As we read the Bible, we see that Jesus communicated mostly through stories, referred to as parables. We just started our “At the Movies” series and are going to do something similar by examining the biblical truths found in movies.
We highlighted The Greatest Showman this past Sunday! What it taught us is that life often becomes a quest to fill the void in our hearts. We all long for a life where we get everything we want and need, and get to beeverything we want to be.
One of the scenes in The Greatest Showman shows young Barnum assisting his father who is a tailor. He is mistreated by both his father and his client. After his father’s death, he faces poverty and eventually makes a life for himself. He begins fulfilling dreams.
Ever notice that when you’re young, you dream big? Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us, “…God has planted eternity in the hearts of men…” It seems nothing can stand in the way—our faith is big, our doubts are few, and our cynicism is almost non-existent. But then everything changes. The reality of the fallen world we live in begins to sink in. We try to fill the emptiness we feel inside. The world has some standard remedies for filling the void…
Money
Staying young looking
Having power over people
The right boyfriend or girlfriend
The right family
The right job
Security
Popularity
Fame
But each of these fails to permanently fill that void in our hearts. Each has an expiration date. There’s a fascinating line in the song “A Million Dreams” sung by young Barnum. He says, “I think of what the world could be—a vision of the one I see—a million dreams is all it’s gonna take…” In the movie, Barnum gets a rough start in life. He works hard to see his dreams come true. But he focuses too much on temporal things and starts to worry moreabout how he appears to others than about what he was doing to fulfill his dreams or change the world. He begins neglecting his family and those working for him in the circus.
Let’s look at the rest of that verse in Ecclesiastes 3:11. “…even so, many cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” While Barnum does redeem himself later in the movie, what I want to focus on today is this: We should have dreams and ambitions, but we should always put others (and especially God) before ourselves. If we don’t, our dreams will become realities, but might result in failures that hurt others.