Glen Davis

My church went to see The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe this Saturday and we brought guests–3 to 4 times as many outside our church went to see it with us as did church members.

It was magnificent. From a fan’s perspective, it was as faithful to the book as you can expect a movie to be. From a technical perspective, it should say something that I found a beaver in chain mail utterly convincing.

They even made Turkish Delight look appealing, which is truly nasty candy. If that was the most tempting snack available to Brits during the war I’m amazed they were able to hold out against the Luftwaffe. I mean, really. Turkish Delight? The stuff tastes like congealed fat.

I was destined to love the movie as long as it was even close to the book. I was more interested in the reactions of my neighbors: he an atheistic Jewish postdoctoral biology researcher at Stanford and she a not-really-practicing Hindu who works as a business consultant.

They loved it, too.

As we were talking about it afterwards, he commented “The reviews I’ve read are right–it’s definitely got Christian imagery but you have to look for it.”

While I think he downplayed the obviousness of the Christian message (it’s always winter without CHRISTmas–hello?), I think he was on to something.

The movie did dilute some key dialog, but even if the dialog had been unaltered his point would still have merit. The story doesn’t so much tell the Christian message as it prepares one for it. It creates categories and understandings in your mind which serve as placeholders for the gospel. It’s like an extended parable that highlights a few truths:

• This world is more fantastic than we dare believe.
• Evil is seductive.
• Evil need not prevail, either in our lives or in our world.
• Evil must be fought.
• We can’t win the fight against evil alone.
• The one we need help from is our rightful King.
• Our rightful King is not tame but he is good.

And given Phillp Pullman’s claim that the story was loveless I couldn’t help but marvel as the formerly fear-stricken Edmund—Edmund, who knew well the horrible extent of the Witch’s power—hurled himself at her to prevent the slaughter of Peter and incurred a life-threatening wound as a result. And I could talk of the love of the mother for her children, of the children for their father, of the children for each other, of the children for Aslan, of Aslan for his people, of the professor for his haplessly unloveable housekeeper, and of the children (especially Lucy) for Mr. Tumnus.

No love indeed. Pullman just has it in for Lewis.

Anyway, it’s an outstanding movie. I’ve been to precious few movies which caused the audience to burst into applause at the end. This was one.

I just heard Guy Kawasaki speak at Straight Talk, a marketplace ministry hosted by Menlo Park Presbyterian Church. He uses humor well. For instance, he was offered a job in Atlanta but “couldn’t take a job where they call sushi bait.”

I really appreciated his intro:

When I was younger I used to go to a lot industry conferences, and I learned that most CEOs suck as speakers. And the only thing worse than listening to a speaker who sucks is not knowing how much longer they’re going to suck. So I’ve adopted a simple rule: all my presentations are in a top-ten format. That way, if you decide I suck you at least know how much longer I’m going to do it.

Unfortunately, I know a few preachers who could use his advice.

His talk was The Art of the Start, based on his book. It’s a talk he’s given in a lot of different venues. You can find the notes online. He did a pretty good job of customizing it for the context of the meeting (Christian business professionals and their guests).

In honor of his speaking advice, here are ten things I learned about Guy Kawasaki:

1. He’s a Christian.
2. He went to Stanford (where he majored in “the easiest major I could find–psychology.”).
3. He secularized the term evangelism while at Apple. Good for him–the word could really use a facelift.
4. He loves Apple and disdains Microsoft. “DOS was a moral wrong.”
5. He finds evidence for the existence of a personal God in the continued survival of Apple. He further concludes that God really likes digital music and wants you to pay for it.
6. He went to law school and dropped out after ten days, “thereby inheriting 2,000 years of pent-up Asian guilt.”
7. He loves to play hockey–it sounds like an obsession.
8. He is a CSI addict and is eagerly awaiting the day that they release CSI: Menlo Park.
9. He loves first-class in Singapore Airlines. In fact, that’s his working model of heaven.
10. He thinks iStockPhoto.com rocks–he went out of his way to plug it at the end of his presentation and claimed to do so without any financial incentive (”I’m not an investor or anything, I just love their product.”)