Ray

LINKS
—Overview
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film pdf file
—Spiritual Connections

I saw this film 1.5 times this weekend. That’s because about one hour and twenty minutes into the first screening, the power went out. I was pretty disappointed as I drove home through the blacked-out city. Up to that point, I had been thoroughly enjoying what was looking like an Oscar-worthy motion picture. Now I had to wait 24 hours before I could see how it ended. Turns out I probably should have quit while I was ahead.

To be fair, the first half of this movie should win an award. Of course, we’ve seen the “obscure musician makes it big� story many times before, but it never ceases to be exciting, and rarely is it told so well. Plus, Jamie Foxx plays Ray Charles so convincingly and with such warmth that this film, like Charles himself, is simply impossible to resist. (Foxx definitely deserves an Oscar.) Unfortunately, at about the halfway point, the narrative engine of this film simply runs out of gas. Foxx is still mesmerizing, and Charles’ music is still amazing, but the film itself starts to lurch and stagger around like the singer after he had taken one too many hits of smack.

Narrative concerns aside, if you are like me and all you know about Ray Charles going in is that he was blind and smiled a lot when he played the piano, I strongly urge you to see this film. Not only does it serve as an excellent introduction to his music, it also reveals a character far more complex and talented than most people realize. And yet in the midst of that talent, lived a tortured soul who struggled with addiction, disability, racism, and grief. Ironic that a man known as much for his smile as his music could have lived through so much pain—much of it self-inflicted—but somehow not at all that surprising.

On a spiritual level, this film also gives us many things to think about. Most of these ideas came to me as questions or snippets of thought, so I will share them with you just as they arrived.

“The least of these�: Ray Charles certainly fell into this category, at least in the early years of his life: poor, blind, a second-class citizen in his own country. As Christ notes in the parable from which this phrase is taken (Matthew 25:31-46), such people tend to elicit the dark heart or the Good Samaritan in all of us. That was certainly true in Charles’ life. Some took advantage of him because of his blindness, some loved him in spite of it, and a rare few realized that blindness is not a physical disability; it is a state of being. In that sense, Charles could see better than most. This also made me think about how we treat people with disabilities in our society. My church is full of people with physical and mental disabilities. In fact, they are one of our four “pillars.� But how do I respond to them? To be honest, often with fear or, worse, apathy. Could it be that I am the one with the disability?

Talent and debauchery: They seem to go hand-in-hand. Why is that? Whether you look inside the church or without, the most gifted among us are often the same people who struggle most with addiction, depression, philandering, and behavior disorders of all sorts. Much has been made of the artistic temperament, but is it not possible to be both artistically proficient and spiritually and morally upright?

Angry with God: Like Charles, many people hold God at arm’s length because of some sort of perceived injustice. For Charles, it was blindness and the death of his brother. What is it for you? Have you ever spoken to God about this issue? What did he say?

Dealing with the past: It seems as though most of us spend the first part of our lives getting hurt by others and the second part of our lives trying to recover. We do a lot of different things to deal with the pain from our past. Some of us are like Charles, numbing the ache with drugs, alcohol or sex. Others smother it with work or busyness. The question is: how should we deal with it? What does God have to say about the pain in your past? Have you ever asked him what healing looks like for you?

Finding your voice: Due to his acute sense of hearing, Charles was a gifted mimic. The problem was, this ability hindered him from finding his own voice. Then, once he did find his voice, people immediately started telling him he couldn’t do what he was doing because no one had ever done it that way before. Just goes to prove what Ricky Nelson said in the song “Garden Party�: “You see you can’t please everyone so you got to please yourself.� It also makes me wonder: Have I found my voice? If not, why? And if so, what is hindering me from using it?

Church vs. culture: Having found his voice, Charles was just beginning to experiment with his distinctive blend of gospel and blues when two church members burst into a nightclub where he was playing and accused him of blaspheming God with his music. Charles’ obvious character flaws aside, I have to admit his response to these accusations and the subsequent loss of his saxophonist was much more Christlike than the attitude of his accusers. How often does the church behave in exactly this fashion?whether we are talking about its response to musicians like Ray Charles or the homosexual next door? When will we learn that Christ came to seek and save the lost, not condemn and blame them?

LINKS
—Overview
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film pdf file
—Spiritual Connections