first: i'm not a movie critic and don't pretend to have great taste in movies.(my favorite movie is sweet home alabama) but i'm developing an ability to look past surface level themes and to see how Jesus has interwoven qualities of himself into creation. colossians 1:16 talks about this in creation as both "visible and invisible" elements that are a "shadow of the things that were to come" (col 2:17), referring back to the person of Christ.
but here's the deal:
pitt plays a character modeled after a real guy named billy beane, who is the current general manager of the oakland a's baseball team. a reality of the oakland a's is that on a regular basis, the money they spend on players is 25-50% of what bigger market teams like the yankees or red sox spend on players (see chart for details). as you would expect, this
handicaps them from signing big name players and leaves them with young unproven players. the reality of the situation is that teams with money were the most successful and for years, it was few and far between that the "have not's" could catch the "haves."
that being said, beane (pitt) decides it's time to try something new. he decides to try a new system based off a book previously written with mathematics being the determining factor, not the eyes of scouts and what naturally seems right.
and this is what i like. as he goes about achieving his dream, he meets opposition. things don't go as planned and people don't like what he's doing. his own manager (head coach) refuses to buy in and he has to go to drastic measures to set his plan fully into motion. a couple lines between beane and his assistant gm in the stadium offices really put this in play for me:
assistant describes how this system isn't going to make them any friends and how it's about time to hang it up
beane (loosely) "see that's the thing: we can't spend all our time worrying about what other people think, we just gotta have faith in our system and live with whatever happens."
while that may have not been what he said verbatim, you get the idea. even if it cost beane his job and livelihood, his dream of making a difference and ultimately changing the game was held higher than the short term consequences of unhappy people.
this past summer, i heard a sermon by a guy named rene shclaepfer at twin lakes church when i was in santa cruz. he talked through the book of daniel, and as he talked through chapter 3, a story about 3 men came up. the king of babylon was hacked and in daniel 3:14, he confronts these men for not worshipping him: "is it true, shadrach, meshach and abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold i have set up?...... if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace."
stakes are a little higher here. it's not about being the risky g.m. that makes some crazy moves, it's 3 guys going against thousands and the government authority to keep their faith in their God. ultimately, a miracle occurs and they're thrown into a blazing furnace (v.21) and walk back out (v.26). it's crazy but their faith in God wasn't in vain.
a few things the pastor said in his talk is that people are driven by different things, that these are there dominant life principles:
1.circumstances (how things are) 2.convenience (what's easiest) 3.criticism (what others think)
and 4.convictions (what matters most).
as i'm determining who i want to be and what guides who i am and decisions i'll make, i find that the first 3 guide my life alot. but what i admired most about billy beane and the 3 men in daniel is that they were driven by their convictions. going against what others thought and being satisfied with knowing you're doing what is right, regardless, is one of the most admirable things i think anyone could do. i wanted to share that with you and ask you what it is that drives you.
have a good one friends
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