Hi everyone, welcome back to the Nightcrawler Experience!
For this entry, we will be wrapping up this blog's annual collaboration with St. John's United Methodist Church for their Summer at the Movies series. In finishing up our look at Christian films, we will now be looking at the 2015 film 'War Room.'
In this film, Tony and Elizabeth Jordan seemingly have a good life together. They have a big house, good jobs (Tony's a pharmaceutical salesman, Elizabeth's a realtor), and a loving daughter, Danielle. Behind that facade, though, there's a lot of trouble brewing with their marriage. Tony has no time for Danielle and no interest in supporting her jump roping team, is at times impatient with Elizabeth, and has a bit of a wandering eye.
Help for the troubled family is on the way, though, from a slightly unlikely source. Elizabeth is hired to help sell the house of the elderly Miss Clara. As the two develop a friendship over the course of this, Clara learns of Elizabeth's marriage problems. In order to help save her friend's marriage, Clara teaches Elizabeth about the importance of prayer and drawing close to God.
She shows Elizabeth that she uses one of her closets as a "War Room" for in- depth prayer.
Elizabeth starts taking Clara's advice to heart, and just in time, as Tony is about to face serious temptations that could completely destroy their fragile family if left unchecked.
'War Room' was a marvelous Christian film. It was the perfect balance of humor and heart, extremely inspirational, and had a lot of great performances. They even fit in a couple pretty exciting moments, too.
Miss Clara was easily the best character in the film. Longtime fans of this blog may recall that when I first did my "Top Ten Favorite Movie Characters of the Year" list back in January 2016, Clara made the list, and everything I said about her then still holds true now upon repeat viewings. She is a wonderfully powerful and insightful character, wise and yet also incredibly funny when the occasion calls it. As I said the last time I talked about her, she's like if Yoda from the 'Star Wars' series was a black Christian woman. Karen Abercrombie (Who actually was just in her early fifties when she did this role; It's a testimony to the great makeup effects for the film that they can make her look like she's in her mid- seventies) gives a wonderful performance as her, especially for a scene when she bravely stands up to a mugger, and the end when she gives a spirited prayer for the nation.
The most prominent Scriptural message to be taken from 'War Room,' which I discussed in the devotional passed out at the screening, concerns obviously the power of prayer. I show how James 5:16 and 1 Timothy 2:1-2 both drive home the miraculous things that can happen when followers of Jesus sincerely pray.
Another message from the film that I noticed concerned grace. There is a scene in which Clara is talking with Elizabeth about her husband. Elizabeth admits that, as much as Tony's faults drive her nuts, she still loves him, and so does God, and that she still sees good in him. Clara points out that what Tony is in need of is grace. Elizabeth says she's not sure if Tony deserves grace, and Clara responds "What about you? Do YOU deserve grace?" She points out that ALL of us have sinned and are unworthy of God's forgiveness (Romans 3:10 observes "As it is said, there is none righteous, no, not one."), but He granted it anyway. That's the perfect description of what grace is: Sparing us the punishments we deserve, out of His love for us. We could never earn or deserve God's forgiveness, but He grants it anyway. That's why they call God's grace "Amazing."
There you have my look at 'War Room.' It remains a wonderful film which teaches wonderful messages about prayer and grace.
That's it from the Nightcrawler Experience for now. Keep your eyes out, I'll be returning to the entry I was working on before I started this series, and I know you'll like it (Let's just say you'll all be "Assembling" to take a look at it). Until then, may God bless you all!
