i think slumdog millionaire is one of the best movies i have ever seen in my life.  i wish i had the skill and training to do a full-blown critique of the film, but i'll let this next sentence sum up how i feel about it.  the greeks had homer, odysseus, and the odyssey; the indians have boyle, jamal, and slumdog millionaire; the rest of us get to enjoy both as testaments to our world, where, ultimately, truth does find its justification in hope someday realized.

you have to go see it!

christianity is not difficult because there is so much to do.  christianity is not exhausting because there are so many things to avoid.  if christianity was simply a set of rules to follow, it would be, in a devilish way, terribly easy, with built-in affirmation and self-esteem boosts.  if christianity could be boiled down to a list of do's and don't's, every type-a overachiever in the world would be cramming the churches with perfect attendance every sunday.

but as it is, christianity is difficult.  and it's exhausting.  in fact, christianity is - and by all means must be - impossible.  christianity is impossible because it is not primarily about doing.  christianity is about being.  it is about being, in the understanding that being precedes act.

actions can be cultivated, habits formed, and disciplines observed.  but to be is something altogether different.  if we are something, we cannot suddenly - or gradually, for that matter - make ourselves into something else.  if we are, then we are.  if we aren't, then we face an impossible gulf between what we are and what we long to be.

but herein we find the hope of christianity, the hope of true christianity:  that in Jesus Christ, what isn't can become what it ought to be.  the hope that we have in Jesus, the one through whom all things were created out of nothing, is that we who are not at all what we long to be can become more than just pretenders and do-gooders.  in Jesus, we become what we were meant to be, instead of being left to act as though we already were.

what is impossible for us is natural for Jesus.  to accomplish this change is not at all difficult or exhausting for Him, though it may prove difficult and exhausting for us to submit ourselves to it.  but the promise is that when we are, when we finally are what we long to be, we simply will be, and we will be happy.