My sister and I were chatting on the phone about a particular new television series she has started watching, one of many to choose from this fall. In that conversation, she pointed out how there was a day when T.V. was on the bottom of celebrity hierarchy, and Hollywood’s big screen was where an actor or actress received ultimate recognition. Today, however, celebrity prowess is just as legitimately showcased through television series as anywhere.
The once 2 hour movie, with its box-and-bow “conflict, climax and resolution”, is being trumped by seemingly endless drama series of roller coaster conflicts, climaxes and temporary resolutions (just to be interrupted by further conflict). What was once designated for only soap operas, is now the drama of everyday T.V. The suspense, the sexiness, the scandal, the evil, the rolling laughter…we want it in every show, at its highest quality, everyday.
This same obsession seems to carry over into books as well, with the mass consumer’s newfound reading interest… in book sets. In the last decade, sequels, trilogies and sagas seem to be masquerading out of the book world. Harry Potter blew up just before this Millennium came around, but that was just the seed… Steig Larsson’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, James’ Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Meyer’s Twilight… the list goes on.
What is it, in each of us, that makes us obsess over a good story and never want it to end? Could it be we were made for an endless story? Eternity, perhaps? (Ecc 3:11) Why is it so much easier for my husband and I to meditate on Wednesday night’s “Chicago Fire” than it is our small group’s scripture questions for the week? Could it be that our itch for drama, bent toward adventure, and shy appreciation for good sex scenes reveals something very true about who we are as God’s creation? Better yet, does it reveal something very true about God Himself?
My point: maybe the drama moves us inside because its supposed too. Maybe a good story speaks to our desires because it is supposed too. Maybe we were made for a story, bigger than we can see, bigger than we can fathom and in it is war and love and comedy and thrill and tears. I believe God did not accidentally impart desire in us. I believe God has every intention to fulfill our desires—in perfect, biblical, holy ways…if not in this world, the world to come. “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” -CS.Lewis
Book suggestions: To be told, by PhD. Dan Allender; Epic, by John Eldridge.
