“God Bless the Broken Road” answers the question of why bad things happen to good people.
The Right Mix
Christian/inspirational films can come across sappy.
Faith based films can become trite.
However, “God Bless the Broken Road” does not fall into the category of typical faith-based films.
“God Bless the Broken Road” combines a heartfelt struggle with heartfelt emotions, which produces a heartfelt film that those struggling with their faith need to see ASAP.
In “God Bless the Broken Road,” the Hills are the typical 21st century military family.
While the patriarch Darren Hill (Liam Matthews) is serving his country in the Middle East, his wife Amber Hill (Lindsay Pulsipher) holds down the fort at home in the Blue Grass State of Kentucky.
In the Hill’s Kentucky town, two things reign supreme, the church and the racetrack.
Amber is dedicated to her local church and leads the worship team.
Her adorable daughter, Bree Hill (Makenzie Moss) loves the church too and is a dedicated Sunday School student and ministry volunteer.
However, Cody Jackson (Andrew W. Walker) does not possess the fire for the Lord that the Hill family possesses.
The only reason he has come to Kentucky is because he wrecked his racecar and his racing coach, Coach Gibbs (probably former Washington Redskins head coach Joe Gibbs) has sent him down t0 the minor leagues to train with Joe Carter (Gary Grubbs).
Without asking, Joe makes Cody attend church services and then volunteers him for the children’s ministry where his new unpaid duties include helping the children of the church build go carts, then teaching them how to race.
Nevertheless, he loses his interest in the racetrack when his vision and interest turns towards Amber.
Joe immediately lets Cody know that Amber is out of his league not to mention the fact that she has enough on her plate dealing with Darren’s absence.
Amber and Darren’s lives are dedicated to the Lord, which is something foreign to Cody.
And although Darren is halfway around the world, he still sings the praises of his Lord and his pastor, Pastor Williams (former NFL star LaDanian Tomlinson) to anyone in his platoon that will listen.
He even spreads the good news to those who do not want to listen like Mike Nelson (Arthur Cartwright).
However, when Amber receives some life shattering news while conducting choir rehearsal, all of her praise, faith and love for the Lord slowly starts to dwindle.
If God loves us so much why does He allow heartache and heartbreak to engulf our lives just when it seems things are going well?
Furthermore, why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?
What is the point of serving the Lord if it does not shield you from the depressing realities of life on this planet?
“God Bless the Broken Road” addresses those real life struggles of faith that some Christians hesitate to admit that they have.
Sometimes, Christians accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior because they think that it will make life easier and struggle-free.
Many young Christians think that if they love the Lord everything that they want will be given to them and all of the obstacles of life will suddenly go away.
To some Christians, accepting Christ means that they think that God will become a genie in a bottle.
Not true.
Sometimes, giving your life to the Lord can produce more problems than you had before.
What Christians like Amber have to realize is that the struggle and heartache is not to punish them but to honor and glorify the Lord no matter how bleak their situation initially looks.
Sometimes, glorifying the Lord and letting the Lord use you means going through hell and back so that you can be an inspiration to others struggling with life.
And sometimes losing life is necessary to give life.
“God Bless the Broken Road” shows that though the road might me rough, if a person relies on the Lord, even when they do not understand or agree with His plans, he will help them navigate that broken road and will get them where He wants them to go.
Furthermore, “God Bless the Broken Road” should resonate with nonbelievers as much as it does with believers.
Sometimes, Christian movies might skate around issues that make believers seem superhuman.
No matter how faithful and saved someone is, they have those human moments.
All Christians have those moments when they question their faith.
All Christians have those moments when they do not understand why the Bible asks them to do certain things that do not make sense to them at the particular moment in time.
But all Christians have to realize is that those vulnerable moments probably resonate with those trying to understand Jesus more than when Christians pretend to be superhuman and super-Christian.
“God Bless the Broken Road” does a good job of representing that reality.
Furthermore, the acting is pretty decent with only one exception.
As the precocious and faithful Bree, Moss steals the show from her older colleagues in “God Bless the Broken Road.”
The Bible says and a child shall lead them.
And it is funny how faithful and doubtless those children can be because sometimes the hardships of life cause many believing adults to let doubt creep in.
But children like Bree sometimes have true faith the side of a mustard seed, and their belief can even inspire those much older than them.
Unfortunately, Tomlinson does not come across convincing as Pastor Williams.
The football legend is fairly new to acting so his skills should get better with time.
But it was smart of the producers to hire well known commodities like Tomlinson, Robin Givens and Jordin Sparks to give “God Bless the Broken Road” some box office appeal.
However, the producers showed they were even smarter by being real and not trying to be too Christian for their own good.
Many people have struggles in life when they question their faith.
Many people have struggles in the life when they question the teachings in the Bible.
And some people struggle with their belief in God at times.
However, “God Bless the Broken Road” shines because the movie shows that those people are not alone.
Others have gone through crisis of faith.
And those people have made it through the dark times.
REGAL RATINGS
FOUR CROWNS=EXCELLENT
THREE CROWNS=GOOD
TWO CROWNS=AVERAGE
ONE CROWN=POOR
