I saw the most incredible movie last night. The name of the movie was "We're All in This Together." I've also heard it called the Hillsong movie, or the i-Heart movie because it was by the Hillsong United worship band and i-Heart is the title of the mission behind the movie. Good news, bad news. The good news is that it was quite possibly the most amazing documentary I've ever seen in my life; bad news is to my understanding the single showing last night was the single showing of it... period. I'm hoping that won't remain to be the case, because I know I wasn't the only person powerfully affected by the film, so hopefully it will be back to be seen again. If you hear about it playing anywhere, my advice is "go see it!"
Truthfully I am struggling for the words to express the movie and how it made me feel. I think a lot of people went thinking it would be a concert movie, and although they did have an intro time where they shared some terrific new worship songs, that's SO not what the movie was about.
What the movie was about was touching the world for Christ, it was about meeting needs, reaching out, LOVING people. It showed a lot of the need, from across your street, across town to across the world. Everywhere we go there are hurting people in need. It talked about how we are not perfect people, but we as Christians are people with hope, and we have the means to make a difference.
There were a ton of terrific quotes shared throughout the movie, really thought provoking truths. My favorite one of the night (paraphrased) was "We have one life to spend, it should be spent on something that will outlast it." The movie was filled with thought provoking concepts like that one.
It was also filled with stories about people who saw needs, and stepped out and made a difference - like slavery being abolished in England because of the life efforts of one man, and the Salvation Army being started by one woman, people who refused to ignore the needs they saw, and the world becoming a different place because of it.
I'm doing a lousy job here expressing what I saw, and what I experienced, words are falling short. But if you'd like to know more about the I-Heart movement behind the movie, you can click here to go to the website.
I also walked away with a mix of emotions, envy and pride. Envy for the young people serving Christ who have all their life defining decisions still ahead of them. Am I saying I cannot have an impact on the world? Of course not, but neither do I have the freedom to serve and do to the capacity that they do, life has its obligations. The pride came in watching the responses of some of the Envision boys who were there too. Say what you will about the generation of today's youth, the young people I know are incredible, outwardly focused, servant-hearted, followers of Christ. I'm honored to know and have a bird's eye view into the lives of my son and his friends. I look at them and I see world changers, and I look forward to watching the impact they're going to have on the world around them. They will make an impact for Christ and make the world a better place. Maybe, hopefully, part of my investment in something that will outlast my life, is encouraging them to do all they can for the Lord. I believe in them, I hope they know that. I look forward to watching the impact they're going to have on the world around them.
Like I said, the whole experience has left me at a loss for words to describe the fullness of the impact I felt, but I know I walked away wanting to love more, wanting to touch the hurting world around me in a deeper way. It made me walk away wanting to live the gospel. Like Saint Francis of Assisi exhorted, "“Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” Yeah, that's what I'd like my life to be about. If you hear about this moving being out and available for viewing again, go see it. But even if you can't see the movie, I hope you'll live its vision.
1 John 3:16
