Courageous: The Movie

Fathers…  How important is our influence in the world?  How much of an impact do we really have?

Most modern sit-coms and TV shows would have us believe very little.  The father is always the bumbling idiot.  He is there for his family but, kind of stumbles his way through things.  The mother is usually portrayed as the true head of the household.

This isn’t to downplay the role of mothers, as they are very central to families and the family could not exist without them.  Our wives are the most important person to us next to God, and should be honored, respected and consulted with about almost every family-changing decision that is made.

However, as fathers, we have been given a very special and significant role by God, who his Himself the ultimate of Fathers.  We are to mirror Him in our lives and to be Him (not really but, you get the picture) for our children.  We are to bring them up to be morally sound, faithful and well-rounded children.  We are to love and honor our wives, even being willing to lay down our lives for them.

Amidst the messages of this world to the contrary, comes Courageous.  This movie, written and produced by the Kendrick brothers, who have brought us Fireproof, Facing the Giants and Flywheel, is a hard-hitting slap in the face of what society calls fatherhood.  It is unashamed to highlight the importance of the necessity of faith to ground our fatherhood in truth and in righteousness.

As the movie points out, half of those who have been involved with drugs, gangs and things of that nature, have no fathers.  They have nobody to show them what is right.  Other studies have suggested that if a father, even divorced, brings his children to church, there is about a 80% chance of the children still going when grown, within marriage that figure is closer to 90%.  However, if just a mother brings a child, that figure drops significantly to the 60-70% range.  Again, this isn’t downplaying the importance of our wives, but, it is to say that science and statistics show more and more that fathers, or lack thereof, are one of the bigger causes of family and social turmoil in the world today.

Courageous is not afraid to point these statistics out and very clearly shows the results of the brokenness that comes from not having a father, or having a father that is just “good enough”.  We should not be happy with being good enough…  God doesn’t call us to be “good enough”, he calls us to be an image of Him.

The movie itself is very riveting.  There is not more then 15-20 minutes without either a mention of faith, a serious turn of events, or a joy-filled moment that just makes you smile.  The film is an emotional rollercoaster, that drives one point home. Fathers, it is time for us to stand up and be who we are called by God to be, not who the world shows us to be.

The acting is top-notch and has improved on even that of Fireproof.  The music, provided by some leading Christian artists such as 3rd Day, fits perfectly within the scenes to punctuate them.  The filmography is much more intense and the editing is quick, and right on cue.

As important as the film Fireproof was to marriage, this film is even more so to us as Fathers.  As with the film Fireproof, Courageous does not leave Fathers to our own devices afterwards.  There are several helpful resources that can be found at http://courageousresources.com .

I am not a perfect father, nor can anyone be except the Father in heaven be so.  However, I know, that I am in need of a lot of work, and so are most of us.

So, if your are a father, have the potential of being one or know someone who you think might need to see this message, I highly suggest you get moving and go.  Go see Courageous and get moving on the right path.  We can make a difference, we can be the Lord’s men, His knights and soldiers in our world; defending our families’ honors and bringing up our children in God’s image.  That is our call, and if we cannot accept that challenge, there is much more at stake than not getting a gift on Father’s Day.  The responsibility for the souls of our children and their children are on us.  It is we, who will be judged before the Lord for our guidance or lack thereof.  Where will we stand before Him, at the end of all things?  Will he look down on us and say “I am proud of you my sons, enter into my kingdom and your reward” or will He look sadly from the distance, across the chasm that we built between Him and us in life?  Don’t let it be the latter.

Let us strive to be the Father that God is to us in our families and as Joshua 24:15 says “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”.