Andrew Garfield, The Face of a Modern Seeker

I am always on the look-out for good articles, movies, or video clips that I can use in ministry to help people think or connect faith to everyday life and culture.
I recently saw the new Scorsese movie Silence with a friend of mine. While it has gotten some criticism and not done so hot at the box office, I was surprised how I much thoroughly enjoyed it. After the seeing movie, I spent a little time watching You Tube interviews with people who acted in the film. Some of them like Andrew Garfield, jumped both feet into studying and living the Jesuit spirituality.

The following interview clip is with Andrew Garfield and Stephen Colbert. The first 3 minutes and last 3 are where its at.

I actually really love this interview.
Here you have this young, handsome actor; he is making big bucks and has been nominated for an Academy Award (I hope he wins for Hacksaw Ridge!). While not raised with any religious upbringing, Garfield shares his great surprise on what it meant to come to know and love Jesus Christ.
In another interview, Garfield talks about the profound impact going through the Ignatian spiritual exercises was for him. He said: 
"What was really easy was falling in love with this person, was falling in love with Jesus Christ. That was the most surprising thing ... That was the most remarkable thing-falling in love, and how easy it was to fall in love with Jesus."

An encounter.
A personal encounter helped this successful millennial meet Jesus Christ for the first time in his life. 
It all started with an encounter.
In this interview Andrew Garfield represents the face of a modern-day seeker. He represents a generation I am living in; people who aren't (always) necessarily opposed to God, faith, or spirituality, but often no one had told them about Jesus. No one has provided an opportunity for them to encounter Jesus in a personal way.
Garfield does not sound overtly against religion but he sounds relatively open to spiritual ideas and concepts. He had no one in his life that ever told him about Jesus from what it sounds like. 
And then on a retreat studying and learning for a movie role, Jesus personally became real to him. Garfield was surprised, even caught off guard.
And I just love that raw honesty in how he describes that realization. I know in my own life too some of the most powerful experiences of God have been where I am totally caught off guard.

This interview clip reminds me that what wins over the hearts and minds of people is offering them an opportunity to encounter something more, Jesus. The power of that encounter is like spiritual dynamite. 
People don't connect personally to the right doctrine or theology, but to a person. And encounter always starts and ends with that same person.

In a world of seekers, I hope I can be that person to offer an opportunity, to extend an invitation to something, someone more.
Whatever it looks like in my life, I do not want to miss those opportunities...