Cast Away was on TNT last night and I watched the last third of the movie. I was telling my wife that if that were to happen to me [stranded on a deserted island by myself], I would never last. Between the myriad of vermins and lack of anything civilized, I would probably last about a week. Tom Hanks' character, Chuck Nolan, lasted 4 years on this island. And as I watched this movie, I realize one of the themes is about loss and letting go.
During Chuck's four years on the island, he befriends a Wilson volleyball from one of the many FedEx packages that washes on shore after the plane crashes in the ocean. After getting cut from trying to start a fire, he picks up the ball and hurls it. He realizes the bloody handprint on the ball resembles a face. And from there, out of his loneliness, he starts to have a friendship with Wilson He converses, argues, and has a relationship with this inanimate object because he is desperate for relationship. The sense of time, which is so crucial to Chuck's life before as a FedEx employee, evaporates as he hsd nothing but time now. He has no choice but lose that part of his life and embrace surviving and holding on to the one thing that will keep his hopes alive: The thought of returning and being with his love, Kelly. After four years, Chuck builds a raft and leaves the island, finally feeling he has the courage and strength to try to get rescued. In his torturous journey with his raft in the middle of the Pacific, Wilson, falls from the post it is perched up on and drifts off into the horizon. Chuck desperately tries to "save him", but ultimately has to choose the raft over rescuing his friend. As he lies on his raft, he is sobbing, saying the name "Wilson", over and over again. Apologizing for not saving him. When he finally gets rescued, he finds Kelly married with a child. She tells him everyone told her he was dead and to let him go.
No one lives a life free of pain and loss. We have all lost - close relatives or friends, a favorite heirloom or item and it hurts, evenif we try to be self protective and not let down our guard. Chuck loses two relationships that were vital for his survival, Wilson and Kelly. Wilson is the relationship that keeps him sane through his loneliness and Kelly is the hope he needs to leave the island to try and go back to her. This movie reminded me we all need relationships and a hope to live. With all due respect to Paul Simon, no one is an island and the rock can feel pain. The pain that Chuck feels is one of loneliness and fear. He is both alone and lonely. The fear that he will die as such. But the hope that carries him off is Kelly. She is the hope he needs to get off the island. And when he returns, he has to lose her all over again because she had to move on.
The sense of loss is overwhelming, especially when we are in the midst of the pain. We are not in control. We want to relieve the pain as quickly as possible and we will do whatever it takes to take control of it again. In the moment of loss, I know that it is scary and it is painful, but I think that's what God wants me to see in this movie, that there is hope. But His hope is not going to disappoint me like Kelly disappointed Chuck. His hope is filled with goodness and strength, but it has to be on His terms. I choose hope out of despair, but I normally want it my way. Because it's convenient for me. Because I am in control. But in letting go of that control, God catches me and doesn't let go, even though it's scary. If I can get off the throne and let Him be the King as is rightly His to take, I can finally invite Jesus to relieve the pain that only He can relieve. In letting go, I am submitting my own disturbed way of living to something better, to a hope that never fades. At the end of Cast Away, Chuck finds freedom in delivering the only FedEx package he did not open. And finally, he is able to let go of Kelly and sees life as opportunistic again. And that's the hope that I want to find in Jesus, who never fails and who never lets go. But I have to learn to do that in His timing and give up control - submitting to His plans and His ways. It is so difficult, because fear is a great de-motivator. But God is about hope and life and freedom. And even in a movie like Cast Away, I can learn to see the possibility of letting go and embracing a sense of loss. The loss of relationships. The loss of kingship. Submitting to a new King and living a life of freedom and grace.
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