I've gotta confess- I (Jimmy) love the $5 DVD movie bin at Walmart. Sure, about 80% of the movies in there are titles that have been thoroughly mocked by Mystery Science Theater... but every now & then I find a really good movie in there. And when I do, I usually buy it without much hesitation- after all, it's great and it's only 5 bucks! So when I was back in the States over the holidays, I happened to sneak a peak in the Walmart bin- and lo and behold, I found a great film for only $5- the 1988 classic Rain Man, starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. So naturally, I bought it & brought it back to Australia.
Tonight we came home and watched Rain Man (It is the end of January, but that is the summertime in the southern hemisphere) It was the first time I’d seen it in about 3 years. And man, was it good as ever…..
I was struck by how much, at the beginning of the film, Charlie Babbit (Cruise’s character) sees his brother Raymond as a nuisance, an annoyance, a person he has to endure in order to get what he really wants- money to save his business, and more than that, his half of the inheritance out of which he feels he’s been cheated.
True, he doesn’t understand Raymond’s autistic, savant condition…but the truth is he really doesn’t want to understand. He just wants to get to LA, to get his money, and to get back to his normal life of pursuing things and being independent. The last thing he wants is to babysit this “retard” (as he calls Ray during their road trip) whom he happens to be related to, though no one ever told him.
I was convicted as I watched, because I saw a lot of myself in Charlie (or did I see a lot of Charlie in myself?) I’ve seen how often I tend to view people as an inconvenience, a nuisance, simply talking heads who are getting in my way of the things I want to get done. I get so focused on doing stuff- even “ministry” related stuff for my job- that I forget to check my heart. Am I loving people well? Am I even seeking to love? Am I asking for God’s power to help me love them well? Yes, at times I am. But the truth is that I’ve seen so many, many times that I’m not. I’m often in some kind of work, performance-driven mindset that leads me to totally forget to simply love people, and seek to love them well.
That’s sad to me- but I’m thankful that God is pointing out this sin in me because He wants to change me. I’ve seen a few instances lately of very simple, small things I’ve done as I’ve asked God to help me love people around me- and they’ve been great results for which God deserves the praise. (No joke- when I helped a woman lift some very light boxes into her car outside Ikea, she told me that I'd "restored her faith in men." Good gracious- I helped her lift a few boxes that were not even heavy...and yet she sounded a lot more serious than I'd ever expect)
It awesome to see how Charlie Babbit’s heart changes through the film Rain Man. He ends of valuing and loving his brother, this brilliant yet needy man who really can’t bring much material profit for Charlie. The movie is a broad picture of Charlie’s change of priorities- stemming from a change in his heart.
Lord, will you keep changing my heart so that I may be most concerned with the things You care most about? Like loving You and loving people around me (Mark 12:29-31)
Like I said, I really love the $5 DVD bin. It’s amazing the gems you can find in there.
