Thursday, July 24, 2008

Missing the Magic

I sat with my family as we watched Criss Angel tonight. It wasn't very enjoyable, not only because Criss Angel is just weird, but because everyone in my family room would pause the show and nitpick the entire illusion, trying to figure it out. "There's no way he could be walking on water, because why are those girls not swimming in front of him. There's glass under him, there has to be," my mom kept repeating. And then it wasn't magic anymore. There is something very beautiful about just enjoying a magic trick. Of course Criss Angel didn't really walk on water, but that isn't the point. The point is to enjoy a great artist doing something he's very good at. Enjoying the magic of "seeing" a man walk on water.

And then I was reminded of how as Christians, we can do something similar. We can take something as beautiful as the story of God and His people and instead of just enjoying the simplicity and complexity of this story, we try to analyze every sentence and every word, and we end up missing the magic.

3 comments:

wellis68 said...

maybe he did walk on water...

I agree with you. There's something that Rob Bell said on his Nooma Rhythm that sticks with me... it's something to the effect of "there are some people who seem to know everything about the song and they get so caught up in the technical intricacies of the song that they loose the simple pleasure and beauty of the song." that's a paraphrase!

Danny said...

magic is for sissies.
All the cool people are
doing drugs nowadays.

Amanda Ellis said...

true that danny, true that.