Watching a movie... nek minnit... blog post

I read this article on Mockingbird a while ago and the Thomas Cranmer quote resonated with me “what the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies.”  It reminded me of the film The Adjustment Bureau.

Congressman David Norris meets a woman unexpectedly in a men’s bathroom and falls in love with her.  He doesn’t see her again until a few months later when they bump into each other on a bus.  Nek Minnit his office is full of armed men and frozen colleagues.  He is taken to a secret location and discovers that his life has been meticulously planned out by a mysterious “chairman”. 
His falling in love with Elise is not in the plan and so the Chairman’s bureau has been sent in to neutralize the situation.  They warn him not to make any more contact with Elise if he wants to live the life he has always dreamed of – being president of the United States.

But he does not listen – what his heart loves [Elise], his will chooses.  He deliberately seeks out Elise to build his relationship with her despite the increasing risk to his life from the bureau.  “I'm...just disagreeing with you about what my fate is. I know what I feel for her and it's not gonna change. All I have are the choices that I make, and I choose her.  Come what may.”  He justifies his decisions until he discovers that his decisions are beginning to hurt the very one he loves.  The head of the adjustment bureau tells him “When you look back on all this, David, just remember we tried to reason with you.”

This is all very romantic when it comes to a man pursuing a woman as David does Elise but Thomas Cranmer’s idea has more frightening implications.  The Bible says our hearts are desperately wicked and love evil things (power over others, lust, selfishness, greed, etc).  Because our hearts are like this we desire to sin more than desire not to and what our heart desires, our will chooses.  Even when our sin hurts us and hurts others we still choose to do it and then to tryand make it right we justify our actions to ourselves and others.  “I know I shouldn’t have sworn at the guy who cut me off at the intersection but….”

All this trying to make ourselves come out of any given circumstance looking like the good guy (self justification) is ultimately futile because our opinion of ourselves is not the opinion that matters.  There is an opinion that trumps our opinion; that of our Creator.  He decides our fate in the end, and He decides it perfectly which puts us in an awkward position because we have not been perfect (although we have worked hard to persuade ourselves otherwise/justify ourselves).

The extraordinary thing about our Creator is that He has managed to perform a double whammy action upon our poor souls.  He is both the Just judge (a judge who does the right thing – punishes the wicked) and the Justifier (makes wicked people right with Him).  How can he both punish the wicked and set them free at the same time?  Because the wicked do not get punished; someone else took their punishment for them and that one was the Creator Himself – Jesus Christ.  What will you do?  Continue to justify yourself or turn to your Creator for His justification?