The Incredibles was a great family movie that came out in 2004, back when Disney Pixar truly made timeless movies. Of all the great characters within this film, my all-time favorite was Dash (mostly because superspeed is my favorite superpower). He was funny, cool, and the moment he walked on water, he solidified himself on the Mount Rushmore of awesome speedsters growing up. However, of all the scenes that stuck with me from the movie (including “Where is my super suit!” which I still quote today lol), one of them was kind of a one-off scene at the end. At the end of the movie, Dash is finally able to participate in sports like everyone else and he’s doing track, which makes the most sense with him being a speedster. As the gun fires and the race starts, Dash comically jogs the race and he starts to win so easily by a landslide that his parents have to tell him to ‘pull back’ and not use too much of his speed to win the race. In the end, he settles for second and he’s proud of his victory because he’s finally able to participate in a sport like other normal kids. After the credits rolled, something about that scene stuck with me for years and, though there isn’t really anything official, it’s something I call The Dash Dilemma. Note: this has nothing to do with the ‘em dash dilemma’ lol, that’s a completely different topic!
As a Christian creative (by creative, I don’t only mean a content creator, but anyone who is in the artistic field such as music, writing, videos, etc.), I’ve noticed this dilemma since I first started writing when I was 10 years old. If I had to formally define the Dash Dilemma, it would be your desire to achieve something being pressed against the pressures of culture, society, or even internal beliefs in order not to go beyond the norms of expectations. To put it in a Christian creative perspective, it’s the desire to be creative while being pressured by Christian circles, the church, and internal doubts from expressing that creativity in order not to break cultural norms. Or to put it in even simpler terms, it’s the dilemma that creativity, by nature, stretches and breaks boundaries, but at what point do we ask if our creativity goes ‘too far’?
In some sense, every person wrestles with this dilemma, but in recent times, I think it’s really affecting Christians quite significantly. I believe this is because of 2 reasons which produce 2 results. The first reason is that we do not want to be considered heretics. This, I think, is the biggest pressure from Christianity and it does have A LOT of validity to it. The Bible does command us to call out heretics and false teachers who try to preach a different gospel, such as in Romans 16:17-18, Galatians 1:8-9, and 2 Peter 2:1-3, to name a few. One of the most popular ways to do this is through avenues like TV, movies, and videos where people either teach false things or completely mock God. An example that comes to mind is Jesus Christ Superstar, where it depicts Jesus as just a regular flawed human and it leaves out His resurrection, which is the entire linchpin of the faith. If a new believer, or someone who’s trying to learn more about Jesus, watches that play, they can be sorely deceived. This is why it is a good thing for Christians to call out bad media that teaches heresies and false gospels.
However, this leads to the other reason and caveat as to why this dilemma affects Christians: there is no unified language on what true Christian creativity is. It’s easy to point out the negation of Christian creativity but not the substance. Is Christian creativity relegated strictly to historical retellings of Christian/biblical events? Things like The Chosen, House of David, and so on? Or would it be creative arts that have an explicit gospel message such as God’s Not Dead or Fireproof? If this is the case, then where does Chronicles of Narnia or Lord of the Rings fit into this equation? You see the problem? It’s good that Christians know what isn’t Christian, such as Jesus only being a good teacher and not the Son of God, but on the other hand, because we don’t have a unified language of what Christian creativity is, it’s a free-for-all on all fronts. This is why you have so many people divided on shows like The Chosen and House of David. Some genuine Christians love these shows while others think they are evil and heretical because it’s not going verse by verse from the Bible. Even further, because Jesus isn’t explicitly mentioned in books like Chronicles of Narnia or Lord of the Rings, people say that they can’t be Christian, while others (correctly) point to books from the Bible like Esther and Song of Solomon to prove that, just because God isn’t explicitly mentioned, doesn’t mean the books are not Christian.
Then you get 2 major results. Either (1) most creatives just stick to the rigid confines of what I call biblical historical retellings or video sermons. Even in this category, there are people who still find faults, as I just explained earlier. Now, to people’s credit, I do like what Angel Studios is doing by producing good movies that don’t necessarily fall in this category, but it’s still a work in progress. (2) The other major result is when you have genuine Christians who work in mainstream industries in order to express their creative gifts but in secular spaces. Nothing wrong with this per se, because just like how a Christian cashier works with non-Christian workers, so can Christian artists work with non-Christian artists. People that come to mind are Chris Pratt, Denzel Washington, and Mel Gibson. Then you just have the weird 3rd category that has stories like Narnia and Lord of the Rings that don’t fit cleanly into either.
Then you have the problem that actual Christian creatives face: where do we go to find a market? If we pull ourselves too far back, like Dash, then we have to resort to producing regurgitated video sermons, Christian Amish romances, or biblical retellings. On the other hand, if Christians try to be too creative, then Christian audiences will leave and say that the art is not Christian because we went ‘too far’, but the mainstream audience will think that the product is too Christian for them. Hilariously, Christian audiences turn around and complain that there isn’t clean, creative Christian content for them to enjoy. Hence the frustrating dilemma. Do we try to pull our creativity back so we don’t go ‘too far’, or do we stretch the limits and try to expand into secular outlets where the likelihood of getting an opportunity is almost zero? There’s a reason why when you search for famous Christian actors in Hollywood only 5-10 of them show up.
Now on the surface, it seems like there’s no hope, but then you see some glimmers like the remake of Little House on the Prairie. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going into the differences or problems between the remake and the original, but one thing is for certain: there are strong Christian elements within this show and it’s very popular. Even in eastern art such as anime, though most of the time they depict Christianity in a negative light, there are popular anime such as Vinland Saga, The Colors Within, and Trigun that have strong Christian elements, messages, and imagery all throughout. It begs the question: is truly creative Christian entertainment dead? Were Narnia and Lord of the Rings anomalies, or do these products prove that there is a secretly large market for Christians to express their creativity? I certainly think so!
This begs another question: what’s the solution to the Dash Dilemma? I think the first place to start is from the Scriptures, but ironically, the solution comes from the second problem I raised earlier: the lack of a true definition of Christian creativity. It is true that the Bible does not give us a clear-cut definition on this topic, but that’s actually the point. Now let me be clear, the Bible is the perfect Word of God and it does apply to every area of our lives either specifically or in principle. For example, the Bible doesn’t tell us about social media, but it does tell us not to lie and that it’s better to look poor and be truly rich than it is to look rich but to be poor (Proverbs 12:9). There are biblical guidelines to Christian creativity, and the first real guardrail about not teaching heresy does still apply. However, the point is more about Christian liberty.
I honestly think that Christians have forgotten about Christian liberty in the spaces of creativity. This includes both our imaginative content and our theological convictions. Some people might feel more convicted to create more explicitly Christian works while others feel more convicted to create something more thematic. That’s fine! The Bible allows for both just like how Esther doesn’t have God explicitly mentioned but is the Word of God. If you’re interested in creating works with action, adventure, violence, and warfare but have Christian messaging in it, go for it! That’s why books like Judges, First and Second Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles are full of that stuff. If you want to go more of the classic romance, then Ruth and Song of Solomon are your styles. Please hear me, I’m not saying that because there’s violence in the Bible, that means you’re free to make a senselessly violent movie like Saw, but what I am saying is that all of these things have a goal in mind: to point to Christ.
Luke 24:44-45 says, “Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” Everything in the Bible pointed to Christ, whether it was the love story between Ruth and Boaz, Samson killing Philistines with a jawbone, or David cutting off the hands and feet of traitors in 2 Samuel 4 (it’s a real story). The point is that it all had a reason. A perfect example that comes to mind is the great war movie called Fury. Shia LaBeouf’s character was named Bible because he was the spiritual anchor in the group of tank operators. Now this is a brutal war movie that showed the horrific reality of soldiers in World War 2; however, it was also surprisingly strong with Christian messaging. The grueling violence and the grace mixed masterfully. In one sense, you see a brutal, intense battle scene between multiple American Sherman tanks and a German Panzer. Then you see Shia’s character praying and sharing the Gospel with a dying Nazi soldier. Even at the end of the movie, when they’re facing the inevitable, Shia has an opportunity to share the Gospel and talk about Isaiah 6, “Here am I; send me.” The idea is that true believers serve the Lord even into death and that their deaths are not meaningless unto the Lord. What a powerful Christian message woven into a war movie!
So I guess this leads me to the conclusion and to finally address the elephant in the room: how do we tackle the Dash Dilemma? Now I hate the typical answers like ‘just get out of the system’ or ‘get off the track’, because in reality, guardrails are good! They save lives and keep us on track from falling astray. No, I want to provide a better answer: have the courage to race for first place. Why? Because God was the one who invested that talent into you and He wants us to use it. The name of our studio literally comes from this: Exodus 35, where the Holy Spirit gifted Bezalel and other artists with the skill and creativity to design the Tabernacle. Even Jesus in the New Testament gives us the Parable of the Talents. To summarize, in this parable, the Master gives 3 servants talents (a large sum of money probably worth millions today). He gives one servant 5 talents, another 2 talents, and the last servant only 1. The first 2 servants used and invested the talents they were given and were profitable, while the last servant thought that his talent wasn’t useful so he buried it. Then when the Master returned, the first 2 servants were rewarded for their use of their talent while the last servant was rejected and punished for it.
I bring up this parable because there are typically 3 levels of interpretation of this parable and most stick with the first two. The first one is the spiritual understanding that the talent is the Gospel message of the kingdom invested into our spirits and that we are to be faithful to Christ until He returns in His Second Coming. The second one is the more natural understanding in that we are to be good stewards of our natural time and resources in order to glorify Christ, since a ‘talent’ was a very large sum of literal money. The third interpretation is an assumed sub-interpretation of the second one in that talent… can also literally mean talent. Being a good steward of our time and resources also means being a good steward of our skills and gifts from God. The thing is, when we meet Christ, He’s not going to care about things like the market, the critics in our lives, or the excuses as to why we chose to bury our talents. The question is, have we been found faithful? Faithful to Christ through the Gospel deposit in our souls, faithful to Christ with our time and resources, and faithful to Christ with our skills, gifts, and talents. The interesting thing about this is that both the first servant and the second servant were found faithful and both of them doubled their talents. The guy with 2 talents didn’t spend time comparing himself or competing with the guy with 5 talents; he simply made the most of what he had and God found them both to be faithful.
What am I saying? All of these ideas about the Dash Dilemma, racing to get first, and using our talents, what does it all mean for how Christians can be creative today? To put it plainly, our number one investor is not our agents, our family members, companies, financial capitalists, or any of those people, nor is our number one customer our readers, viewers, or listeners. Both of those categories have one person sitting in those seats: Jesus Christ. Yes, we abide by the ‘rules of the race’, those guardrails we discussed earlier, but we run as fast as we can. We use and expand the limits of our literally God-given creativity and skills in order to glorify Christ the highest. This is not a new concept. There’s a reason why most of the greatest classical musicians, many of the celebrated painters, and some of the most brilliant scientists and inventors were Christians. They had a chief audience and an investor of One. We see this clearly in the life of Vincent van Gogh. What’s fascinating about Van Gogh is how prolific an artist he was. Within 10 years, Van Gogh produced over 2,000 works of art, which is the equivalent of one artwork every 44 hours! But what’s most intriguing about his story is that, while today people are paying millions of dollars for his artwork, back when Van Gogh was alive, out of 2,000 pieces of work, he was only able to sell a couple of them in his lifetime, and only one of those sales is confirmed for certain. To think that literally one of the greatest artists of all time could barely sell anything. Could you imagine if he had stopped at the first one? The 30th one? What about after he hit 1,000 paintings? It begs the question: why was Van Gogh still painting? Even the people around him would question him and mock him, and yet he still painted. He never cared about the Dash Dilemma: the pressures of society and culture that were telling him that nobody wanted his art, that he was wasting his time, that he should draw what people wanted him to draw, that he should pull back his creativity and his artistry. Even despite his own doubts probably furthering the Dash Dilemma in his mind… he would still paint.
Thankfully, Vincent van Gogh tells us why: it was because Van Gogh was painting for the audience of One, for the investor of One. It was his fascination with Christ, the greatest painter ever, that moved his heart to keep painting, to race for first place, and to use the talent given to him by his Savior. I end with the words of Van Gogh: “Christ alone, of all the philosophers, magicians, etc., has affirmed eternal life as the most important certainty, the infinity of time, the futility of death, the necessity and purpose of serenity and devotion. He lived serenely, as an artist greater than all other artists, scorning marble and clay and paint, working in the living flesh. In other words, this peerless artist, scarcely conceivable with the blunt instrument of our modern, nervous and obtuse brains, made neither statues nor paintings nor books. He maintained in no uncertain terms that he made … living men, immortals.”
Just as the greatest Painter motivated Van Gogh to paint, so should the greatest Creator motivate us to create.
Godspeed,
A Weak Fool
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