Lessons that can be learned from Joan of Arcadia

I enjoy watching the show Joan of Arcadia - it may not be entirely theologically correct but I still believe that there are some important truths that can be taught through the show. What I am thinking of is the season premiere - Joan is avoiding talking to God - he is able to catch up with her at the end of the show and after a couple questions he asks her if she misses him. Joan says she doesn't miss him, she enjoys being "normal". He then asks her if she misses herself - because he does.
I think that there are two important truths here:
#1 - we try and talk ourselves into believing that we are better off on our own - or being "normal". we don't even understand what normal really is - society is not normal so how can they dictate what normal is.

#2 - God misses out on the relationship that we avoid with him. He desires for us to know Him and to get to know more about Him. Two parties are involved in any relationship and they both get affected when one side backs out or decides to no longer be involved. Have we ever really thought about how we hurt God by ignoring HIm or not even spending much time with Him?

these are just some ideas to get started - I have beenthinking about this since I saw the show and I'm hoping that it might generate some deep thought either on these ideas I have already given or even on how we can receive lessons from such a variety of ways. God doesn't work in a box and can speak to people in so many different ways


I had more thoughts on these but I can't remember what they are off hand

CaliGirl341 said:

lastly about God wanting to have a relationship with everyone..and thinking of how He must feel when we're ignoring Him...think about it this way...what if God spent as much time on you as you spent on Him...?? Really think about that...I don't know about you but i wouldn't make it on my first day...build and grow in your relationship with God because He's is everything you need.

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That is such a good way to think about it. It is such a good thing that GOd puts so much more into us then we ever do in our relationship with HIm. We need to ask ourselves why is that? Why do choose to neglect the most important relationship in our lives?

I have low self-esteem so I have a tendency to think that GOd doesn't want to spend time with me or He doesn't care about me anyways - which is so wrong! We need to not let our own emotions govern how we think God feels about us - otherwise it would be pretty sad for us.

Thankfully God loves us no matter what we do and He will do wahtever it takes to bring us back to Him.

I know that some people may htink of this as a no-brainer - but last week on Joan of Aracdia - they made a fatal error in their theology
Joan's friend Judith was killed at a drug buy gone bad. At the end of the show, Joan confronts God about letting Judith die - God's response was that we need to juggle our way through life. I thought about that for awhile and realized that the biggest flaw that the show has is that they don't have Jesus. Never once is Joan confrotned by the fact that she and her friends need to accept Jesus.
If they included this vital part within the show - then they would realize that it is not about juggling things through life, but giving themover to Jesus and letting Him take care of it all. Jesus will give us His yoke which is lighter.
That just really hit me last week. I don't know if anyone has any comments on that or not.



PS
I know some may think I shouldn't support the show but usually they have some relly good truths they share and it is very popular

Serenity Now! said:

It didn't hit me then, but it sure does now that you mention it. The whole juggling thing did not make sense to me, and I thought it just didn't fit well. I couldn't understand the point or theme of that episode-- well, you nailed it right there. That's why it made no sense... there was no Jesus! Thank you!

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Yeah it took me some thinking because I couldn't figure it out either. Some times thinking too much is a good thing!

There are some really good points within the show.
I do agree with you SnowDove about Christians catching some of the things that non-Christians wouldn't. It does make you stop and think though about what they do in the show and why.

Serenity - I saw that episode, but honestly havn't put much thought into it about the kite. maybe sometimes we need to think about the present instead of focusing on the past - could that be it? I feel bad for Joan's younger brother at times (can't remember his name) - I kind of know what it is like to be forgotten about.

I still think that the producers are still missing Jesus but different people relate to the stories at different times and in different ways. This is important for us to remember that when we minister not everybody is reache dthe same way by the same words. I do give them props for putting on another "Christian show" after that lady was trying to get them to take Touched by an Angel off the air.