Fireproof

I am one of only 27 people in the entire country who subscribes to Blockbuster Online instead of Netflix. I continue to stay loyal to Blockbuster because I don't care about streaming online video or instant downloads or any of that technological mumbo-jumbo, because I only watch one movie at a time (so what do I care if I can three at a time for the same price at Netflix), and because I still love to wander aimlessly around the movie store until they close and I finally pick something at random. Often, Bill will join me so he can lecture me on the superiority of Netflix and give me movie suggestions to ignore. One night last week at around 11:30 pm, Bill and I made one such trip, and after four or five horrible suggestions which were dutifully ignored, he said, "Have you seen this?" and handed me Fireproof. I had not, although I had wanted to. It was suggested by Bill, which normally is enough to overcome any previous desire I had to see a movie, but for some reason I chose it anyway. I have heard a lot of people talking about good it was, how wonderful the message was, how it has been leading people and families to the Lord, blah blah blah. So I wanted to see what all the hype was about, and to throw a bone to the Protestants who did us a solid by helping to make The Passion of the Christ one of the 10 highest grossing films in US history. However, it being a fundamentalist propaganda piece, I was not terribly enthused, as I am still suffering from the after-effects of Left Behind and Megiddo.

After watching it twice on consecutive nights, I came away with three thoughts:

1. Kirk Cameron is actually still a good actor.
2. Protestants understand marriage a lot better than I thought.
3. I don't love my wife nearly enough.

It's not that there was anything in the movie that I didn't already know, but it is a pointed reminder to husbands that their pursuit of their wives must not end on their wedding day. If you don't set a goal for yourself when you wake up every morning to know your wife better and to be more in love with her by the time you go to bed, you've failed to uphold your marriage vows that day. A thousand times I've heard the analogy of likening prayer to a relationship with a loved one: "If you don't spend time with them, talk to them, and continue to get to know them better, your relationship won't flourish." But too many people don't even apply this logic to their spousal relationships, much less to God. I would recommend the movie to any married couple - it's not Oscar-worthy, but it's a legitimate theater-worthy film (amazing when considering the only professional actor was Kirk Cameron and the entirety of the rest of the cast was volunteers from the Baptist church that produced it), and it distills marriage down to its essence. Living as we do in the midst of the world, worrying about all the "what"s and "when"s and "how"s of time and money and stuff and places and people, we need to be reminded of the "why" once in a while.

And yes, I did tear up. Once. If anyone has seen it, feel free to take a guess as to which scene it was.