I never expected The Blind Side to be this good. Sure, it seemed like a good story: a lonely figure of mammoth proportions finds a home in a cultural family completely alien to him, with much of the dynamic played out on the football field. Seriously, it was right up my alley, but it wasn't anything new, was it? We already had sports films about lonely, isolated figures making good, especially on the football field (Gridiron Gang, Invincible, Remember the Titans) but notably in sports (Chariots of Fire, Miracle)... so seriously, did we really need this?

Sandra Bullock is the difference maker.

In a year when Bullock (or "Sandy" to her friends) appeared in two successful flicks (The Proposal, The Blind Side) and one bomb (All About Steve), one can't be surprised that she would have one outstanding movie. But the fact that she won the Best Actress Oscar, now that is surprising. After seven years of bombs (on the shelf now for a hot $1.99) Bullock hit it big (speaking of bombs) in 1994 with Speed, before ripping through a list that included A Time To Kill, The Net, While You Were Sleeping, Hope Floats, Miss Congeniality, Crash... before starring in movies that only her family remembers from 2004-2009. And then she rocked the screen twice in 2009.

Of course, The Proposal is hilarious. Bullock is a wild ride as an overbearing boss, and Ryan Reynolds plays her pawn-turned-love interest. And, of course, Betty White owns every scene she is in. Still, we expect Bullock to do funny, and to do it well. But The Blind Side is one of those movies that, if you're reading about it in a vacuum, minus stars and details, you think could just as easily by a weekday, afterschool special as an Oscar-winning drama. No, wait: which other sports-based movies have won an Oscar? (The answer: Rocky, Million Dollar Baby, and Chariots of Fire.) The more direct answeris there aren't any which were about team-based, more popular sports.

And then, here comes Bullock. Watching The Blind Side, it becomes wildly entertaining, moving, and inspiring. But the amazing thing, and the reason it will forever be in the pantheon, is that you forget you're watching Sandra Bullock and you instead see Tennessean Leigh Anne Tuohy! You get a sharp-shooting, sweet and sharp, Christian woman who sees the excesses in her life and wants to give more; you see a woman who changes the life of one man (Michael Oher) and the lives of everyone in her family. And then you have the wild proposition that because it was made into a movie with Bullock that thousands of people would see it... and then it wins an Oscar so millions of people who wouldn't have seen it will see it now!

All because one woman saw someone who needed help and did what she could. Isn't that what Christians are supposed to do? Isn't that the third component of Jesus' Great Commission post-Easter? After going and making disciples of all nations and baptizing them in the name of the triune God, Jesus told the eleven disciples to "teach them to obey everything I have commanded you." To give your extra cloak away. To visit the sick and imprisoned. To love God and love others.

Pretty meaningful message from Jesus. And not only did Hollywood make it into a movie, but then it won an Oscar.

Go figure.