What does it look like to live in Christ, and love as he loves? What does it look like to be kind to someone who is suffering? The movie, Lars and the Real Girl, provides a breath-taking glimpse at what happens when people focus on the needs of of someone else. I strongly encourage you to see this movie; think of it as instructions on how to love in a community.
This is not your ordinary movie: it is sensitive without being maudlin, it is real without being coarse or gross, and it is filled with person after person who chooses to love their neighbor when they could much more easily laugh at him, insult him, mock him, or abuse him. Instead, they provide the means for Lars to be healed.
Everyone, from Lars' brother and sister-in-law, to his co-workers and the pastor of the local church, recognize that Lars is struggling with how to be what he is-an adult male. He grew up without a mother, with a father who spent Lars' lifetime grieving the loss of his wife, and an older brother who cut and ran from the tiny Canadian community the first chance he could escape, leaving Lars with little clue as to how to relate to others or tolerate a touch from someone, let alone a hug or other manifestation of physical affection.
Don't be put off by what may appear to be the movie's subject matter: a man who buys a life-like doll. You will probably find yourself alternating between laughing and crying at the touching, bittersweet situations that Lars puts himself and others in, whether it is having dinner with his doll and his brother and sister-in-law, or going to a co-worker's party with, you guessed it, the doll. It is a testimony to the acting skills of the cast, and the gentle touch of the screenwriter, that the movie epitomizes how to love.
While seeing this movie I was reminded of Colossians, where Paul discusses the need to put away the old self, the me who lies, is angry, and generally thoughtless about anyone else. Paul encourages us, or rather he commands us, to put on the new Christ-self. How? He gives a clear indication that this can happen through the Word itself, and through prayers of thanksgiving. When I root myself in the truth of his gospel and lift up my heart to praise God, and share his sustaining love with those around me, I promote Christ's life cycle.
... now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3
