I have to throw out a BIG thank you to those of you who read this blog. The last two to three weeks have been crazy busy for me and I’ve contributed very little. Instead, I’ve been asking of you for ideas and help and your feedback has been wonderful. I’m about 60% through writing/prepping nine talks I’m giving next week at camp. I need help with an illustration.

Here’s the setup. I’m talking about selfishness with the bottom line being: Live my life unselfishly. The scripture is from Luke 12, the parable of the farmer who built bigger barns. In my second talk that day, I’m honing in on what Jesus said before he told the Parable, “A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” I’m choosing to illustrate the point that we are spiritual beings living in a physical world and more often than not, we get caught up in gratifying ourselves with the physical things in this world. However, if we truly recognize that we’re being duped, that this life is short and the richness of our eternity will be measured by how generous we are in this temporal life. I want to point the kids toward seeing what real life is. Real life is eternal, not abundance of possessions.

So, how do I illustrate this. What I’m looking for is a movie clip where a character realizes that what he/she has always known isn’t reality. The absolute best illustration that comes to mind is the Matrix where humanity thinks it is experiencing reality, but it’s not true at all. However, I don’t love the idea of showing clips from the Matrix to 3rd-5th graders, even though most of them have probably seen it already.

Do you know of any other movies that illustrate this shift, where a character sees what reality is for the first time?