{"id":37,"date":"2014-09-05T09:16:32","date_gmt":"2014-09-05T15:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/?p=37"},"modified":"2014-09-05T09:16:32","modified_gmt":"2014-09-05T15:16:32","slug":"forrest-gump-he-knows-what-love-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2014\/09\/forrest-gump-he-knows-what-love-is\/","title":{"rendered":"Forrest Gump: He Knows What Love Is"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Forrest_Gump_poster\"<\/a>\u201cStupid is as stupid does.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s Forrest Gump\u2019s snappiest comeback line. Whenever someone asks Forrest if he\u2019s an idiot (which is often), he remembers what his Mamma always told him: Stupid is as stupid does. It\u2019s not a denial. It\u2019s simply a statement of fact, and a bit of a challenge. Don\u2019t judge me by how I think. Judge me by what I do. Oh, and while you\u2019re at it, judge yourself, too. <\/em><\/p>\n

Forrest Gump<\/em>, originally released in 1994 and the winner of six Academy Awards (including Best Director Robert Zemeckis, Best Actor Tom Hanks and Best Picture) is returning to theaters today, rolling out on 300 IMAX screens across the country. I\u2019ll be interested to see whether anyone cares.<\/p>\n

Forrest Gump<\/em> hasn\u2019t aged well for some. When you think of the year\u2019s classic movies, you maybe think of Pulp Fiction<\/em>, The Shawshank Redemption<\/em> or The Lion King <\/em>before this Oscar winner. Forrest Gump<\/em> can feel a little too milquetoast by comparison. The special effects\u2014cutting edge for the day\u2014feel pretty dated now. Lines like \u201cRun, Forrest, run!\u201d and \u201clife is a box of chocolates\u201d are more likely to trigger eye rolls than smiles. Some positively hate the thing. Writes Amy Nicholson of L.A. Weekly<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cForrest Gump<\/em> has persevered, still celebrating 20 years of ignoring the tragedies that lurk beneath our lives like great whites in the dark waters below his shrimping boat. Let us not forget that the Bubba Gump fortunes only came after a hurricane took out all of Forrest\u2019s competition. Post-Katrina and post-recession, even his seafood riches now have a rotten aftertaste.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But like folks who met Forrest in the movie, Amy underestimates the guy. Forrest might not have been fully aware of hurricanes or understood the Vietnam War, but he\u2019s no stranger to tragedy. He understands pain maybe better than most of us. He loses his mother. He loses his best friend. He loses\u2014repeatedly\u2014the love of his life. And he\u2019s never allowed to forget how slow he is. When Forrest learns he fathered a child, he\u2019s amazed, then terrified that his son might be slow, too.<\/p>\n

And yet, rather than grow angry or bitter or fatalistic, Forrest grieved and moved on. His journey is one of deep, abiding faith.<\/p>\n

Forrest Gump<\/em> is a deeply spiritual movie, one of the most faith-driven stories I\u2019ve ever seen. Echoes of scripture weave through each storyline. It\u2019s most obvious, maybe, in his relationship with Lieutenant Dan (I talk about it a little in the spiritual content section of my Plugged In<\/em> review<\/a>), but nowhere is it more poignant and powerful than in his love for Jenny, his wayward \u201cgirl.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jenny is a troubled woman. Like the song says, she s\"forrestearches for love in all the wrong places\u2014trying to find happiness in parked cars or drug-filled penthouses. She poses for Playboy<\/em>. She sings folk songs naked in a strip club. She longs for love, but instead she finds a string of abusive boyfriends, made (it\u2019s suggested) in the image of her father.<\/p>\n

When she was a kid being chased by her dad, she asked Forrest to pray with her\u2013begging that God would turn her into a bird so that she could fly away from her horrid life. She never loses her desire for wings, it seems: She climbs bridges and balconies, longing to wing her way into oblivion.<\/p>\n

And yet she does<\/em> fly. Again and again, she flies from her past, remaking herself at every stoplight\u2014as if she could somehow fly away from herself. And in so doing, she flies away from Forrest, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan I have a ride?\u201d she asks a passing truck driver after Forrest \u201crescues\u201d her from the strip club.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere are you going?\u201d he asks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care,\u201d Jenny says.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve ever seen a better depiction of how our own sin and shame impact our relationship with God.<\/p>\n

See, Forrest loves Jenny\u2014loves her unconditionally, just as God loves us. He loves with a perfect, undying passion. And Jenny loves Forrest, too \u2026 sorta. But she seeks fulfillment elsewhere time after time. And when Forrest asks Jenny to marry him, she realizes that he\u2019s too good for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to marry me,\u201d she says, sadly. \u201cWhy don\u2019t you love me, Jenny?\u201d he asks. \u201cI\u2019m not a smart man, but I know what love is.\u201d Jenny, after all this time, sees that it\u2019s true. He knows \"ForrestJennyRocks\"what love is. It\u2019s she that doesn\u2019t. Now, I\u2019m not calling Forrest a Christ metaphor. Jesus and Forrest are pretty different \u2026 except in that image of love. A love that\u2019s undimmed by what we say or do, a love unstained by our own sin and shame. A love that would die for us, and has.<\/p>\n

That kind of love can seem a little stupid and simple-minded to our jaded eyes. Na\u00efve. Oblivious. Like Forrest himself. Like, Amy Nicholson tells us, the movie is.<\/p>\n

And yet there\u2019s unfathomable beauty there, too. A love we can\u2019t understand, but part of us wants to.<\/p>\n

\u201cStupid is as stupid does,\u201d Forrest says. The Apostle Paul said something similar in his first letter to the Corinthians.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Forrest Gump<\/em>, we\u2019re given a fool\u2014one whose foolish ideas of love can put our own wisdom to shame.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cStupid is as stupid does.\u201d That\u2019s Forrest Gump\u2019s snappiest comeback line. Whenever someone asks Forrest if he\u2019s an idiot (which is often), he remembers what his Mamma always told him: Stupid is as stupid does. It\u2019s not a denial. It\u2019s simply a statement of fact, and a bit of a challenge. Don\u2019t judge me by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2036,"featured_media":40,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,8,331,7],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","tag-classics","tag-love","tag-movies","tag-oscar-winner"],"yoast_head":"\nForrest Gump: He Knows What Love Is<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""Stupid is as stupid does." That\u2019s Forrest Gump\u2019s snappiest comeback line. 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