Monday, October 4, 2010

The Gospel According to Annie

In the 1982 film Annie, the titular orphan is swept out of the vile clutches of Miss Hannigan at the inner city orphanage, where she and her friends spent their “hard knock life” mired in menial tasks, and delivered into the gleaming mansion of the billionaire Mr. Warbucks. When she first arrives, she is mesmerized by its size and beauty, and by the scores of cheerful servants. Her hostess asks, “Well, Annie, what would you like to do first?” Annie misunderstands. She says she’d probably like to start by washing the windows, and then she'll move on to scrub the floors. She’s thinking she needs to get to work. The hostess just wants to know what fun thing she’d like to start her new life doing.

Annie has not realized she is not an orphan any more.

Christian, you are a Christian. You have a new identity. You are in Christ, and Christ is in you. Let your doing emerge from your being. It will not work the other way around.

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(This is a snippet from my ms. for Gospel Wakefulness: Treasuring Christ and Savoring His Power, coming 2011 from Crossway.)

5 comments:

Larry Lazarus said...

I read an illustration like that in Tim Chester's You Can Change and have been using that to talk about the importance of the gospel in our sanctification.

The only problem with the Annie illustration is that in the movie, Mr. Warbucks hasn't adopted Annie at this point, and in fact his motives for bringing her into the home are not very good at all: he wants to boost his image.

(If that's a reference to God adopting us ultimately to the praise of His own glory, I think it's a stretch!!)

Bill Blair said...

That is good.

If you have many more of those in the book then I can see a Gospel Wakefulness devotional in the making.

Excellent observation and connection... That nails it.

Jared said...

Larry, it's an illustration. A slice from an exchange in "Annie." I know Warbucks is a curmudgeon (at first). God isn't like that, of course.

But this isn't a way to say that "Annie" is airtight as Scriptural metaphor. Just an illustration.

Chris said...

What is sad when some people come to faith in Jesus, they think they have to do certain things to maintain their relationship with God. We live in a society where we have to work to get far ahead of the rest, so we tend to think if I do more, I can still be a Christian. Also some pastors fail to express to their people what their new identity in Christ truly is. They

Randi Jo :) said...

very good