A documentary from 2004 entitled Super-size Me was all about independent film-maker Morgan Spurlock eating a month-long diet of McDonald’s. Despite how many cheeseburgers I’d engulfed by the time of seeing the piece, watching a man go into organ failure and almost die from eating a month’s worth of chicken nuggets was frightening. No-one had ever shown the devastating the effects of the fast food industry as well as this film did. I daresay, it made me, and many of my friends, reduce (or at least modify) our Maccy D’s intake.
What is it about art that has this innate ability to move us, challenge the way we view ourselves or our beliefs? Planet Earth continues to make us question our recycling habits, The Great Hack made us gasp at the selling of our data from social media corporations and Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened was a hilarious journey into how any of us can be duped out of thousands of dollars by good marketing.
Yet, like my dreams to become the ultimate recycling champion, with every film I see, book I read or song I listen to, this effect evaporates over time. I start to think that plant-based food isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and a Big Mac isn’t really that bad.
However, there is one book, which I’ve spent 1000 hours reading and countless more studying that still has not lost its charm. Its pages have changed how I spend my money, view my life’s purpose, pass my time and govern my relationships. On the days when the pains of life are overwhelming, this book has been my medicine. And on my days of narcissism and self-deception, this book has called me out on my bull. Most days I devour its words, but sometimes I want to burn them.
What book has the power to do this?
What makes this ‘art’ different?
Between the lines lies an author unlike any other. He is perplexing, unbelievably patient yet terrifyingly powerful. He has disclosed Himself via the words on the page of whom I am now enamoured. Though men put pen to paper, He (that is, God) determined the words they would write.
‘For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.’
Hebrews 4:12
And so I read, and read, and will continue to read this book for it continues to tell me more and more about its beautiful, yet infinite author.
