Playing the Role

Our God is at work, moving in a profound manner according to His plan, orchestrating events in
order to bring glory to His name. Psalm 115 says:
1 Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, But to Your name give glory, Because of Your mercy, Because of Your truth.
2 Why should the Gentiles say, "So where is their God?"
3 But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases.

If we regard the world as a stage, we are the actors, selected carefully for our various roles, under the guidance of the most skilled director of all.  Yes, indeed, we recognize the sovereignty of God and how He will move us strategically in order to bring glory to His name, to accomplish His purposes. We can even stop and think, wherever we are, "why I am here?"  In the macro sense, we're on this earth because God has declared it to be so, for a purpose.  In the micro sense, we can look at the circumstances of life and see that God will use those occurrences to do His work in our lives and will perhaps use us in those occasions in order that His name may be exalted.

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In Romans 11, we can read a passage that reminds us about the supremacy of God and how He is
working according to His wisdom to accomplish His purposes:
33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
34 "For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?"
35 "Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?"
36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

Since I began to read stories of the faith perspective of actor David Oyelowo related to his role at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the movie, Selma, I have been impressed with how he apparently integrates his professed faith into his profession as an actor.  He and I spoke prior to the release of the movie, Captive, in which he depicted a man on the run, who had shot and killed four people and ended up in the apartment of an Atlanta single mom who was on her own personal spiritual journey.  Her character read Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life to his character.

Now, he's featured in another faith-affirming film called Queen of Katwe.  And, his selection of this type of a film is no accident.  He told the Relevant website:

I hope that when all is said and done with my career what will be said is not that I only did films of any certain kind, but the truth is that I do gravitate towards films that I personally would want to see, films that I hope have something to say and are meaningful. Those can be categorized as films that are redemptive, life-affirming and, of course, reflect my faith as a Christian and my place as a husband and a father.

He plays the role of Robert Katende, who works for a sports ministry in Uganda. Oyelowo says, "...his role he believed, his calling, is to give these kids hope, to give them self-esteem by giving them love and chess is one of the means by which he does that."

So, already, this is an occurrence in a movie where you have a main character whose faith is apparently shown in a positive light.  Oyelowo is convinced, apparently, that his presence on a movie set can give him the ability to inject his worldview into the telling of the story.  He tells Relevant, "I know for a fact if I, as a Christian actor, am part of either getting a film made or am part of the telling of a story, I can bring my perspective. I can bring my truth, which is that I live a life built on faith and the results of that are undeniably positive in my own life. Therefore, if I’m able to be on a set, if I’m able as a producer to be part of building the story, I’m going to bring my truth to how that story is told."

He told of a spontaneous prayer scene in Queen of Katwe.  David knew that the real-life Robert Katende prayed with his team prior to chess matches.  So, he suggested that the actors gather in prayer during a scene - and the scene made the movie!

He states, "I know that wouldn’t be in the film if I as a Christian weren’t there to basically exhort the virtues of my perspective and what I know to be true about the positive sides of my faith."

By the way, the cover of the next issue of Relevant is graced by actor Andrew Garfield, who stars in the new film directed by Mel Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge.  Coming up on The Meeting House, my conversation with one of the producers of the film, which is really resonating in some elements of the faith community.

David Oyelewo - I would say that he has placed by God into films that reflect his beliefs.  His story can reinforce for us the notion of recognizing that God sovereignly injects people into certain circumstances for His intended purpose.  Our challenge is to recognize how He is leading and be willing to follow His direction - or determine that He has directed us, placed us, in a set of circumstances so that He might use us for His glory.

We can also consider, what story or Whose story are we telling?  Do we desire to be distinctive and to speak and act in accordance with God's truth, or do we just go along with the crowd?  We have to be careful that our lives are not just pasted into a template, but that we are actually helping to shape that template with life and truth.

David Oyelowo has an idea of the type of roles he will accept.  This is impressive, and can challenge us to pre-decide, ahead of time, about the standards on which we will insist - as individuals, for our families, and in the workplace.  There may be lines that you have drawn, convictions that you have developed consistent with a Christian worldview.  We can pray for the Lord to give us strength, and perhaps discover we have the strength to stand if we determine how we will act when faced with certain scenarios.  If we desire to stand on God's Word, I believe His Word, energized by the Spirit, can sustain us, even in those difficult moments.