Daily Affirmations - Day 1 - What Shall I Cry?: The Central Message

This week's Theme: What Shall I Cry?

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Day 1: The Central Message

A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?” “All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever” (Isaiah 40:6-8).

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Almost from birth, the film industry and its executives have engaged in a number of battles with authors about the use of the author's work or the process of adaptation to the screen. Some battles become fierce and protracted, playing out over years in scenes of drama, contention, and litigation.

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) did not live to see his masterpiece works of fantasy, The Hobbit (1937) and the Lord of the Rings (1954-1955), brought to the screen (2001-2003; 20012-2014), but there has been no shortage of purists to denounce the differences between Tolkien's original writings and the film versions.

Experts mainly agree that Peter Jackson, the films' writer, director and producer, stayed relatively faithful to Tolkien's overall themes, but they point out that he made a few significant deviations from the original works. Particularly troubling to many of Tolkien's readers are Jackson's differences in key areas of character development and plot "integrity."

One of the major challenges with any adaptation of Tolkien's works is the sheer detail and complexity of the original. Film analyst Evelyn Harper describes the difficulties:

Adapting a work as vast and intricate as The Lord of the Rings is an act of translation, not transcription. The filmmakers faced the daunting task of condensing over 1,200 pages of prose, poetry, and appendices into approximately 11 hours of screen time. This required making difficult choices about what to include, exclude, and alter[i]

The works of Tolkien are human in origin, and cannot be compared to the Bible in a strict sense, for All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

But often, the liberties taken with the Bible— the adaptations and applications, the distortions and mischaracterizations, deviate from its core themes and from the God-breathed "plot integrity" of the Holy Spirit. Interestingly enough, these are not new, and Scripture itself— both Old and New Testaments— documents many of the perversions and misrepresentations arising from lack of knowledge or willful exploitation.

To be sure, the Bible can seem vast and complex when viewed from the staggering array of details, accounts, reports, and information compiled over a thousand years of culture, history, and change. But the God who vowed that His word endures forever strenuously preserved its integrity— often in the midst of cruelty, threat, danger, and death.

And in the paradox of beautiful simplicity outshining all complexity, God gave us His central cohesive message of love, grace, forgiveness, and mercy revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. And those entrusted with the message of hope and peace— those who understand the stakes for now and for all eternity— press on through the thickets of distortion, doubt, denial, confusion, cynicism, and unbelief.

And they pray for courage, wisdom, and boldness, for themselves and for each other, as they continue to ask of God, "What shall I cry?"

[i] The Rings of Truth: How Accurate Are the Lord of the Rings Movies? - Dark Skies