You know from past posts that I enjoy classic movies. Clever dialog, innovative lighting techniques, easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys...
I did pause to smile at what I thought was overacting in "Gaslight," the classic Hitchcock mystery I just watched.
In it, Ingrid Bergman is slowly being driven mad by her husband. The cad wants poor Ingrid sent off to hospital so he can search the attic for priceless jewels that her aunt hid there.
In a climatic scene, after he finds the jewels and is caught red handed, the unraveling husband snivels to her,
"You have to understand, it's like a sickness, I had to have them above all else!" or words to that effect.
I almost laughed out loud. Almost.
In black and white movie lighting, the jewels he's found look dull and lifeless in his grubby hands.
Beside him, despite all her onscreen torment, is this exquisitely intelligent, well mannered and beautiful woman.
And he had a sickness for those jewels ?! Are you kidding me?
What man in his right mind would trade such crass materialism for such a vibrant, loving creature?
"Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Luke 12:33-34
What person in their right mind would trade bland, monochromatic philosophy for the vibrant, Living God?
Who could value salvation based on their own sense of merit above freely given, redemptive Grace?
Why would anyone choose to avoid repentance in the Light, just so they could continue to struggle in Darkness?
Are you kidding me? It almost makes the guy with the jewels look pragmatically well-intentioned.
Almost.
What do you believe?
