Jai ho – reflections from the “Slumdog” Millionaire

The question of life’s origin, its purpose and its end vis-à-vis the occurrences of evil, pain and inexplicable happenings continue to plague mankind. They are the questions to which we never seem to find satisfactory answers. All the philosophical and Christian answers seem satisfactory until one is suddenly shaken by the reality of the death of their two-year old son or the rape of their sixteen year old daughter. One is compelled to want justice and justifiably so. Questions begin to plague the mind.

On a Friday night recently, I visited one of my friends and these thoughts came to me again as we spent some delightful two hours watching the Slumdog Millionaire. While I had heard about how interesting this three-year old movie was, I had for some reason not watched it until he recommended it. With eager interest we watched it in one sitting, a feat I’d deemed myself almost incapable of!

The story revolves around Jamal and his brother Salim who lose their mother while relatively young. Their life becomes the typical orphan story. They struggle through life doing “odd” jobs, all the while trying to keep body and soul together. Salim represents the more aggressive and ruthless character whereas Jamal was the docile, collected one.

What struck me was not their penury or even their distinct characters or their plight but the “Who wants to be a millionaire” show on which Jamal was a contestant. Jamal, an archetype of a slum-dweller (“slumdog”) was being asked questions that the educated or sophisticated were supposed to know. And yet, this slum-material was sailing right through much to the shock and chagrin of the show’s host.

Unable to believe that someone like Jamal could be answering these questions, the host had Jamal arrested and brutally tortured in the hope of finding out how it is that someone could answer such questions with correctness. Jamal’s ability to answer those questions was rooted in the experiences he had gone through in life.

Scene after scene, we were led to retrospectively see aspects of Jamal’s life that left impressions that were the answers to the questions he was now being presented with. Whether it was the autograph he signed while he was literally covered in human excreta or the $100 bill he gave to a beggar friend, the answers to those questions were a very part of his experiences in life. The story goes on to end with Jamal winning the grand prize having answered all the questions with one or two guesses. The pauper is now a millionaire!

It was this show (in the movie) that got me thinking. Could Jamal honestly say that as he went through those horrifying experiences in life, someway, somehow he believed them to be good or to have some good end? How did he bear the loss of his mother, the (temporary) loss of the girl he loved, the brutal gorging out of the eyes of some his friends due to the avarice of one man and the increasing hardening of his brother? Evidently, these are tragic events that shake the life of a young.

Our life’s experiences seem so similar. Quite often tragedies happen in such rapid succession that we do not see the possibility of meaning or value emerging from such pain. As is humorously quipped, “he who feels it knows it.” The pain that many have had to bear cannot in many circumstances be described by words. Somehow, words lose their inability to express some depths of pain.

From the standpoint of being a winner and a millionaire, Jamal Malik, could possibly look at all those losses and begin to see some value to all that pain. In this case, it might be the financial gain. Life had somehow placated him for all the sorrow.

Methinks that the story of life, particularly for those who walk in a belief in the Christian God is no different. Jamal may have been hapless through his bitter experiences but we can have faith. If we have entrusted our lives to God, we can be certain that His promise to bring us into eternal life and the mansions His father has for us are as true now as they were when He made that promise. (John 14:1-4)

We are finite and do not see the end from the beginning but our walk of faith must lead us to trust that God is with us, even in the midst of paucity and the most debilitating circumstances. If your life is entrusted to God, you can be certain He is superintending the entire process and it will turn out for your good if you walk closely in His will.

My mind is firmly drawn to the book of Hebrews and more especially the 11^th chapter where the “Hall of Faith” lists those who believed God and literally took Him at His word. Though none of them received what was promised (Heb 11:39), they held on to God.

While faith has been held out by many “mega” preachers, prophets, archbishops and bishops as the means to receive the fullness of life (material wealth) from God, I find an entirely different story in Hebrews. To many of them, unpleasant experiences like Jamal’s cannot characterize the life of one who follows God. It is as though they have never read the life of Jesus or of Paul or Wesley or Spurgeon. They doubt the Potter’s ability to take even pain to establish His purposes.

Many of them, like a great majority of us are myopic in our perception. Quite often, we cannot see beyond our present the pain. As we writhe in it particularly that which results from obedience to God and integrity, we wonder where God is. He has promised never to leave us nor forsake us.

In Hebrews 11:32-40, the author records the horrific experiences that many saints of old had to endure because of their faith in God. It was not a pleasant ride and yet they kept their hope and trust in God. Somehow their eyes remained fixed as they “looked forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” (Hebrews 11:10)

Jamal’s (financial) reward at the end of a life of pain and difficulty should give us an indication of the faithful God who is able to keep His promises of reward at the end. Somehow all these experiences if taken with the trust and witness of the Spirit as God’s will will elicit His thunderous “well done.” I am not asking you to resign yourself to a life of laziness, indiscipline and despair, but to resign your life to the Father’s will. I am not asking you to also get into doing things just for the reward or the mansions in glory.

Donnie McClurkin sings a useful reminder:

I’m not thinking about the sights,

I won’t be there to enjoy the view,

I think heaven will be alright;

As long as there’s You!

The writer of this brilliant movie sought to provide some meaning to all the pain that had characterized this young lad’s earlier life. Somehow in the crevices of his mind a financial reward seemed enough to placate Jamal. Somehow, that idea seems rife among many of us today. It is the idea that there is a financial reward that will be able to make up for all the pain that has plagued our earthly existence.

In seeking to answer that question of life ourselves, we wear ourselves thin to “make it” so we can somehow belong only to realize that all our successes have left us with deeper chasms in our hearts. Life becomes devoid of meaning and we seem to have laboured in vain. Blaise Pascal reminds us “there is a God shaped vacuum in our hearts that can only be filled by a living relationship with God through Jesus Christ.”

And so today, I want to commend this Jesus to you. Your life may have been wrecked by experiences too tragic to recount and yet even in those circumstances God is able to turn it around. He sees the end from the beginning and if you can entrust your life to Him, He will give you Himself and much more at the end.

Why not begin now to admit that your quest to find meaning and answers without Him has failed? Cast yourself at His feet to save you and give you strength to know and live His will. To all who profess Him and pursue Him, rewards without measure await you. Seek Him while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near and abandon yourself to Him. It matters not which slum you emerged from, He will give you the riches which are found in Christ if you obey Him. Selah!!

Sept 9, 2011
1410GMT