Post by mongoose on Jul 21, 2008 22:59:53 GMT -5
I was listening to this song, "Let Me Love You More" by Misty Edwards, and it hit me, nearly taking my breath away as these minor revelations do. It's probably old hat for some of you, but it was huge to me.
These lead worshipers don't pull any punches when it comes to expressing their heart's cry to God, and it's usually about how much they love and long for Him and His presence. Many of their lyrics are taken out of the Song of Songs and the minor prophets, such as Hosea, I think. The one where God directs the prophet to marry a prostetute, divorce her when she is un-faithful to him, seek her out, buy her back, and re-marry her. The IHOPers sing this as a song from Jesus to His Bride, referring to how He loved and desired her enough to sacrifice His own life on the cross to be re-united to her.
But I digress. Misty Edwards sang of her cry to God for Him to let her love Him more, and thus to become more like Him, becoming a servant to all in his "inside outside upside down Kingdom" etc. How would you express that in a speculative fiction novel, TV show or movie? How would you show the woman's desperate search for the lover of Her soul, who is there with her all along, and her gradual growth into understanding of their relationship?
The obvious answer, to me, would be do an allegory of a peasant woman being sought out by, and ultimately falling in love with the prince. But it's a weak and almost cliched analogy that can only effectively be stretched so far. For one thing, she's in love with one she has never seen, and probably won't see until they are truly united. Yet she believes in his presence with her, and love for her, almost unflinchingly. Except when her faith does falter. So how do you effectively show, simultaneously, that Jesus IS always with her, guiding and protecting and loving her etc. AND her lack of perception of Him?
Let's take it a step farther. How do you show how personal, intimate, ecstatic, and powerful her encounters with the lover of her soul, are? The romance between a husband and a wife are the closest analogy I know of in human relationships to this relationship we can have with Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, but again, it's without physical touch or sight for the most part (there are moments when we physically feel the manifest presence of God, or receive visions of him, similar perhaps to that Moses received on Mt. Sinai.)
Ted Dekker, of course, did an awesome job with Elyon telling Thomas of Hunter that He would show him His heart, and then Thomas falling in love with . . . I won't give it away. But even then the relationship between Thomas and his love was only analogous to the relationship of Elyon with HIS bride. How would we actualize it further without being presumptuous?
I'm open on this. The idea only occurred to me about an hour ago. One thing I was thinking, though, was to switch camera angles almost like in Gollum's argument with Smeagol in the Two Towers (or was Return of the King?) In one angle it would show the woman as Jesus sees her. No Jesus in that shot. From another angle, or group of angles, it would be her as she sees herself and the world. Again, there usually would not be Jesus in those shots, but we could see obvious differences between the two women (her as she sees herself and her as Jesus sees her) Maybe different clothes, makeup, or hairdoo, or something. I imagine she'd be far more beautiful in the shots as Jesus sees her. And finally, the shots that show how Jesus is there with her, and what He's doing in her heart, mind and life. Maybe these would be over the shoulder of the actor playing Jesus, such that we would never see his face, and we would get the impression that she never sees his face either.
In one scene, she might be distressed and crying out to God. We'd see her shabby and downtrodden. Camera angle shift, and we see her hurting, but beautiful, and we see what's happening with her heart. How it's being eaten away by a black disease. Then a hand reaches in and does something with that heart, and the other reaches around to squeeze her in a hug. Back to the angle representing her perceptions, and the room around her gets brighter, she sighs in something closer to contentment, and sits up straighter, looking a little closer to the nearly angelic being that Jesus sees her to be.
That was awkward to type. There must be a better way. Maybe her perception of herself is seen in mirrors, which are all over the set, whereas the non-mirror pictures we see of her are as Jesus sees her, and sometimes we see Jesus doing something, but only his back, his hands, his brightness, and such. I dunno. What do y'all think?
These lead worshipers don't pull any punches when it comes to expressing their heart's cry to God, and it's usually about how much they love and long for Him and His presence. Many of their lyrics are taken out of the Song of Songs and the minor prophets, such as Hosea, I think. The one where God directs the prophet to marry a prostetute, divorce her when she is un-faithful to him, seek her out, buy her back, and re-marry her. The IHOPers sing this as a song from Jesus to His Bride, referring to how He loved and desired her enough to sacrifice His own life on the cross to be re-united to her.
But I digress. Misty Edwards sang of her cry to God for Him to let her love Him more, and thus to become more like Him, becoming a servant to all in his "inside outside upside down Kingdom" etc. How would you express that in a speculative fiction novel, TV show or movie? How would you show the woman's desperate search for the lover of Her soul, who is there with her all along, and her gradual growth into understanding of their relationship?
The obvious answer, to me, would be do an allegory of a peasant woman being sought out by, and ultimately falling in love with the prince. But it's a weak and almost cliched analogy that can only effectively be stretched so far. For one thing, she's in love with one she has never seen, and probably won't see until they are truly united. Yet she believes in his presence with her, and love for her, almost unflinchingly. Except when her faith does falter. So how do you effectively show, simultaneously, that Jesus IS always with her, guiding and protecting and loving her etc. AND her lack of perception of Him?
Let's take it a step farther. How do you show how personal, intimate, ecstatic, and powerful her encounters with the lover of her soul, are? The romance between a husband and a wife are the closest analogy I know of in human relationships to this relationship we can have with Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, but again, it's without physical touch or sight for the most part (there are moments when we physically feel the manifest presence of God, or receive visions of him, similar perhaps to that Moses received on Mt. Sinai.)
Ted Dekker, of course, did an awesome job with Elyon telling Thomas of Hunter that He would show him His heart, and then Thomas falling in love with . . . I won't give it away. But even then the relationship between Thomas and his love was only analogous to the relationship of Elyon with HIS bride. How would we actualize it further without being presumptuous?
I'm open on this. The idea only occurred to me about an hour ago. One thing I was thinking, though, was to switch camera angles almost like in Gollum's argument with Smeagol in the Two Towers (or was Return of the King?) In one angle it would show the woman as Jesus sees her. No Jesus in that shot. From another angle, or group of angles, it would be her as she sees herself and the world. Again, there usually would not be Jesus in those shots, but we could see obvious differences between the two women (her as she sees herself and her as Jesus sees her) Maybe different clothes, makeup, or hairdoo, or something. I imagine she'd be far more beautiful in the shots as Jesus sees her. And finally, the shots that show how Jesus is there with her, and what He's doing in her heart, mind and life. Maybe these would be over the shoulder of the actor playing Jesus, such that we would never see his face, and we would get the impression that she never sees his face either.
In one scene, she might be distressed and crying out to God. We'd see her shabby and downtrodden. Camera angle shift, and we see her hurting, but beautiful, and we see what's happening with her heart. How it's being eaten away by a black disease. Then a hand reaches in and does something with that heart, and the other reaches around to squeeze her in a hug. Back to the angle representing her perceptions, and the room around her gets brighter, she sighs in something closer to contentment, and sits up straighter, looking a little closer to the nearly angelic being that Jesus sees her to be.
That was awkward to type. There must be a better way. Maybe her perception of herself is seen in mirrors, which are all over the set, whereas the non-mirror pictures we see of her are as Jesus sees her, and sometimes we see Jesus doing something, but only his back, his hands, his brightness, and such. I dunno. What do y'all think?