My brother and I have a little inside joke about movies and coffee. It goes like this...
If there's a movie that has a rated and an unrated version, the rated is like decaffeinated coffee, in that it has less than potential, less to it. An unrated movie has extra stuff in it, making it better. When I think about it, I realize I've been living a rated life as a Christian whereas so many immensely faithful people in the Bible didn't care who was looking nor how they'd react- they lived an unrated style with an unrated love for God. They made people's jaws dropped. They infuriated the religious (rated) elite. So what's wrong with me? Routines can often times bring me to become rated (*yawn*) when I want to do so much more.
I've come to realize that, in this day and age, words with specific meanings have become loose terms that people have forgotten the original meanings for. In example, "unrated" brings to people's minds horrific horror movies with even more guts and blood, plenty more swearing, and this junk and that crap. For me, it should mean more substance.
I've noticed this about unrated movies, there are two kinds- the kind that has extra content that would've been too graphic for theaters (if it were released in theaters), and the kind with extra stuff that makes the story itself (and maybe even the characters) much stronger.
A good example of this is Kingdom of Heaven. Yeah, it's a politically correct film about the Crusades that show Christians in a bad light, but skipping over that detail, the Director's Cut has extra scenes that provide extra information about the main hero as well as provides support for someone who was a secondary character in the theatrical version, making her integral to the story alongside the hero, not just a living prop.
So? Living unrated helps people see that life can be about so much more than a few flimsy words in a day, helping someone or cursing someone, eat, sleep, do nothing, wait for the day you die then that's that. If that were true, Christianity wouldn't be needed because life would have no leniency in its existence to allow the thought of a Creative Creator with ironic wit have any part of us (no matter how lowly we make ourselves to be, no matter how much of a blessing He tells us we are).
So I don't feel like living the first kind of unrated, the world has enough problems with people doing things like that. I want to live like the other unrated- be a living example of extra content, let God be my Director, who doesn't make deleted scenes, but keeps moving the scenes forward.
I want to be like King David, who danced in the temple (and I imagine the Pharisees were like today's churches, seeing dancing as the 8th Deadly Sin) for the glory of GOD, not man. I want to be like Jesus, who flatly told off the cheats at the temple (after whipping tables and knocking them over) to never do it again then give a very forward reason without beating around the bush. I want to be like the Apostle Peter, who told off the status quo when they questioned his antics (thought him drunk and he told them it wasn't even the right time of the day to be drunk!) and tell religiously suppressing government that they can't stop him from telling the truth about how he sees life with the Christ.
Those are just the better known examples of people pulling off unrated lives that shocked everyone because they broke the social rules, gave living a new meaning, set an example for others to consider, rather than go through a bland living (think Halloweentown's version of the mortal life).
How do you want to live your life? Bring on the unratings, and get ready for the special fatures.
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