Background check

LOST has been on for almost three seasons now and, thanks to the acronyms "DVD" and "DVR," I've seen every single minute of every single episode. I know the name of Desmond's girlfriend's father. I know "What Kate Did," and how Jack got his tattoo. I can identify Goodwin, Ethan, and "Henry Gale" when I see them on screen. I know what the French chick's message was, who translated it, and how long it has been playing. In other words, I know the whole story.

I watched LOST this week with a friend of mine who hasn't really been a big fan of LOST. He has always thought it was a little too "out there" and never really understood why Amanda and I would rush home from AWANA on Wednesday nights and slip the kids some Benadryl (kidding, just kidding…) so we could watch the show without the slightest distraction. But all of that changed a week and a half ago when he, for some unknown reason, sat down and watched the entire episode, entitled "One of Us." I got an e-mail from him next morning disclosing that he had been surprisingly entertained (It was a great episode!).

With Amanda and the kids out of town for the week, I faced the prospect of watching LOST by myself, which isn't nearly as fun as watching it with a "LOST buddy." So, I called up my newly converted friend on Wednesday and asked if he was planning on watching it again. He was, and we made plans for him to join me.

As we watched, there were frequent references to events from previous episodes, and some things just didn't make sense without knowing the back story. Several times I paused the DVR to explain why Desmond can see glimpses of the future (which rabbit trailed into a discussion about why the hatch imploded, which rabbit trailed again and again and again), who the girl in the picture was, why Charlie must die, and so on. It became very clear that he and I weren't watching the same episode.

My friend could enjoy the show on one level, as it was entertaining in its own right. Still, he missed out on all sorts of subtleties, details, and even inside jokes, because he had no idea what had come before. I, on the other hand, was able to catch all of those things and enjoy the episode on a much deeper level.

This whole encounter reminded me of our approach to the Bible. As modern-day Christians, we pay a lot of attention to the New Testament, as of course we should. However, many of us (myself included!) all but ignore the Old Testament. We may dabble in Psalms or Proverbs, or quote a verse out of Jeremiah to make us feel good about ourselves or our pro-life campaign. But, by and large, we are woefully ignorant about the history of God's people, the messages of his prophets, and the people, events, and symbols that foreshadowed the coming Messiah.

By majoring in the New Testament (at the expense of the Old), we are able to learn quite a bit about Jesus, and about how we should live our lives. Yet, without knowing the back story we miss out on many of the subtleties and "inside jokes" that would make perfect sense to a reader who had a well of O.T. knowledge to draw on. We may even completely misunderstand a passage because we are unaware of the events or principles that serve as its foundation.

Amanda and I started watching LOST with the first episode of Season 2. All we knew was what we had seen in promos during football and baseball games. We got a taste of that first episode and were hooked. I rushed out to Blockbuster and rented the entire 1st season on DVD, and we got caught up as quickly as we could. Oh, that I would show such ambition for "catching up" on the Old Testament!

From twenty-some years of Christian education, I have a pretty good idea of what happened in the books of the Pentateuch. Beyond that, my awareness drops off considerably. I've started reading the book of Joshua, and I hope to continue to become more informed about what God has to say to us through what is recorded in the rest of the Old Testament. My hope is that I will gain a better understanding of who Jesus is by reading the Scriptures he grew up with, that also point to his coming on every page. Hopefully it won't be too long before I'm hooked!