Flashbacks of Grace - Carl Creasman

Ever found yourself watching a movie that you didn’t want to see, but then being drawn into the power of the story? I had that experience with two films that dealt with similar issues—Flashbacks of a Fool starring Daniel Craig (fresh off his first James Bond success) and Seven Pounds with Will Smith.

I watched Flashbacks while on flight home from Europe; it looked weird, but eventually I got bored so I did watch. While initially put off (mostly because I didn’t really want to watch), I was eventually able to notice what was happening—a glorious story about the legacy of guilt, forgiveness and grace.

Few months later, finally saw Seven Pounds and recognized the same sort of story. A man with a guilty past determines to do something about it to find forgiveness.

I don’t want to give either movie away, but urge you to watch both, especially Flashbacks. It is a unique, somewhat quirky movie; it is fully a British-made movie, so perhaps its “quirkiness” was only my own American tastes filtering through. By the end of it, I had seen at least three great points to consider:

–many people live with the guilt of something that they did. In both movies, really bad things happened, though in neither case were the lead characters truly guilty. Smith’s character makes a bad judgment call, but nothing worse than many of us have done. Craig’s character, even more tragically, is nothing more than a kid who gets betrayed by an adult, but he takes on the guilt. If you get nothing more from these movies, please realize that you will derail your own life by harboring too much guilt. If there needs to be real reconciliation, then get to it, but in all cases, you cannot go back and change what has happened. Look, I don’t mean to downplay that in many cases, you should feel bad about something that happened. You should feel guilty, but deal with it in the best way possible and work to bring reconciliation or restitution. Then, get on with living. Craig’s character literally destroys his life; it is a tragedy to watch (and well played by Craig). It is so sad; he ruins most of his adult life because he thinks he is so guilty for some heinous happening.

–forgiveness is so sweet. The Bible talks about this. We are told that as we forgive so shall we experience forgiveness. Forgiveness is like a long wonderful bath after days without; that cleansing feeling with the hot water, fresh as the grime rolls off our bodies. We need this for our souls; we need to offer this to others. In both movies, the most touching point of the movie is to see the lead characters finally start to find a sense of forgiveness. Craig’s character finally is forced to confront old friends, though one is now deceased. He expects to be judged, hated, confronted over the past, yet instead, he warmly experiences forgiveness. That act by his friends finally allows himself to forgive himself, to move past the guilt. At the end, we see his character finally living happy, free, clean after decades of unwashed filth had covered his soul.

–to offer forgiveness, we must walk in grace. Lots of times, my students are surprised that I give them grace on certain issues. I do have a “high bar” related to my class and carry high expectations for them, but in many situations, offering grace is the best thing for my students. When asked about it, I relate that I offer grace because I want to also receive grace when I make mistakes, which I make often. The sweet grace that Craig’s character receives from one of his old friends in turn allows him to return that grace towards her. In doing so, he provides some healing for her. She also had been carrying some degree of bitterness and guilt. She talked about being sad at the loss of the third childhood friend, who had also become her husband, but that she was unable to cry. Through the grace extended by Craig’s character, we see her start to weep.

Many times, people sabotage their own success journey through their reaction to poor choices. Before long, the days roll together and they find themselves years later, living a life built on a serious of bad choices made in some form of punishment to themselves. They feel guilty about something, refuse to accept forgiveness and soon become wrecks (like both Will Smith and Daniel Craig’s characters).

Don’t do that. Live Well by dealing with guilt when an issue comes. Express and accept forgiveness. Walk in grace.

If you do, then your flashbacks won’t be those of a fool, but rather flashbacks of grace.

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