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The movie “Field of Dreams” turns 35 this year. Wait, 35? That can’t be right. I saw the movie when I was 14, and now I’m only…(confirms birth date on driver’s license…) Never mind. Now that I think about it, I’ve purchased 3 water softeners since the movie came out — a reasonable measuring stick for the passing of time.
If you have not seen “Field of Dreams,” be aware there are spoilers ahead— and we can’t be friends anymore. Also, the boat sinks at the end of “Titanic.” You should get out more often. Sorry, but
not sorry.
A brief “Field of Dreams” synopsis: Man experiences midlife crisis. Man hallucinates in cornfield. Man removes corn and builds baseball field. Man kidnaps James Earl Jones. Man plays catch with his ghost father. Author of this essay cries (again). City folk drive on gravel for the first time to watch ghosts play baseball. Iowa tourism board receives unexpected windfall.
The movie explores themes of farm, family, second chances, unresolved regret, sacrifice, and, of course…baseball.
But for me, the movie is about faith.
The protagonist, Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner), was the self-proclaimed “least crazy person” he knew. Yet Ray believed a celestial voice called on him to dig up his corn and build a baseball field. If Ray followed through, his father’s hero, Shoeless Joe Jackson, could come back and play baseball. Sounds crazy, right? Did I mention both Ray’s father and Shoeless Joe Jackson weren’t alive anymore?
Ray tried to ignore the voice at first. But the calling was too strong to deny. It was a persistent, irresistible, yet ambiguous tug. He didn’t fully understand the mission, but he believed in the magic. He had faith.
Ray’s story didn’t focus on the minutiae of faith. It wasn’t a quarrel between ELCA Lutherans vs Missouri Synod Lutherans over which JELL-O salad should be served at funerals. Ray’s faith was at a higher macro level. It boiled down to simple, universal questions: Does my life have meaning? Do I have a purpose? Is there more out there in the metaphorical (yet, in this case, also physical) cornfield? Ray’s questions were answered with a resounding, "Yes."
We could all be so lucky to have such unmistakable, divine guidance as Ray Kinsella. Most of us won’t receive distinct visions and voices giving us the blueprints to life. The ambiguity can be discouraging. But it can also be liberating to know we are not meant to understand it all. We only need to be willing to listen for the voice. If we deny the voice, we are only able to believe what is currently possible, and we will only experience what is already possible.
Faith opens the door to previously unfathomable possibilities. We don’t need all the details. We can start small: a simple belief that our life is more than birth, death, and a few water softener replacements sprinkled in between.
