Movie: A Box Of Faith

So, back to normal Christian, or Christian-esque, movies.

Summary

A teenage girl named Dior finds herself in a tough spot. Her mother is dead, her father has been arrested, and she has no home. So, instead of letting herself be taken in by a lady who I guess was a social worker, Dior takes to the streets. After a few mishaps and a quick prayer, life picks up for her, and she not only survives but manages to make a small fortune, so that when her father is released because he didn’t commit the crime, they have enough money to get their lives back on track.

Cringe

It gets pretty heavy at times.

Acting

The acting wasn’t so bad. The story focuses mostly on Dior, and the actor playing her did fairly well. The rest of the small cast did well, too, with the material they had. If there was a problem, it was with the story itself, not the actors.

Interesting Aspects

If this movie should get your attention and you’d want to watch it, understand that this is not some kind of gritty film following a girl’s intense struggles to somehow make in the means streets of some big city. No, it’s a pretty tame and sanitized look at homeless life. True, Dior does struggle when she first takes to the streets, but she adjusts quick.

The idea of using the storage shed filled with her family’s belongings as a new home was a clever touch.

The Crime

The movie started going off the rails for me early on, during the scenes of the dad’s supposed crime.

Dior’s father worked some kind of factory or construction job, I really couldn’t tell which, and while he’s busy at his work, one of his co-workers puts some piece of equipment into his lunch box. When they get off work, someone is at the door to inspect their lunch boxes, and when the dad hands his over, of course the inspector finds the equipment in it, and things go downhill from there, and the dad is arrested.

This scene didn’t work, for all kinds of reasons.

First, all the guys at the job kept their lunch boxes in the same area, what seemed to a small break area with a few lockers and maybe a bench. The dad kept his lunch box on top of the lockers, and there were others up there, too. He also has a locker, and we see him put his hard hat in it, though it doesn’t seem to have a lock.

In other words, with everything out in the open like that, anyone could have put anything into any lunch box or locker.

Second, although the common thief many not be known for being smart and clever, or so I’ve heard, it still makes no sense for a man who wants to steal a piece of equipment from a job site to put that piece of equipment in his lunch box when he knows all lunch boxes will be inspected before the men are free to leave the job site. The fact that the dad casually hands over the lunch box to the inspector at the door would shout that he had no idea anything was wrong. If he had really been trying to steal it, he would not have left it in the lunch box where the inspector could easily see it.

Third, the boss goes on some kind of rant with lots of statistics, concluding that the dad is guilty because he “fits the mold”. Glad we’re determining such matters based on such flimsy reasoning now. Actually, real-life reasoning in this age of cancel-culture is even more flimsy.

I’d think that any police officer or detective or lawyer could look at this crime scene and find all kinds of reasons to think that the dad’s claims of innocence could be valid. The crime just wasn’t convincing, and if anything seemed too contrived.

Prayer

This is another issue; Dior’s prayer, “Lord, help me through this experience, and I’ll be a great warrior for you.”

So, can someone show me where the Bible tells us to pray “great warrior” prayers?

Actually, I can point you to a few passages that warn against making these kinds of promises or vows.

Ecclesiastes 5

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. 2 Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. 3 For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words. 

4 When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. 5 It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. 6 Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? 7 For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.

Prayer is good. We should prayer. God has invited us to come to Him, to tell Him our needs. Dior asking God for help is good. It’s when it becomes a bargain that it become much more questionable.

How can she fulfill this promise? 

When, for example, Hannah seems to bargain with God in I Samuel 1, her vow had specifics in it.

I Samuel 1

9 After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah rose. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the LORD. 10 She was deeply distressed and prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly. 11 And she vowed a vow and said, “O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”

We can see how this vow was to be fulfilled. The reference to “no razor shall touch his head” seems to indicated that the boy would be a Nazarite from his birth, and “I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life” was fulfilled when he brought the child to live at the Tabernacle with the priest, as we are shown later in that same chapter

21 The man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the LORD the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow. 22 But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, “As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, so that he may appear in the presence of the LORD and dwell there forever.” 23 Elkanah her husband said to her, “Do what seems best to you; wait until you have weaned him; only, may the LORD establish his word.” So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him. 24 And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and she brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh. And the child was young. 25 Then they slaughtered the bull, and they brought the child to Eli. 26 And she said, “Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the LORD. 27 For this child I prayed, and the LORD has granted me my petition that I made to him. 28 Therefore I have lent him to the LORD. As long as he lives, he is lent to the LORD.” And he worshiped the LORD there.

By contrast, the vow to “become a great warrior” is vague. How can anyone know if Dior has fulfilled that vow? What if she doesn’t fulfill it? What if she struggles, what if she falls into sin? What if, for example, she caves to peer pressure, and takes drugs? What if she falls in love, and she and the boy sleep with each other before they’re married? What if she just gets married, stays at home, takes care of her family, and doesn’t become some kind of great and famous person?

The implication of this movie seems to be that God watched out for Dior, keeping her safe and making her prosper, because of this vow, and maybe other prayers she writes on the paper from her mother’s stationary box. Yet we should be very careful about making such vows. I don’t know if I can say that the Bible completely teaches against making such promises, but it does warn about them, such as in the verses above from Ecclesiastes, which say that it’s better to not make such a vow than to vow and not pay it.

Anyway, this claim to be a “great warrior” is just pride. It’s like Peter claiming he’ll never deny Jesus, but a few hours later he’s denying Him. We’d be better to pray with humility, to ask God to help us, to help us even in our behavior, to walk humbly, to learn God’s ways, and to repent when we do sin.

Called Out

There is one scene I want to focus on for a moment.

Not quite midway through the movie, there a scene with the social worker lady and one of her co-workers, a man. They’re in her office, and he’s getting on her case a bit, telling he she’s letting this case with Dior get too personal.

In response, she starts to go on about how special Dior is (even though she’s never spoken with the girl and knows almost nothing about her), and he calls her out on that.

“She just deserves better.”

“Are we sure we’re not talking about you? Why are you so interested in this case?”

“She lost her mother. Her father’s going to prison. She has no relatives, no siblings, no one.”

“All of these children has similar situations.”

“No. This one is different. She’s incredibly intelligent. She’s gifted.”

“What about Jose? Or Aaron? Or Chantell? They’re not?”

“Look, maybe you’re right.”

“It’s not about me being right or wrong.”

“Some of these kids don’t want to make anything of their lives, but not this kid, Ray.”

“I think you’re getting too attached to his case.”

“It’s not a case, Ray. It’s a person. A  young girl who deserves a change to lead a better life, to grow up and have an impact on people’s lives. Ok?”

That’s a part of their conversation. There is a bit more before.

Some things he said were off-putting, but for my part, I’m glad the guy, Ray, called her out on a few things. I’m glad he pointed out that all the kids they’re trying to help are special.

And who is she to determine if a child is worthy of help or not, or is less worthy of help than another? What does she mean when she says that some of those other kids “don’t want to make anything of their lives”? Should they be abandoned, or not helped as much? Do they not deserve good homes? If they’ve experienced the death of parents, or abandonment, or come from bad homes, or themselves been abused, would it not be possible that once they found a good home they might also come to “want to make something of their lives”?

And, again, there is the simple fact that the lady has still not yet talked with Dior at this point in the movie. How can she know that Dior wants to make something of herself, or what the something might be?

Where is the gospel?

It’s no longer a surprise how many movies and stories want to be considered Christian when they have pretty much no Christ in them.

In a lot of ways, this movie reminds me of The Girl Who Believes In Miracles. There is God-talk, but that’s about it, and there is nothing about Jesus in it.

We the viewers are suppose to think that Dior has strong faith. But what does that mean? Does her running from the social worker lady show faith? What if she decided to go with her, or she’s caught, would her faith also be in God providing her a good foster family until her own father gets out of jail?

The movie promotes a rather vague notion of faith based on…what, exactly? There is one scripture verse referenced early on, from John’s account of Jesus speaking to the disciples before he is betrayed. After that, nothing about what the Bible says, and Jesus is missing from the whole thing.

I think this is a fair question: can something Christless be considered Christian?

The Church

So, we have Dior and her dad, and both seem to have some kind of faith in God, but where did that faith come from? There is nothing about the church in this movie.

It’s not like they’re in some kind of third-world tyranny where churches must hide themselves, they’re in some city in the US. And it’s not like the dad has decided church and God aren’t for him because bad things happen. The church simply isn’t there, anywhere.

This is important. The church is the spreader of the gospel. If these people have faith, they learned of God from somewhere.

Conclusion

There is some winsomeness about this movie; maybe it’s the dog. But it’s mostly just cotton candy, a lot of fluff and not much else. While it could maybe encourage people to trust God in difficulties, I’m not even sure of that. More likely, it’ll just reinforce the notion that not much bad will happen to people who trust God. People, even church people, do like to have their ears tickled with sweet-tasting messages of life being good, or of how good life will be once we’ve endured a few trials and proven ourselves to God.

There’s almost nothing here. It’s an empty movie with at best a small bit of a good message, but overall it’s hollow.