The legacy of divorce in Steven Spielberg movies

Mark Caro wrote an interesting column recently in the Chicago Tribune called "Indiana Jones and That Spielberg Ending". He writes:

Has any filmmaker pursued a single theme as obsessively over so many varied films as Steven Spielberg?

Almost every movie, no matter the genre, explores the same issue with a similar resolution: the repairing of the fractured family.

Spielberg's parents divorced in 1966, and that event had a huge impact on his life. He always wanted his parents to get back together.

I can relate to that -- my parents divorced when I was four years old, and I tried many times to get them back together. It's unfortunate that marriage, which is God's creation, so often ends in divorce. Divorce is way too common in our country -- could that be why Spielberg's movies are so popular? Are we a nation longing for strong families?

Getting right with each other by getting right with God

It's been said that to truly love another person, you need to love yourself first. I have struggled with self-esteem, therefore making it challenging for me to love another person. But I'm getting better at discovering who I am in Christ through Neil T. Anderson's book Victory Over the Darkness.

In his book, Anderson relates the story on p. 63 of a husband and wife who were on the verge of divorce -- until they realized who they were in Christ:

This couple discovered that getting right with each other began with getting right with God. Getting right with God always begins with settling once and for all the fact that God is your loving Father and you are His accepted child. That is the foundational truth from which you live.

We are children of God. We need to accept that He loves us, and we need to love and accept ourselves. Then it will be easier for us to love others.

Understanding brokenness

We know (or should know) that our strength comes from God. God wants us to depend on Him, and sometimes He will drive us to brokenness in order to get His point across.

On page 106 of One Yard Short, Les Steckel writes about a woman in church who told him about brokenness after he was fired by the Minnesota Vikings after the miserable 3-13 season:

Back when the Vikings had just fired me, a woman in a church crowd had used the term (brokenness). After I finished speaking, she came up to me and said, 'I believe God removed you from that position to put you through brokenness.'

Brokenness? What's that? I told the woman I had no idea what she was talking about. And I was being honest, for even after the Vikings fiasco, I still didn't get it.

Steckel eventually understood brokenness in 1990, when he was fired by the New England Patriots.

I understand brokenness. I felt extremely broken during my childhood -- my parents divorced when I was 4, and my stepdad didn't treat me very well. I have been working to deal with my parents' divorce and the treatment by my stepdad my entire life. But I know that God was with me during that entire time and ensured that I made my way through it. It's a paradox: when we are weakest we are at our strongest, because at that point we are relying on God.