june 2013
celloutlines | overview
Do you feel blessed? Jacob did. In fact, blessing was a part of his family tradition! His father Isaac and grandfather Abraham knew God’s blessing. Jacob was symbolically blessed several times throughout his long life, and went on to give specific blessings to his own children who would become the 12 tribes of Israel. It could be said that he chased blessing throughout his entire life, initially even being willing to encourage a blessing inappropriately. Despite being blessed, Jacob did not have an easy life. He had a great many choices to make of significant consequence. This month’s cell notes will help young people wrestle through the decision-making process, and help equip them with tools for life. We will look at the relationship between the decisions we make and our ability to feel God’s blessing.
Theme: As children of the 90’s, your cell group will no doubt associate film director Danny Boyle with the Olympic Opening Ceremony, or the movie Slumdog Millionaire. Unless they have older siblings, they may not be familiar with his earlier work. A long time ago in a galaxy far away, in the 90’s, the movie Trainspotting and its accompanying iconic theme tune ‘Choose Life’ made him a world-famous success. Boyle is known for making gritty, sometimes tough to watch movies, and this early movie edition played a big part in setting that foundation. In some ways, it is a good thing our young people will most likely have not seen this graphic tale, as sadly it is not a model for making good choices. (Spoiler Alert!) The movie was about a group of young people who were trying their best to navigate life in Edinburgh, whilst feeling that at any given time everything was against them. Feeling that somehow, the choices they wanted to make to fully embrace and enjoy life were being hampered by powerful forces beyond their control. The fairly amoral but mostly likeable group end up engaging in alcohol, hard drugs (heroin) and a raft of other dangerous and illegal activities as a form of escapism, to somehow make life feel a little bit more real. Sadly, there are some horrific consequences along the way that scar certain characters for the rest of their lives.
celloutlines
As mentioned, this movie was accompanied by a brilliant soundtrack that was probably equally as famous as the movie, and captured the mood of the nation. Whilst there are far too many expletives in it to print word for word here, the title and general theme of the track was ‘Choose Life’. For the theme this month, we are more interested in this theme than in the movie. ‘Choose Life’ cleverly listed lots of things that we as individuals are encouraged to choose by society, to somehow make life that little bit more liveable. It contains products and lifestyles that promise to make us more loveable, and yet as the verses progress the song reveals that the items do not live up to the hype. Instead of fulfilment, we slowly ‘rot away, watching mind-numbing gameshows and inevitably becoming an embarrassment to those around us’. Quite a bleak picture, but that is how the main characters of Trainspotting viewed the world. Scholars and movie geeks worldwide have picked up on this theme of ‘decision makers as consumers’, writing essays on other silver screen classics such as Fight Club, the Matrix trilogy and even The Simpsons and Harry Potter movies, as examples of the joys and pitfalls that await us as we attempt to choose a fulfilling life. Through the coming month’s cell material, we will play games, discuss big topics and worship the God who blesses us: the God who designed our lives to be filled to the brim with love and delight; the God who is with us in our decision making; the God who wants us to truly choose life. We will also employ some tangible tools from the world of youthwork and mentoring to help young people make and live with their choices – seeking help from appropriate agents where necessary. And it is worth noting continued over u
www.salvationarmy.org.uk/alove