[/caption]If you are looking for a book that explains how the TV show LOST will end, The Gospel According to LOST by Pastor Chris Seay is NOT for you. However, if you are interested in pursuing dynamics from the hit show that are tie-ins to Christianity and how the characters of LOST remind us of our own need to pursue a relationship with God, this book is right up your alley.
Chris Seay is a church planter, pastor, and president of Ecclesia Bible Society and he is a LOSTaholic. Picking this book up was an intriguing proposition for me as I, too, am a pastor and, yes, a LOSTaholic. The Gospel According to LOST (from now on referred to as GAtL) doesn’t focus on plots or theories, but rather on characters and how those characters connect with all of us in a real and tangible way.
This book uses character sketches to weave in the struggles the castaways face and how we, the readers, are entrenched in the same struggles. Whether it is the tension between faith and reason with Jack Shephard and John Locke, or the haunting of a past that will not leave us alone, like Sayid Jarrah, we connect. Or maybe it’s the compassionate con-man we have all come to love, Sawyer, that we resonate with. Perhaps the example of true love that we all experience with Desmond and Penny that encapsulates us. Pastor Seay does a masterful job of driving home personal application as he unfolds various characters from the show.
But ultimately GAtL is not about LOST. It’s about you and it’s about me. Seay writes, “Unlikely as it seems, it is possible that this epic television series may be filled with stories that inspire us to love both God and one another, wisdom that will lead us toward a vibrant relationship with God, and insights into a life of true faith.” I know that many in the church probably criticize Pastor Seay on a statement like that (I know this because I have been criticized on social networks already just by alluding to it!), however, it is a mistake for Christians to believe that God cannot use a media outlet to declare truth. Now don’t mistake what I am saying, I believe the Bible to be the only infallible source (you can discuss that with me here) but I also believe in what Francis Schaeffer called “true truth.” What he meant is this: if something is true…it is true. If LOST presents truth, that truth is true because it is true. Make sense?
GAtL has a clear strength: it’s focus on the characters. Listen to what Pastor Seay has to say about Sayid:
We all have this inherent ability to hurt one another. It is distinctly human and absolutely tragic. When I imagine being stranded on an island and attacked by hostile forces my instincts tell me that I want Sayid on my team. But is my own survival worth allowing someone else to be tortured…Sayid battles is capacity for evil throughout the entire series; he has seen what lies inside himself, and he is tormented by it.
The Bible says in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” You and I both know that nobody is perfect and Pastor Seay observes that we feel this when we watch Sayid. Sayid has the potential for great evil, as do all of us, but Seay’s answer is really the gem of the whole book:
Maybe if we trade in our gun for a hammer and set off to build a school for some orphans, we can save ourselves. But this cannot be. We cannot save ourselves. We are, through the Cross, that destroyer of social paradigms, …reconciled…and this is the beauty of the gospel. We can’t earn grace; God gives it to us. No one is beyond redemption. Not even Sayid.
I recommend GAtL highly both as a pastor and a LOST fan. Is Pastor Seay approaching LOST and life with preconceived ideas about God and the world? Absolutely he is, but so do I and so do you (be honest about it). I hope you will pick up a copy of this book. It’s one thing to answer all of the questions that LOST asks, it’s another altogether to answer the questions that life throws at us. This book may start you on your journey.
