Footloose

[Ren (Kevin Bacon) was  challenged to a chicken race with tractors.  He is new in town and hasn't earned his dues yet. So the local hot shot challenged him, and Ren does not know how to drive a tractor.]

We can think about this clip in two different ways. I enjoy the theme of Providence, and I have drawn this message from a lot of the movies I discuss. This movie is no different. It is Providence that allowed his shoe string to get stuck.  It is what ended up taking the former hot-shot and instituted Ren's acceptance into this crowd of young adults.  Providence is that wonderful thing when by happy chance something good comes that would have otherwise not happened.

Another way we can look at this clip is how it demonstrates that our culture holds up fame and fortune as worth. Imagine if Ren had not won the race, would he still have worth in that group of people?  We don't often hear about the quiet hero, but rather we are told that we have to succeed.  We have to be the one who wins the day.  Is our value as a human only summed up by chance, if something fortunate happens, devoid of our choices?  Or is it simply that if I succeed then I am wanted, and valued?  Does it not instead come from the very fact that I am made in the image and likeness of God?  It doesn't really matter if I "fail." In the eyes of the world, Christ failed by being crucified. We are called to enter into that same suffering, to recognize that the lowest among us has value, not because of a fortunate circumstance, or because I have succeeded in gaining recognition for my accomplishments.  Take the time this day to pray for somebody who is less fortunate than you, somebody who is not successful, that they might know their value as a person before God.