Fireproof

All movies have a message that is rooted in a world-view. That is true of good or bad films. I say that because we often hear about “message movies.” However, sometimes the message is more subtle and at other times it is crystal clear, front and center. That is the case with “Fireproof”.

In some movies the solutions offered to the great problems of life deal with the symptoms and fail to get to the root of the matter. The medium of film is a challenging avenue to deal with serious issues at all. One of the communication problems with movies is that most are designed to appeal first of all to one’s emotions. The brain is bypassed on the way to changing one’s behavior.

The problem is that we cannot divorce rational thinking from right living. Responding emotionally without proper rational filtering will lead to a lack of stability. However, it is also possible to think without feeling. That also is a dead-end street as it ignores a key component of how God has made us. He has made us to think, to feel and to act. Bypassing any of those ingredients in our makeup will leave us empty on some or all levels.

The movie “Fireproof”, starring Kirk Cameron, does a good job of addressing both surface and root issues. In the movie a marriage is falling apart. The movie does not ignore the issues of the heart. Both the husband and wife are self-centered. They are absorbed with getting what they deserve from life and from one another. Kirk Cameron plays the character, “Caleb.” Caleb is given a handwritten book from his father called the “Love Dare” book. In this book Caleb is challenged to do loving things for his wife for a period of 40 days.

Initially he resists and for the first twenty days or so he does just enough to get by and his heart is not in it. His wife does not respond to his acts of kindness but rather continues to resist him. Caleb’s self-love is seen by his lustful heart. He constantly yields to lustful thoughts fed by pornography. Through his father’s Christian witness Caleb realizes that he has broken God’s law by his heart attitudes and is in need of forgiveness. He turns to Christ for help.

The movie does a good job of pointing out that Caleb’s problems are not just superficial ones that can be solved by doing loving things. His problem is rooted in attitudes and desires which are built upon the idolatry of his heart. Caleb is a worshipper of himself. No, he does not bow down in prayer to himself. His idolatry is more subtle than that. He demands that his wife respect him. He has his own money (separate from his wife) so that he can buy the boat that he deserves. Another idol of the heart is the desire for peace. Peace, though desirable, when pursued unlawfully (via divorce) always leads to a greater prison.

Truly his wife has failed to respect Caleb. She has responded wrongly to his faults. And she increasingly gives her heart away to another man, (though she never crosses the next line by giving herself away physically). She plays dangerously close to the edge until she begins to recognize the nature of true love.

The movie also does a good job of making it clear that just because one comes to Christ does not mean that their problems suddenly disappear. Though Caleb becomes a Christian his wife does not initially respond. It is only through sacrificial love that she is eventually won over. The motivation for Caleb’s love for his wife was his discovery of how Christ demonstrated His love to undeserving sinners (Romans 5). A husband or wife is not to love their spouse because their spouse deserves such love. They are to love their spouse because of the love of Christ who gave His life for sinners.

The movie was made on a shoe-sting budget. The acting is not Academy Award caliber (whatever that is). However, the movie is well done and faithful to the message. Yes, you will be pulled around a bit by your emotions. However, the intellect is not bypassed and heart issues are not ignored. In fact the problems that the characters face in the movie are clearly portrayed as heart problems. The solution to the issues of the heart is not in trying to live a better life but in recognizing one’s need for a Savior and crying out to Him for help.

Caleb is the captain of the Albany fire department. The movie proclaims the message that “in a fire one never leaves their partner behind.” The point is obvious when applied to marriage. When trouble comes to one’s marriage the solution is often to leave the other partner behind. However, when one jumps out of the fires that often breakout in marriage they too often choose to jump into another fire called divorce.

I plan to write more about the movie and marriage next time.

(An interesting bit of trivia. It seems that Kirk Cameron has a commitment never to kiss a woman that is not his real life wife. He was faithful to that commitment in “Fireproof.” The scene of him kissing his wife was actually his wife and not the actress Erin Bethea who played his wife in the movie).

Ray Rhodes is President of Nourished in the Word Ministries, Pastor of Grace Community Church in Dawson County and author of two best-selling books on family worship. Contact him at ray@nourishedintheword.org or www.gracechurchdawsonville.org