Gosling who, who's deeply lonely. He's living in a
garage at the back at his sister's house, and he
orders one of those blow-up dolls.
He dresses her up and she becomes his chaste
partner. He names her, and he creates a whole story about her - about the fact
that she was a missionary in
South America and she's returned home.
He, he ends up inventing this kinda whole fantastical world of this
this, this, this beautiful chaste relationship between him and this
doll. So his sister goes to a psychiatrist and says, "what do I do? This is crazy. He
wants to bring the doll to dinner,
wants to walk the doll around town," and the psychiatrist said, "oh, well, don't
don't,
don't break the fantasy. That could be very psychologically damaging. You've got to
go with the fantasy and allow him to slowly be weaned
off this doll." So her and her husband have great difficulty doing that, but there's
a lot of comical scenes with her husband - oh, I think he's a builder or a truck driver -
has to
pretend that Bianca's actually a real member of the family.
And there's even a scene where they go to the minister of the church, and they explain
to him
that she's, that he's gonna be bringing Bianca to church.
And here's the whole church accepts this, this thing in this man's life with the view
to, to moving him forward and it's a beautiful, beautiful picture.
This doll basically represents Lars'
Lars' brokenness, Lars' desperate loneliness,
Lars' fear and his laziness. And then
the pictures of his sister and her husband and of the minister and the psychiatrist and of the
whole community -
slowly but surely accepting his brokenness,
not saying it's a good thing or a natural thing, accepting it,
acknowledging him in grace
and, and with love and allowing him to slowly but surely let
this doll go, which he does. I found it a deeply moving picture because the doll
represents human
brokenness. Lars is a very attractive and appealing guy,
and the way this community responds is just the way I reckon
churches and neighborhoods should be.
We are all broken people, and churches ought to be places where we are accepted
but we're loved and acknowledged but we're always called to move beyond our fear
and our laziness without accepting that that happens just like that,
not expecting someone just to suddenly cease this or change that or do
that.
But to allow us in the context of a community to slowly but surely allow
courage and, and work - the courage and work of Christ in our lives
to lead us onto something better than we are. I don't think we can do it on our
own.
I think that story, that film really beautifully demonstrates that this is a
communal
activity for all of us.