So Why'd You Come Home to This Faithless Town?

Sometimes Film Appreciation is not so bad. Notice that I said sometimes. Tonight, we watched Citizen Kane. When the American Film Institute came out with the Top 100 Films in 1998, Kane was #1, and Casablanca was #2. Citizen Kane was released in 1941 and Casablanca came out the next year. Not a bad couple of years for Hollywood in my opinion.

Of course the enduring question throughout this film concerns the identity of Rosebud, and I will not tell those of you who have not seen the movie what it is, but I thought the film lived up to the hype. Many people dream of having marvelous riches, but when we see that even those who are very rich deal with loneliness, insecurity, and loss, we begin to realize that there must be something else to drive us in this life.

For those in college, we constantly have the prospect of future riches dangled in front of us, and it is easy to envy those who will be making the big bucks in a few years, but it is also a blessing to be at a university like ACU. Besides the American Service Academies, I do not think there is another university more sure of its mission than ACU. At school, we are given a world-class education, but it is not focused on future riches or glory. At ACU, the education we receive is a tool for advancing the kingdom of God upon this earth, and our gifts and interests allow us to reach out to a vast spectrum of people. There are some students at ACU who will work in Hollywood, trade stocks on Wall Street, or legislate on Capitol Hill and influence people for Christ in all of those places because they understand that a job is not simply a wage-earning position, but a ministry.