Pursuing the Will of God Like a Sports Car Under Fire

There are some vivid contemporary analogies that illustrate spiritual truths that require huge disclaimers to prevent heresy, blasphemy, misinterpretation, and false implications of theological truths. Still, some contemporary analogies are still worth using because they capture the street-level-colloquial-feel of spiritual truths that one experiences in one's first person consciousness in the spiritual journey.

First off, I would like to make the disclaimer that I do not endorse or condone the vulgar language in Bad Boys 2. There is a ton of coarse language that I do not really appreciate hearing in the movie. Also, there is a kind of determination to overcome one's enemies that results in anger, hate, and impatience, all which are not the fruit of the Spirit and should not be imitated by the serious follower of Christ.

Nevertheless, the notion of a sports car accelerating at a rapid speed on a highway amidst obstacles, threats, and intimidating danger illustrates the Pauline attitude of pursuing the will of God in a way that is more colloquial to our 21st century context.

Jesus describes in John 4:34 what "substance" his will is pursuing. For him, to "do the will of the Father" is to follow a course of action that will satisfy his spiritual hungers. From this passage, we know what we are supposed to pursue the satisfaction of our heart's eternal hungers, namely the will of God.

In Philippians 3:13-14, Paul says that he "strains toward" what is ahead in the will of God, and "presses on" toward the goal of his heavenward prize in Christ Jesus. In order to reach this goal, the path/journey to be taken is the will of God. This shows us the attitude of how we should pursue the will of God.

In Jeremiah 8:6b, Jeremiah says "None of them repent of their wickedness saying, “What have I done?” Each pursues their own course like a horse charging into battle." The comparison here, is a person's will going in their own life course's direction being equivalent to a military horse charging into a battle. This verse implies that people's "wills" sometimes go in their own way with the speed and ferocity of a horse galloping in a certain direction. I think, by implication, we can conclude that people's wills can also race into the direction of God's will with the speed and ferocity of these military horses. Horses were Old Testament era vehicles in Jeremiah's day. They were powerful. They were that era's "horse power". Our era's "horse power", however, is in cars. Just like a military horse in Jeremiah's day, I believe that our wills can pursue the will of God with the attitude, determination, and ferocity that Will Smith and Martin Lawrence exhibit on the highway chase scene in Bad Boys 2.

In this parable of the Bad Boys 2 highway chase scene, Martin Lawrence represents a human's emotions. Sometimes, the emotions can assist one's will in ferociously and single-mindedly pursuing the will of God. Sometimes, they are your ally. Sometimes, however, they can "spazz" on the obstacles, threats, and bullets of the enemy. Sometimes, they overreact to intimidations of the enemy. On the flip side, they can also cause us to rely on God more and pray against the enemy trying to throw us off track. These are our wavering emotions.

Will Smith represents the human mind. There is a I-don't-care-what-gets-in-the-way-nothing's-gonna-stop-me kind of focus and concentration on his face in this scene that I find so metaphorically inspiring. The job of the mind is to focus. Dodge the distractions of the enemy. Keep one's focus on the path towards the goal. Don't get swayed by one's emotions if one's emotions are "flipping out" and are complaining to one's mind. Stay the course. I do recognize that, psychologically speaking, yelling at your emotions doesn't tame them. On the contrary, one needs to sometimes be gentle and delicate when dealing with one's distorted emotions in order for them to heal from past wounds/pain etc. Nevertheless, the attitude of ignoring one's emotions when they get in the way is important sometimes. (I learned a while back that to "slaughter" one's emotions can actually be counterproductive. It is ideal to "convert" them and spiritually baptize them, rather than to kill them.)

The car is one's will. With the car, one can travel at high speed as long as one dodges the enemy's attacks, which are distractions and intimidating threats that cause fear. The enemy can throw confusion, disturbances, interruptions, and general complications in attempts to divert one's focus and determination from pursuing the will of God with highway-level speed. Distractions include unloving comments from brothers and sisters in the faith. Insults from non-believers. Busyness with too many activities that are good in and of themselves. Forgetting to take one's Sabbaths. Too much worldly entertainment. Too much facebook. Intimidating threats from the enemy include situations that seem discouraging, seemingly "impossible" circumstances to surmount, persecution (whether social or physical), church politics, and a seeming lack of financial resources to carry out God's will. However, it is the mind's role, ideally with the assistance of one's baptized emotions, to focus on the path of God's will and stay the course at high speed, hopefully without fighting each other in the car. Spiritually speaking, the sports car has a supernatural engine (the Holy Spirit) that helps it accelerate at a supernatural speed that could not be achieved without it.

The filmography, the highspeed accelerating noise of the car, the determination on Will Smith's face, and the background music all capture a street-level feel of what this spiritually should feel like in one's first person consciousness in the midst of spiritual-street-level cosmic drama! Thank you Michael Bay!