In the movie A Beautiful Mind, John Nash is a genius mathematician who develops paranoid schizophrenia. Throughout the movie he goes into these delusional hallucinations-- which are inhabited by an old man in a hat (Parcher), his 'friend' (Charles), and a young girl (Marcee) who lead him into ruin. He indulges in his imaginary life, and the deeper he gets into it, the more painful the loss and burden his condition brings to his wife and friends. The breaking point is when Parcher urges Nash to even kill his wife. He suffers immeasurably, and it seems like there is no solution... until, his wife Alicia looks him in the eye and says she'll love him until the end. From that point he doesn't pay attention to the imaginary characters, but instead focuses on the love of his wife. Even at the end of the movie, Nash and Alicia are about to leave an auditorium when John sees Charles, Marcee, and Parcher standing by and watching him. Yet he lives life freely because he no longer indulges on them but instead on the love of his life, Alicia.I see an eerie resemblance between John Nash and ourselves as Christians. I especially see an eerie resemblance between A Beautiful Mind and Romans 6-7. We were once slaves of sin, but we are now free in regard to righteousness. Our flesh still dwells in us, but it does not control us nor is master over us. Just as John Nash used to indulge himself in his delusions, I once indulged in my sinful flesh. And while he broke his wife's heart as he indulged in his schizophrenia, so we break God's heart when we fall into sin. John Nash's solution was to focus on the love of his wife. And my solution-- the love of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. Parcher, Charles, and Marcee (our flesh) dwelled within him, even until the last day. But they were no longer master over him. Likewise, we will be struggling with our sinful flesh until the day we die, but our master is no longer sin, but Christ. So just as he gazed into his wife's eyes, let us just gaze directly into the eyes and love of God. That is our only Solution.
4 comments:
I just recently watched the movie this past winter break with my dad. I was blown away when it revealed his schizophrenia-- my dad wasn't convinced, even, and kept saying, "What if they're lying to him?" HAHAH. Charles (his "best friend") was also another one of his personalities.
And-- yeah. I didn't see the parallelism to this movie and our relationship with Christ before. Thanks for pointing it out (:
"You are the only reason I am...
You are all my reasons."
:). I studied Nash in math class. He's a genius.
Beautiful Mind is one of my fav movies....
but i never thought of it like that. Thanks.
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