2012: Is This The End? - Parent Que
"It’s not the end of the world."
We tell ourselves such things when we burn our toast or spill our juice or get D’s on our semester projects. It’s a comforting thought: No matter how badly we mess up today, we have a chance to wake up and make it better tomorrow.
And even if it really is the end of the world, well … there’s still a bright side. That D suddenly doesn’t look so bad, for instance. And, really, why worry about the status of your toast when you’re toast yourself?
There is a lot of hype on the internet, tv and movies about the Mayan calendar and the predicted end of the world.
How can you help your teen(s) weed through the hype and sensationalism to wrestle with the very real truth that God said the world will end one day?
The following outlines the main teaching points for each week of this series and provides discussion opportunities for you and your teen(s).
01/01/2012 -2012: Is This The End? - Watch 2012 the movie
While this movie is the ultimate disaster movie it brings to light a number of great areas for discussion.
The movie wrecks the world like 10-year-old boys wreck Matchbox cars: with a childlike sense of innocence. It treats the death of 6 billion people as a ghoulish circus but the movie isn't heartless. Because through the mayhem, it seems to always try to explore humanity’s best inclinations.
In that respect, 2012 is a positive film. I don’t mean wholesome; it has too much bad language to be that. And it has a circus-style attentiveness to carnage. But while character development is kept to a bare minimum—just a skeleton on which to hang spectacular CGI effects—the themes here still pack a punch:
We can be better than we are.
We need to care for others.
We are family.
Most of the movies characters gallop through the worst days of their lives with dry eyes, set mouths and humorous quips at the ready. Little 7-year-old Lilly, however, sees the true horror. And she cries for the unnamed billions.
Despite the fact that disaster movies like this are consistently used to "entertain" us, here is the more relatable response. As 2012 star John Cusack told USA Today, "If it were reality, we’d all be weeping all day."
There’s an old Greek myth about a little girl named Pandora and a mysterious box she finds. In the story, she opens the box and lets loose all manner of plagues and horrors upon the world. But once the box’s terrible residents fly off to deal out destruction, one last beautiful fairy flutters out—a thing called Hope.
I2012 opens Pandora’s box and lets loose catastrophe. But in the midst of all the CGI destruction we see the flitting wings of a thing called Hope.
01/08/2012 - 01/15/12 - 2012: Is The End? - Will The World End?
Will the world come to an end or is it just hype and Hollywood spin. Did the Mayans really predict the end of the world. If so are they correct? How can we know.
The Bible pedicts the world will come to an end?
This can be a frightening thing for teens to consider. Most teens hold a view that the world as they know it will continue on uninterupted or even in the optimism of the technological age that it will even improve.
However the Bible tells us that God will bring the current sin stained world to an end. That there will be an end, a reckoning of accounts, death and destruction.
Does this mean that God isn't good?
Does this cause fear or concern?
How should we respond to this knowledge?
01/15/12 - 2012: Is The End - How Will The World End?
If the world is going to end, what will that look like? How can I know what the signs are for the end?
How does the world end? Does the Bible give us specifics?
If it does, do they matter, after all that is a long way off?
How does the way the world end affect what I do, feel and think today?
01/22/12 - 2012 Is This The End? - When Will The World End?
When is the world is going to end? How will I know when it will be?
How long do we have?
How can we know?
And how does knowing or not knowing the time affect our everyday lives?
01/29/12 - 2012 Is This The End? - Can I Escape The Destruction?
If the world is going to end, can I escape the coming destruction? Is there anything I can do to save myself?
What must I do to be saved from destruction?
What about my family and friends?
Is there an urgency in ensuring my salvation from the destruction?