MRM: Gifted Hands

Today it is Movie Review Monday, and we’re going to take a look at the worldview behind the movie Gifted Hands.

Gifted Hands is the Ben Carson story; the story of his life, from the hard life of a young boy in a single parent home just making it by, to the most renowned neurosurgeon in the world.

The Worldview:

Ben Carson had a hard childhood, and the movie uses that fact to push his character to the man he eventually became. 

The movie has his past influencing his future. A TV game show is his incentive for learning and he doesn’t like being made fun of in school. The motives are selfish. He doesn’t learn because he wants to help people. He learns all he can so he won’t feel like a loser and won’t disappoint his mother.

Carson falls into the wrong crowd. He develops anger issues, a short temper, and a pride that gets him into trouble. This drives him so far that he nearly knifes a kid. Then, there is a turning point in the film where he breaks. Everything he had done up to that point had brought him to a brokenness. He recognizes God without naming him, and asks him to take away the pride and the anger.

What it Should be:

Credit for the transformation in young Carson was offered to God, but not attributed to God. Carson’s motives for learning to become a neurosurgeon seem to be entirely selfish. He wants to see and experience the magic of the brain and its intricacies. Carson, even after his change, as miraculous as it was, is still not living for the glory of God. He lives as a Christian, upright, cheerful, offering prayers and thanks to God in his life. He even says once, in anticipation of the biggest operation of his lifetime, that he prays every day.

Summary:

I was grossed out by the surgery scenes during the last 30 minutes of the movie, and actually commenced to writing my thoughts down during such scenes to divert my eyes. It’s amazing what surgeons do and what Dr. Carson has done… But, I just don’t want to have to see it. God created the most amazing thing when he created the human body, specifically the brain. He is amazing, and though they speak of the awesomeness of the brain, they lack to speak of the awesomeness of the one who created the brain. God is the great physician, and the gifted hands of Dr. Carson were formed by Him. 

The movie is great, and Cuba Gooding Jr. was stupendous! Though it’s not my favorite genre or style of movie to watch, I enjoyed it, because it was driven by a story, not just a character. I enjoyed it because it had a strong message, I just think it had an incorrect motive.

The purpose of this film was to encourage people to live beyond social expectations and exceed the marks set for them. But what good is an exemplary life if it is not lived for Christ. The story was good, but the glory was God’s, and this movie robbed some of God’s glory by giving credit to Carson for the miracles his gifted hands wrought.

As always, thanks for reading.

–the anonymous novelist 

Soapbox

Once every four years I talk about politics. Now, I’m not a fan of politics by any stretch of the mind, I do not enjoy keeping up with debates and polls and things of that nature. It is not that I do not care who wins, as a citizen and voter of the United States People’s Government, I have the right and obligation to ensure by my one vote that the right person gets into office. So, I care a great deal about the fate of this country and who will lead it, I’m just not overly thrilled with the discussion, back-bitting, and slander it takes to get there.

There has been one candidate who has been pretty standup throughout the duration of the race thus far, and that is Dr. Ben Carson. Though the man has had no political experience, he has handled every question brilliantly and has found solutions to many of the problems facing our country. However, I’m not going to continue this post with Dr. Carson, because I can think of no evil to speak against him. What is a soapbox for if you can’t bash someone or something?

In contrast to Carson we have other GOP candidates who are very backhanded, under the table kind of guys. Donald Trump, (sorry Trump fans), is one of those guys. He has succeeded in making himself look like the biggest jerk currently in the election, and I say that with respect for the man himself, but a growing dislike to political side of him. Trump acts like a viper, whether it be picking a fight with news casters, Hillary Clinton, or real candidates, he sets himself up as a news target and has made it clear he will do anything get attention; bar nothing, even his hair seems like an obvious ploy to get noticed and be remembered. Think about it, what is the first thing to jump into your mind when I say: Donald Trump? Besides billions of dollars that is.

Though I believe Trump would be a very strong, very economical leader, I simply do not like his politics. But, I’m not sure which is worse, Trump’s hair, or Hillary Clinton’s computer password; as if the Clinton’s didn’t have enough problems already.

Hillary Clinton… Where to begin. She has blown the entire election for herself. Her reputation and that of her husband was already 1 strike against her, the only thing she had majorly going for her was the “woman” vote. Though they won’t admit it, people will vote for a woman on no merit whatsoever other than her gender. However, with Carly Fiorina in the race, and this email scandal, I think Hillary has even lost the “woman” vote, or at least a large portion of it.

Whether they deserve it or not, none of the other candidates are polling anywhere close to the top 3 or 4. Though I can not speak for anyone else, I pray God will put the right leader into office to take us out of this murky quagmire into which we have slid.

You can learn a lot about a person by what they say when running for office. What beliefs will they compromise, what corners will they cut, is their word sacred to them or do the spend it idly and let it fall back on itself? There have been many claims, many promises, some for good, most for evil, and many simply to win a vote or 2. George Washington was one of the only presidents to fulfill all of his campaign promises. Mainly because he made none, he was elected by unanimous vote without delivering a single speech or uttering one promise. 

I can tell you one thing, no matter what the, so called, “Supreme Court” says, they have no authority to redefine marriage, or life, or anything else. Constitutionally they have no right to make the choices they are making for our country. This is still our country. Not the Government’s, not the Supreme Court’s, it belongs to us. We need to speak out against these injustices, these transgressions of our authority. It is our duty to call out the factions and institutions that we have established, when they are out of line. So, why don’t we? 

I’ll just leave you with this, if the judicial system can remove our rights in the way that they are, and suppose that they have the authority to redefine God’s laws set into existance before the foundations of the earth was laid, then what is to prevent the highest authority in our country from doing the same or worse? I want to caution you to not so much listen to what these candidates say, but to pay close attention to who they are and how they behave. Because who they are in the race is who they will be in office. Their words may sound nice, but do they kick other candidates when they are down? Do they look for fault and exploit it? Do they defame other people in public and embarrass them to bring attention to themselves? These are not the qualities we want in a leader. 

A leader should be a gentleman. Yes I did specify gentleman because God has ordained that man lead. In history, the only times that women have taken lead of a people is when men are afraid to. Let us not fall to the place where we will bring shame upon our nation by electing a woman, someone that men are sworn to protect, become the most targeted indivual in the nation. Well, my soapbox is getting slippery, and I’m really not fond of it anyway. So, this concludes my tyraid. Be looking for another post akin to this one sometime in the next 4 years.

As always, thanks for reading. I encourage you to pray about this election, who does God want in office?

–the anonymous novelist