WALL-E and the Red Box

Friends,
You just don’t know how excited I was when I went to Wal-Mart the other day and found out they had just put in a Red Box near the entrance. Now for those of you who have never heard of a Red Box. It is a DVD rental vending machine. You pick your movie from a touch screen, swipe your debt/credit card and the movie magically appears through a slot on the side. The great thing about it is the cost and convenience. The cost is a dollar for a day and of course it is always open. Sorry Blockbuster, Movie Gallery and Netflicks..I think they got you beat. Anyway the Movie I rented was called WALL-E, which was a big hit in the theaters. Here is a brief synopsis that I borrowed from Roger Moore, a movie critic from the Orlando Sentinel

“Some 700 years in the future, Earth is a vast wasteland. Literally, garbage clogs the ruined streets of ruined cities. Humans have so trashed the joint that they've abandoned the planet for a gigantic spaceship, leaving robots behind to clean up the mess.The last one working on this project is WALL-E, a cute little Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth-class. He's a trash compactor with eyes, gears, a fading finish and a "directive." He compacts trash cubes that he then stacks into vast obelisks of junk.WALL-E has a pet roach (roaches will survive the apocalypse) and a curiosity about the people who left all these Frisbees, toasters, VHS tapes, cigarette lighters (and Luxo lamps) behind. And WALL-E is lonely.

Then a spaceship drops a "probe" robot, a sleek, white, floating dynamo with a ray gun and a temper. She's called EVE, and her "directive" is finding signs of life. WALL-E, who whiles away his off-hours watching song-and-dance numbers from Hello, Dolly! on tape, is in love.Events conspire to hurl them back to EVE's mother ship, where WALL-E is treated to the future of the human race. We're all clueless, zoned-out sedentary fatties, hooked on video and cell phones, sipping super-sized drinks. It's a vision of Wal-Mart Nation run amok.”

I won’t spoil the rest of the story but I will try to give you some observations I have from a spiritual perspective. First it is obvious that the humans have destroyed the planet and have not been good Stewarts of what God has created for them. Secondly in the movie and now in real life, it seems like we are relying on machines and automations to take over a lot of things humans once did. I.E Red Box, Auto manufacturing, on-line banking, automated phone operators, ect..ect..

Now don’t get me wrong I am for all of these things and enjoy the convenience of them but I have to wonder if someday we will be like these humans on this spaceship and let the computers and machines take care of all of our needs. Is technology distancing us from the wonder of creation? Does that distance cripple us spiritually? Will we be like the humans in the “Matrix” and have thoughts implanted into our brains like in “Total Recall” I think Jesus will come back before that happens but sometimes you have to wonder when you see movies like this. It’s funny, when I was a kid I use to love watching the Jetsons, now we are seeing a lot of that technology being used today. How do you all feel about this?

On a positive note the main character WALL-E shows what it means to be a true and faithful servant. He also exemplifies John 15:13 CMB “No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends” I will close by saying WALL-E is a great movie and I highly recommend it! There are a lot of lessons to be learned. Kids will love WALL-E and EVE and grown-ups will appreciate the messages being conveyed. Let me know you take on the movie.. Later
Chris,