when love fails...

One of the ironically beautiful things about the way we human beings were created is our capacity to love and our insatiable need for relationships. The barb comes as we fail time and again to be successful at the constant stream of lives that weave in and out of our days. In addition, a myriad of things constantly tempt us to put love for others and God aside in search for health, happiness, and money. In the movie, There Will Be Blood, the characters face Greed and fail to choose rightly.

Lord Acton said, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." The two main characters find the power that comes through greed and gaining what they want destroys them. In their search for selfish gain, to be lords of their own lives they find that in the end they are merely slaves, willing to give anything to get what they "need".

The protagonist, Daniel Plainview, has come to the place in his life where he believes humans are worthless. He claims to only see "the worst in people" and desires enough money to get away from everyone. At the same time, he claims to be a family man to an orphan boy, masquerading him as his son. His only tender moments come through his desire for this child to love him unconditionally, and tears at learning of his estranged brother's death. People are merely tools, means to the end of gain. He is fair, mostly, because he enjoys people begging and being indebted and he realizes that to play fair can be used to his advantage. In the end, he gets what he wants: enough money to push everyone away, to see all his enemies fallen...but he cannot gain the subservience of his "son". He spends his days in a drunken stupor, perhaps to numb away the awareness that what he desired did not bring fulfillment, but rather emptiness.

Only the other side of the coin smiles Eli Sunday, preacher to a cultic "Church of the 3rd Revelation". At the beginning, he seems to be truly passionate about his church, but his true ambitions show through quickly. Desiring people to follow him--regardless of their sincerity and heart motives (evidenced through his acceptance of Daniel as a convert)--he thirsts after the money to make him a big preacher. He has enough insight to discern where people hurt, revealing Daniel's insecurities about his "son", and he thinks that everyone will love him if he gives them what they need and want. 

At two crucial moments, both Daniel and Eli are willing to say anything and do anything to get what they want. Daniel agrees to "get religion" and be baptized if it means he can put the pipeline on the land to the coast. Eli is willing to deny God and his calling as a preacher in order to get money to continue his prestige. The difference is that only Daniel gets what he compromises for; Eli finds a bait and switch as Daniel lies to him about the offer. His dying cries of "we're brothers" are true, for both have sold their souls for what they think satisfies, and found nothing.

Sadly, we all want love on our own terms, demanding affection from friends, family, and loved ones to satisfy us. We refuse to accept love that corrects or comes in different ways. The only minor redemptive character is H.W., "son" to Daniel who offers unconditional love to Daniel even when it is refused.

There Will Be Blood reminds me of a book by Martha Kilpatrick called All and Only. In her insightful work on the sovereignty of God, she notes that what we fear we worship and give ourselves too. In fighting so much to be independent of the love of people--because ultimately he fears their rejection--Daniel builds a hell for himself. In fearing people won't love him Eli builds an equal hell in which he must continue his pretense of power or he will be rejected. We can push everyone away in hopes they will never push us away or we can graspingly make them dependent on us so they can never push us away. But the fear will never leave us, because beneath it all will be the nagging thought that this isn't really escape--it's just avoidance. 

Loving people involves failure. In means yet another conversation in which you have to apologize, forgive, extend love that may be rejected. Love is the most vulnerable place to be, and inevitably hurts come. But in the currency of heaven it is never a waste. Even in pain, the riches of love are immeasurable. I wouldn't have it any other way, I've decided. There will be blood, but because of the Blood I can love.