Car Battery

The movie Inception just released on DVD. So, I rented it and I watched it. I'm a film nut. Film has the ability to weave a multitude of ideas together and tell a story at the same time. That is why you can watch certain movies over and over again and every time you'll find something new.

Anyway, I watched Inception. The movie was everything the commercials and critics said it would be, but I saw something a little different. In the midst of the movie there was one piece of dialogue that seemed to stick with me. As Tom Cobb, Leonardo DiCaprio's character, is searching for a way to change his target's dreams he and his team begin to debate how they should go about implanting an idea in the host dreamers subconscious.

As you you would guess planting an idea in someone's subconscious is very difficult. This leads to a discussion between DiCaprio and one of his team members named Eames. Eames suggests that the idea should be based on negativity and that it should be centered around the host dreamers disfunctional relationship with his father. However, Dicaprio's character rebuts Eames by saying, "No, cause I think positive emotion trumps negative emotion every time. We all crave reconciliation - we're catharsis."

This is the part that sounded pretty Jesus-like to me. It is true that positive emotion is more powerful than any form of negativity. If you don't believe me look at the non-violent protests of Gandhi or the Civil Rights Movement. The idea that love is bigger that hate has the ability to change lives and it forces us to reconcile not only with ourselves, but with God. That is why this part of the movie stuck with me. "We all crave reconciliation - we're catharsis."

Catharsis is an idea that was founded by Aristotle. Simply put, catharsis is a cleansing process that restores our spirit. And we all crave to be reconciled with our past and our mistakes. That is why this piece of dialogue is so powerful. God seeks to reconcile us and it is through His Son, but it won't stand if it is through negativity. We cannot reconcile anything with an angry heart.

That is why I don't believe in breaking people down. There are a lot of churches and ministries that will tell you that you're a terrible person. They'll tell you don't deserve God because you're so messed up and dirty. And I'll agree that we are all unworthy of a perfect God, but He wants us still.

That is why Jesus is such an enigma. God's people are broken and nasty, but He still wants to be reconciled with us. He wants to renew us so much that He sent perfection to be beaten and murdered in the hopes that we might find catharsis with Him.

You are not what the world has led you to believe you are. God desires to be in communion with you and that is because He loves you. True reconciliation starts with the positivity of God's love because "positive emotion trumps negative emotion every time."

- Blake Trent