I recently and grudgingly went to the theater with my wife to see "Best Man Holiday". I saw the trailers and immediately knew that this would not be a movie that would edify me spiritually. You know the saying, garbage in- garbage out, is true. I try, but don't always get it right, to consume those things that will uplift my spirit, not lead me into temptation or lust and will help me develop a deeper appreciation for God. You know, Paul gives us great advice in Philippians 4:8, "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
So, a renewed mind must be constantly renewed.
Let me say that I don't knock black filmmakers for their efforts but it was plain from the content of this film that the "writers" have a casual knowledge of God, one the denies the power of God and acknowledges the existence of "a god". Maybe he's out there somewhere in the cosmos but there is a "higher power". You know the colloquialisms that we resort to when we don't understand that God is the Almighty God, there is NONE beside him.
Sitting through this movie made me fairly uncomfortable. From Terence Howard's crassness and outright pornographic outbursts to Nia Long's reluctance to give up the...well, if you saw the movie, you know what she said, it was not a very Christian movie at all. They tried to tug at your heart strings with Lance's "faith" and his wife's illness but that too was contrived. Here is a man that claims to love God and yet his basement is a man cave full of liquor and even weed (which was probably imported by Terence Howard). He allowed drug use in his home, albeit in the basement, while his kids were upstairs and his wife, dying from cancer, was also a participant. Not as a medicinal marijuana user, as someone tried to convince me she was, but as a person getting high and reminiscing about the good old days with, you guessed it, Terence Howard's character. A man of faith, a disciple of Jesus Christ, would have no such thing in his home. I am sorry. That's the culturalized Christianity that we are being fed- we don't have to put on the new self (Ephesians 4), we can still be the old us and God understands. We can still be the same person, we just need to pray, read our bibles occasionally and spout off some pious phrases to those that we see. Theirs is a religion of piety and not a true relationship with Christ. Give to the needy, go to church, look the part...but don't be transformed by the renewing of the mind. I am sorry to say that real Christianity does not work that way.
Then there is Harper. This brother is so lost. He claimed at one point to Lance (Chestnut's character) that he should pray because, "he listens to you...he doesn't listen to me." He also is seen at times throughout the movie trying to pray but giving up. He's a picture of the lost soul, looking for anything to redeem himself. He tries to validate himself through his work but he's fired from his job. He's looking for that big break but it eludes him (until the end of course because in this version of life, everything has a happy ending), he's looking to "find himself" without realizing that it is not within that we should look for redemption but to God through Christ. He's conniving and he's also confused. He doesn't know if he loves his wife, which he should, or if he still "loves" Nia Long's character. Part of his confusion stems from his lack of spiritual life. He says, towards the end of the movie that he's basically an atheist. In paraphrasing his words to his friend Lance he says, "I don't know if I can believe in something that allows bad things to happen...". This was how he reacted to Lance's "faith" in the face of his wife's death. There is not a "something" that is out there in outer space, there is Someone that tells us that we will have trouble in this world but to be of good cheer. That someone is Christ! We have been conditioned to believe that God won't ever let bad things happen to us but nothing could be further from the truth. God allows tests and some of His most trusted servants were tested- Job was tried by Satan himself, Peter was sifted as wheat...by Satan himself, Paul was imprisoned, even Jesus was "tempted in every way"...the blessing is God will not allow us to be tested/tempted beyond what we are capable of handling (1 Corinthians 10).
I don't think Harper realized that ALL of his issues stemmed from his lack of relationship with God. He was basically trying to figure everything out on his own. It doesn't work that way. Life without God is no life at all. It is in God that we live, move and have our being. Every situation would destroy us if not for the power of God steadying us in the face of trouble. This man is a portrait of the lost. Chasing his tail, forever living in a conundrum, never finding lasting peace.
Overall, the best part of the movie was the two little girls singing "O' Holy Night". Those lyrics cannot be tampered with or debated as they attest to the greatness of Jesus. I was thoroughly unimpressed after scores of people had told me that I would be crying because the movie was so good. It was emotional but it was not spiritual. I left the theater feeling dirty to be honest because of the crude sexual humor, the numerous sexual comments and the foul language. The worst part of it all is that some people brought their children to this film...which I thought was a terrible idea! Anyway, I am not saying boycott the film, etc. What I am saying is that it did not match up well with my personal values. They gave us a cosmopolitan version of being "Christian" which doesn't really emphasize Christ's supremacy but the supremacy of man. It is an egocentric rather than theocentric, which in the end is simply religiosity. I wish I had seen something else. I am at the point in my walk with Christ that I cannot afford to lose time or consume anything that is not going to help me along. This definitely didn't help. God bless you and keep you.
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