Babel

Watched Babel (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0449467/) last night. This is the latest movie by Alejandro Gonzalez who brought us 21 Grams & Amores Perros among others. He is certainly a man who thinks hard as a he formulates a plot that will take us on a global journey as well as on a soul journey. As one watches the drama unfold one is taken not only to the four corners of our world but also deep into the core of who we are as persons. A tag line for this movie is that pain is universal. After watching the movie my wife asked what was it that connected the four ongoing stories that make the whole and it is just that pain! Whether one is part of a destitute Morrocan farming family, an immensely wealthy Japanese businessman or a Mexican immigrant working illegally in the USA one thing that is capable of connecting us is pain.

Pain obviously can be encountered in a plethora of ways. Where there is absolute financial security for one there can be a chasm of despair due to the loss of a loved one; where there is freedom from all the cares of the Western rat-race there can be the consuming struggle of poverty. Yet the reality of pain is certain, there is not a people group, race, financial bracket that will escape this reality. In the movie Babel, an incident in Morrocco starts a chain that not only amazes you due to the connectedness of those thousands of miles apart, but a chain of revelation, revelation that aside from the physical connectedness there is this 'soul' connectedness- each personal-narrative is connected by this meta-narrative of pain being part of our human existence.

There are not enough blogs in the world that could transfer the information necessary for us to understand and accept pain. Mainly because an information transfer is not what is needed. Redemption is what is needed, a restoration to an existence where pain is not 'part of the norm.' That existence is not part of this world though. C.S. Lewis (an Irish Christian who taught at Oxford university) touched briefly on this in his book The Problem of Pain as he speaks of one of the major factors of pain. Breathe these words in
The possibility of pain is inherent in the very existence of a world where souls can meet. When souls become wicked they will certainly use this possibility to hurt one another. (Pg. 70)
Lewis seems to speak into the overarching plot of Babel in this brief comment and he brings it down to a matter of the need for a change in the human make-up, a soul-change. None of the pain in the storyline of Babel is outside of man and his propensity to hurt another. From a 10 year old Morroccan to an aged Mexican, all appear to have this default setting. There is a need for a 'redemption' of this default setting within each individual before there can be hope of the redemption of our world. Christ claimed this power stating to many, "Go away your sins are forgiven." He makes souls new, redeems individuals and certainly, I believe, is in the process of bringing about the thorough renewal of this world.
Babel reminds me that I, as one who knows this great story of redemption, have much work to do to tell a pain-filled 'global village' about this wonderful redeemer! And you?