What if you could be God?

Bruce Almighty Rating: PG-13 for language, sexual content and some crude humour

Have you ever wondered what it might be like to be God? Have you ever looked at your world and imagined what you would change if you were in charge? Bruce Nolan (the hilarious Jim Carrey) feels that way. In spite of his very best efforts,

Through a clever turn of events, God (Morgan Freeman) gives His powers to Bruce under two conditions – he can’t tell anyone he’s God and he can’t mess with free will. Woven in with the film’s truly funny plot lies a critical question; namely, whether or not we assume we could do a better job than God.

Consider the variety of problems we can face: financial loss, devastating health issues, discouraging relationship battles, global problems. All of these could be fixed in an instant. So if the solution seems so simple to us, why doesn’t God make it happen?

Bruce tries desperately to get his aptly-named girlfriend Grace (Jennifer Aniston) back into his life. While he is able to manipulate the moon, traffic and news events, he is unable to coerce Grace to choose him. Bruce asks God: “How do you make someone love you without affecting free will?” In arguably one of the most powerful cinematic lines of the year, God replies, “Welcome to My world.”

While the film is unnecessarily marred by two particularly off-colour scenes, we do see a dramatic change in Bruce’s character that exemplifies a key understanding in the Christian walk. At the beginning he says, “I am Bruce Almighty! My will be done.” Later, as he begins to realize he is not cut out for being God, he says, “I don’t want to be God. I surrender to Your will.”

And this is the hardest thing for any of us to do.

In fact, Genesis reminds us the desire to be like God is what brought humanity into this fallen world in the first place. If any of us were given God’s powers we would certainly do things differently; but we would not do things better – not from His perspective. God-like power must be accompanied by God-like character. Bruce’s problem was that he wasn’t so much interested in God as he was interested in getting his world to look the way he wanted it. There’s a difference between wanting better circumstances from God and wanting a better relationship with God.

The film is correct in stating that God will not override our ability to choose. And for some reason, God decides, at least to some degree, to be limited by our willingness to do what the Bible says. You and I are not irrelevant in God’s plan.

Ultimately, our responsibility is not to understand God, but to obey Him. God may not make sense at our level. But He does, no doubt, make perfect sense at His level. Which is why God has His job.

And we have ours.

Paul Boge is a writer and engineer. He attends North Kildonan MB Church in Winnipeg. His first novel, The Chicago Healer, will be available Easter 2004.