and the things of earth will grow strangely dim...

{Warning: Citizen Kane Spoilers ahead}

Do you ever have one of those times in your life when it seems like everywhere you go you get some saying or concept repeatedly pounded into your head? Like the preacher on sunday morning will say a phrase, then you visit a different church that night and the preacher there says the exact same thing, and you read a book that happens to say something about it, and it just keeps showing up over and over again?

For me lately the concept I can't seem to get away from is summed up in the phrase "You'll never see a hearse pulling a U-haul." As cliched as i feel that phrase is getting because of the fact that I've heard it 3+ times in the last few weeks from totally unrelated sources, familiarity doesn't diminish the truth.

I just finished watching Citizen Kane for my Film History class. Each week i watch 2 movies and sometimes write a paper on them. Citizen Kane is a film that I have heard often referred to, or seen it linked in passing on wikipedia. I think once I read the summary or in reading a list of famous movie quotes read up on the quote "Rosebud." Regardless of having known something about the movie in the past, when I started watching the movie today I didn't remember almost anything about the plot. I had heard varying reports about the movie, i know that it was nominated for 9 Academy Awards, but i had also heard that it was not a very enjoyable film. I settled in to--very objectively, of course--discover for myself an opinion on this classic film. As I watched the life story of Charles Foster Kane unfold, I enjoyed it, in the way that i might enjoy reading a biography...my pleasure in reading those fluctuates...I watched with some interest and was happy to see that the film was not boring as I'd feared it might be. As the film builds it tells the story of this man who is in many ways living the "American Dream." He starts low, has a Horatio Alger like adoption by a wealthy benefactor, builds businesses, gets women, and basically has everything he could want, which is of course the definition of utter happiness, right? Of course right. Thank you Yente. (excuse me...where was I? Ah, yes.) As Kane nears the end of his life (and incidentally the beginning and end of the film) he amasses huge amounts of art, jewels, and even builds a mountain palace that he dubs Xanadu after Kublai Khan's great palace in ancient China. By many standards he has reached the pinnacle of success, his riches are great, his grain silos are full, he can eat drink and be merry with no fear for a tax on his wallet, he probably owns the people that make the money.
Charles Foster Kane has built a kingdom, he has the woman he wants, he uses the people around him, he basically has everything he wants, but in the last 15 minutes of the film, something changes. His kingdom does not satisfy, his wife leaves, and he dies. After his death, his vast fortune is catalogued by appraisers, and it was all worth so much money. Yet, he died alone and sad. Like they said in another movie I saw this week (Quantum of Solace) "Everybody dies alone." (Regardless of what they had or who they were) What did his kingdom give him in the end? Does wealth make one happy? If money can indeed buy happiness, Charles Kane should have died of laughter or of pure bliss because he had everything he ever wanted. He didn't though, he died a sad mean old man hated by many and beloved by none. In the end his posessions are sold and some are burned. They'll all burn eventually.
I was surprised by such a powerful message from this film. The verse came to mind from Matthew 16:23 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life?" Kane had everything, the money, the relationships, the palaces (literally), but he didn't ever know the truths found here. In Matthew 16:20-21 "Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." A life without Christ is worthless and a life without knowing His love and the joy and peace He gives is breathtakingly sad.
Don't live your life in pursuit of posessions and "the American dream." That's not life. They won't last. "Life is more than food, and the body more than clothing" [Luke 12:23] Seek after God's kingdom and his righteousness and He will freely supply everything you need. Serve Him with every fiber of your being and give every bit of your life over to His control. An eternal reward is a good motivator. "One's life does not consist in the abundance of his posessions" [Luke 12:15] Don't lose eternity for things that don't matter. And don't be tied to the things of this world. No thing here matters eternally. Our home is above and our life is seated at the right hand of the Father on high. Don't remember this on your deathbed. Live it out today!