Space to
Think
Film Two: ‘Straight to the
answers….’
Written & Presented by
Jonathan Crouch
FADE IN:
EXT. CAR RENTAL AGENCY – DAY
OVER: Dido’s ‘Life for Rent’
ANGLE ON: The NARRATOR walking into the building.
ANOTHER ANGLE ON: The narrator walking into the building.
INT.CAR RENTAL AGENCY – DAY
The narrator is talking M.O.S to the woman behind the counter.
He fills out some forms and then takes a set of keys from her.
EXT. CAR PARK – MOMENTS LATER
He walks out of the building and across the car park to his
car, tossing the keys in the air with one hand and holding the
agreement in his other. The car next to his has a small
GODISNOWHERE sticker in the rear passenger window. It is
hardly noticeable.
NARRATOR
We all think of our lives
as something we own don’t
we? That it belongs to
us.
He opens the car and gets in, placing the rental agreement on
the passenger seat next to him.
INT. CAR – CONTINUOUS
NARRATOR
You control the destiny
over something you own.
You decide when it starts
and finishes. You decide
ultimately what happens
to it. And you decide
when and if you want to
give it back to the
person you got it from.
(beat)
But this isn’t really
true to life is it? We
can use our lives for our
own purposes; we can even
stack up some good
mileage if we’re lucky.
But we never get much
further than the rental
counter in our humanity.
Heck, we don’t even get
that far.
INT/EXT. CAR/MULTI-STOREY CAR PARK – DAY
As the narrator drives up to the top, he passes a van with
GODISNOWHERE spray painted onto the side of it. It is visible
but not obviously so.
The narrator taps the dashboard.
NARRATOR
At least I can decide
when to take this thing
back...
He drives right to the top and out onto the roof. He parks the
car and gets out with the rental agreement in his hand.
EXT. ROOF OF MULTI-STOREY CARPARK – CONTINUOUS
NARRATOR
...and that’s just the
point isn’t it? We have
this life on a rental
agreement (waves it) that
we didn’t start and we
won’t finish. All we have
is the bit in between,
and that’s only useful if
everything keeps
functioning the way it
should. And let’s face
it, we’re pretty limited
in the control we have
over that too.
He walks to the edge of the roof and looks down.
NARRATOR
Small wonder then, that
so many people end up
here, not just
physically, but also
mentally and emotionally.
Looking down. Wondering
what the point is.
Feeling shut out of the
reason they were created.
(beat)
It’s like being in one of
those dreams where
everybody knows what’s
going on and why they’re
there. Except you.
(beat, then more
aggressive)
OK, so WAKE UP! Get
yourself a cup of coffee;
freeze the movie;
whatever. Just for once,
don’t blank it, don’t
ignore it. You don’t have
to sleepwalk through your
life. You’re entitled to
ask – and try and answer
– the questions that
define who you are...
He ticks the questions off on his fingers.
NARRATOR
...why am I alive? Does
my life have any purpose?
And the clincher, does my
life really matter?
(beat)
So why are you alive? To
be the average person in
the average life? Or to
be something more?
He looks back over the ledge and then back up again.
NARRATOR
D’you know, the more I
think about it, the more
I think that living –
real living – has got a
lot to do with dying.
(beat)
There’s a date on which
you’ll die. Imagine if I
told you right now what
it was. How would it
affect the way you lived
your life? And would you
see ‘simply existing’ as
really living?
He turns and walks back to his car. Getting in, he shuts the
door and starts the engine.
INT/EXT – CAR/ROAD – A FEW MINUTES LATER
NARRATOR
I don’t think you would.
I think that simply
wining in the Monopoly
game of life, or living
your life for other
people, or going from one
high to the next, would
suddenly seem irrelevant
and unimportant.
He continues to drive staring out of the windscreen, a faraway
look in his eyes.
Through the side windows of the car, we see the car pull up in
front of an old church. There is a graveyard around the church
full of old tombstones. A van with GODISNOWHERE finger-chalked
into the dirt on the back is parked in front of him.
He gets out of the car and walks up the path between the
tombstones.
EXT. CHUCH GRAVEYARD – DAY
NARRATOR
There was this guy called
Jesus who once said that
something cannot live
until it has died first.
(beat)
For me, it’s only been
when I’ve let all the
material and emotional
stuff go – or die – that
I’ve begun to understand
what real living is
about.
He stops and sits on a nearby bench.
NARRATOR
That’s when I stopped
blanking out the scary
life issues. When I
stopped asking myself or
other people questions
they could never really
answer. And it was when I
realized that the whole
thing was inextricably
linked to the question of
why I was alive.
After a moment he gets up and continues walking down the path.
NARRATOR
But what was the purpose
of my being here? I
couldn’t duck the issue
by pretending I was the
only part of all creation
without any purpose. Or
by believing that ‘he who
dies with the most toys
wins’. Or even by trying
to live my life for other
people.
He reaches the end of the path. There is a gate leading into a
field which he climbs over. Lying on the ground by the gate
are pieces of rubbish. One of the discarded pieces of paper
says GODISNOWHERE on it. As usual, it is there but not
obvious. Once in the field, the narrator continues to walk.
EXT. FIELD – DAY
NARRATOR
I figured that if I’d
been created, then my
life must matter to
someone. I might not
believe in God, but He
sure as anything believed
in me.
(beat)
But how could I know him?
Was it even possible? I
had my doubts, but for
the first time I found
myself starting to look
in what seemed to be the
right place. If God was
really God, then in Him I
was up against something
far superior to myself.
He reaches the end of the field and is standing at the top of
a hill. He sits down and looks around at the surrounding
countryside.
NARRATOR
For years, I’d been
looking down on Him,
judging whether or not He
existed, judging whether
or not He was worth
believing in.
He turns his head and looks over his shoulder.
NARRATOR
And in that instant, I
realized how wrong I’d
been. As long as you’re
looking down, you can
never see something
that’s above you.
He gets up and continues walking down the other side of the
hill.
NARRATOR
I realised that if I
could know my Creator, I
could know someone who
knew the perfect
boundaries for my life. I
would no longer fail to
reach them and therefore
be unable to enjoy life
to the full...
FLASHBACK. EXT. FOOTBALL PITCH – DAY
The narrator is standing in the centre circle of the football
pitch.
PRESENT. EXT. FIELD – DAY
The narrator reaches the end of the field and climbs over a
stile. On the other side is a road.
NARRATOR (CONT’D)
...or find myself
exceeding those
boundaries and missing
the point of my
existence, and the
happiness that should
have been a part of it.
He crosses the road and enters the gates of a small primary
school on the other side.
EXT. PRIMARY SCHOOL – DAY
NARRATOR
But how could I find a
Creator who was all the
things I needed him to be
to make all this add up?
He ticks the points off on his fingers.
NARRATOR
Unique. Accessible.
Proven. And able to offer
enough forgiveness to get
around the seemingly
insurmountable problem of
how an imperfect man
could have a relationship
with a perfect, Creator
God?
INT. SCHOOL CORRIDOR – MOMENTS LATER
He passes boards filled with children’s artwork and
noticeboards with photos and papers attached to them with
drawing pins. On one noticeboard is a leaflet with
GODISNOWHERE printed on it. It is visible but not obvious.
NARRATOR
For me, there seemed only
one route of faith that
could claim to answer
these three questions.
He opens the door to a classroom.
INT. CLASSROOM – DAY
He sits down on one of the tiny primary school chairs. There
are sums written on the whiteboard at the front and posters
and artwork covering the walls. He looks around as if
remembering.
NARRATOR
It’s like in the maths
lessons you had at
school. There was only
one right answer to a
sum; all the others were
wrong even if some of
them were closer to being
right than others.
(beat)
It was the same with
religion. I found many of
them to be full of truth
but only Christianity
strung that truth
completely together in a
way that I could
understand.
He sees a small Bible on a shelf next to him and picks it up.
He starts to leaf through it as he talks.
NARRATOR
I’ll be honest; to start
with it was all a bit of
a struggle.
He points to a page.
NARRATOR
There was all this stuff
about Christ being the
Son of God – whatever
that meant.
He points to another page.
NARRATOR
There was this stuff
about those giving their
lives to him being able
to become Sons of God –
whatever that meant.
He points to another page.
NARRATOR
And there was a lot about
His death having saved us
from our sins.
He shuts the Bible with a sigh.
NARRATOR
But I realized it was
pointless moaning about
the complexity of it all.
Christianity claims to be
telling us about another
world – it was bound to
be difficult to
understand.
He gets up and leaves the classroom. As he goes we see the
Bible on the table behind him.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. CHURCH – LATER THAT DAY
The narrator is sitting in one of the pews about half-way
down.
NARRATOR
What it boiled down to –
and this I could
understand – was the
message that as human
beings, we’re in a hole.
We’re trying to set up on
our own, behaving as if
we belonged to ourselves.
That sounded true enough.
(beat)
Christianity says that
we’re not imperfect
creatures needing
improvement, but that
we’re people who’ve
rebelled; people who need
to lay down our arms.
Laying down our arms,
surrendering, saying
you’re sorry, realizing
that you’re on the wrong
track and getting ready
to start life again from
the ground floor...
He picks up a Bible from the back of the pew in front of him.
NARRATOR
...according to
Christianity’s Bible, is
the only way out of the
hole.
He puts the Bible down on the pew and gets up. He walks up the
centre aisle of the church towards the door.
NARRATOR
This process of
surrender, I discovered,
is what Christians call
‘repentance’; it
effectively means killing
your ‘self’ – undergoing
a kind of death. It needs
a good man to repent. A
better one than me.
(beat)
And here’s where I came
up against a big problem
– while only a bad person
needs to repent, only a
good person can repent
perfectly.
He reaches the end of the aisle and is standing in the doorway
of the church.
NARRATOR
The worse you are, the
more you need it and the
less you can do it.
Worse, if you ask God to
take you back without
repentance, you’re really
asking God to take you
back without going back.
It can’t happen.
He exits the church and walks along the path next to the
church. He pauses and glances back at the way he came before
turning back to look ahead.
NARRATOR
Any religion that tries
to shirk this issue isn’t
worth bothering with. But
Christianity doesn’t.
Instead it talks about
something very
surprising; an initiative
God has taken to solve
this whole Catch-22
situation.
He continues to walk up the path.
NARRATOR
He sent Himself in human
form, as Jesus Christ, a
window through which we
could see what God is
like.
(beat)
But, much more
importantly, he became
the solution to the
barrier of sinful
humanity that separates
us from a just God. After
all, a perfect God can’t
co-exist with very
imperfect human beings.
Jesus’ answer was to die
on the cross and pay the
penalty for that sin –
past, present and future.
He sits down on a bench in the lych-gate at the end of the
path.
NARRATOR
As a result, He was able
to make us right in God’s
sight. Giving us, if you
like, a bridge over which
we can walk into God’s
presence.
He gets up and walks away.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. COURTHOUSE – LATER THAT DAY
The narrator is walking up the steps towards a courthouse.
NARRATOR (V.O)
It made sense to me.
After all, who can really
pay the penalty for a
crime?
INT. COURTROOM – MOMENTS LATER
The narrator is sitting in the Judge’s chair in an empty
courtroom.
NARRATOR
Certainly not someone
who’s already a prisoner.
As someone fully God and
fully man, only Jesus
could do it. But only we
can accept it, and that’s
the hard part...
He picks up a Bible lying on the side of the witness box next
to him.
NARRATOR
It would have been pretty
pointless if all this had
been done and we’d have
had no way of knowing
about it except through
word of mouth, so the
whole idea of the Bible
makes a lot of sense.
He starts to flick through the pages as he speaks.
NARRATOR
You can say you don’t
believe in it, but if you
do, you’ll have to join
all those who’ve
struggled to find
something in these
Scriptures they could
definitively disprove.
And failed.
He taps the Bible.
NARRATOR
Or those who’ve tried to
find a reason why there’s
so much stuff in here,
proven to be written many
hundreds of years ago,
that we’ve only in modern
times discovered.
Nobody’s managed to do
that either.
He gets up and walks through the courtroom towards the door.
He leaves the Bible behind.
NARRATOR
You have to be pretty
sure of yourself to
dismiss a book like that.
Particularly one written
so long ago that recent
discoveries have proved
is still accurate to its
original form.
(beat)
The writer CS Lewis
points out that in the
Bible, Christ is saying
‘Give me all. I don’t
want this much of your
time and this much of
your money and this much
of your work. I want it
all. I want you. I
haven’t come to hassle
your natural self, but to
kill it completely. No
half measures are any
good. I don’t want to cut
off a branch here and
there. I want to have the
whole tree down. I’ll
give you a new self
instead. In fact, I’ll
give you Myself; mine
will become yours.’
(beat)
But you have to give up
control first.
The narrator leaves the courtroom, allowing the door to shut
behind him.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. PLOUGHED FIELD – LATER THAT DAY
The narrator is walking through the field.
NARRATOR (CONT’D)
It’s easier to do nothing
than respond to a
challenge like that isn’t
it?
(beat)
At least it seems easier.
(beat)
The problem is, it isn’t.
Because the stuff that
Jesus was saying makes
too much sense to ignore.
As He said, a thistle
cannot produce figs.
He crouches down and picks up a handful of earth and seed.
NARRATOR
Jesus said that if I am a
field that contains
nothing but grass seed, I
can’t produce wheat. The
change must go deeper
than the surface.
He throws the seed and earth back onto the ground.
NARRATOR
I must be ploughed up and
re-sown.
He stands up and continues walking.
NARRATOR
No-one likes their whole
lives being dug up and
turned over. It’s not
easy. It could never be,
since it’s about moving
on to a completely new
stage of existence. It’s
as significant a change
as the one we underwent
when we were born.
INT. HOSPITAL – DAY
A baby is being born and screaming. It is comforted by the
nurse and placed into the mother’s arms.
NARRATOR (V.O)
An unborn baby is usually
most reluctant to come
out of the womb, but if
it doesn’t it will die.
(beat)
Fortunately, God
intervened in that
transition. He won’t do
so in this one. He wants
the choice to be ours.
EXT. PLOUGHED FIELD – DAY
The narrator has reached the end of the field and is leaning
on a gate.
NARRATOR
So how can you accept all
of this? Well, first of
all, the obvious – you
have to want to. It has
to be a desire, not just
for a surface change, but
a whole change of
lifestyle.
(beat)
It’s a question of
turning from your own way
and going God’s way. It’s
a case of giving God the
ultimate say in your
life.
(beat)
That sounds difficult and it is – but which of
us is arrogant enough to
say that we know better
how to run our lives than
God?
He climbs over the gate and carries on walking.
NARRATOR
Becoming a Christian
tends to consist of three
stages.
He counts the stages off on his fingers.
NARRATOR
Wanting to, believing in
your heart that Jesus
Christ came and died for
you, and speaking out the
fact that you want Him to
have control over your
life, and from a place of
real repentance, asking
for His forgiveness.
(beat)
If you choose to do
nothing, or actively
decide not to accept Him
in that way, believe me,
you’re making a choice.
And it’s a life-changing
one.
(beat)
You’re choosing not to
live in a relationship
with Him. In other words,
you’re choosing to be
where God isn’t, both in
this world and the next.
There’s no middle ground;
either you live apart
from your Creator or you
live as part of Him.
He pauses for a moment as if to let this sink in, before
continuing.
NARRATOR
Sadly, the majority of
people in this world
think that there is a
middle ground. They think
that by doing a few good
things, or even going to
church or occasionally
worshipping Jesus, they
can be justified with
God! One day they’re
going to be in for a
shock.
(beat)
No Christian will tell
you that going God’s way
is easy, which is why
when someone makes a
commitment to Him, God
promises to send His Holy
Spirit to guide them. The
part of God – the part of
Himself – that Jesus
promised He would leave
with us when He left this
earth.
He stops.
NARRATOR
(very definite)
This is a tough decision,
and on the other side of
it lays other tough
decisions, which is why
Jesus’ promise to go
ahead of His people in
all of life’s
difficulties, is so
important. The Bible says
that ‘all things work
together for good for
those who love Him.’
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. ROOF OF MULTI-STOREY CAR PARK – LATER THAT DAY
OVER: Dido’s ‘Life for Rent’
The narrator is back in the rental car driving up onto the
roof. He passes the van with the GODISNOWHERE graffiti on it,
except that now we can read it as GOD IS NOW HERE. He drives
past the door to the fire escape, and we can see the old
peeling sticker with its small graffiti stuck on the back of
the door. Only this time we read it as GOD IS NOW HERE.
He parks the car next to the white van with GODISNOWHERE
finger-chalked into the dirt on the back. As before we now
read it as GOD IS NOW HERE. There’s a flier fluttering under
the windscreen wiper which we can just about see. It says the
same thing.
The narrator brings the car to a halt and then picks up the
rental agreement from the front seat. Very deliberately he
tears it in half. He gets out of the car and walks to the edge
of the roof with the car keys in one hand. He pauses and then
throws them off the building. The relief is evident on his
face. He turns and leans on the wall.
NARRATOR
So who are you going to
live for? Yourself?
(beat)
In the long run, you’ll
ultimately find only
hatred, loneliness,
despair, rage, ruin and
decay as the burning
building that is your
life slowly collapses
around you.
EXT. FIELD – DAY (FLASHBACK)
A building is burning in a field. It’s actually a Portakabin
but this is not discernible and it still looks like a
building. The narrator stands and watches it burn.
EXT. ROOF OF MULTI-STOREY CAR PARK – DAY (PRESENT)
The presenter is still leaning on the wall.
NARRATOR
Which is why you’re not
watching this by
accident. God is offering
you the opportunity to
try the door – the one
I’ve been talking about.
(beat)
The one that says ‘What
If’. The one behind which
lies the answers to your
existence, your purpose,
and why your life really,
really matters.
(beat)
And it really does.
He gets up and walks towards the door to the fire escape. The
one with the peeling sticker that we can now read as GOD IS
HERE. He stops short just before the door.
NARRATOR
Everybody else can walk
on past that door. They
might even laugh if they
see you pushing it. But
forget them. They don’t
even know where they’re
walking on to, on a
journey with no idea of
their eventual
destination.
(beat)
Through that door you’ll
find Christ, and with Him
the answers to your
questions. And through
them, Life and Life to
the full.
Without another backward glance, he walks forward, pushes open
the door and walks through it. As the door slams shut we...
CLOSE ON...the peeling sticker.
As we do this, we can see that there are some other words on
the sticker which have been too small for us to see before.
They’ve been done in an almost childlike hand and there are
just two words – What If. At the end of the larger words, GOD
IS HERE, a little question mark has been added.
FADE OUT