Best Spiritual Movies – David Hoffmeister: The movie No Reservations is designed to give us more insight into happiness. We actually have only one purpose on earth and that is to be happy. Jesus says in A Course in Miracles, “God’s Will for you is perfect happiness.” So anything that is experienced that is not perfect, lasting happiness is not God’s Will.
When you hear people ask, “Have you found your calling?” it oftentimes could sound like a spiritual calling, and most people think, I don’t know if I want a calling. But actually your calling is to be happy and that’s what is so great about A Course in Miracles. It doesn’t advocate isolation or living in a particular circumstance or a particular kind of living arrangement. It is all about opening your mind, opening your heart, and experiencing happiness.
This movie is a relationship movie. If your only purpose here on earth is happiness, then your only purpose for all relationships is happiness, and that includes your work relationships. If you have a job or a career, that would be the purpose of the job or the career; in simple terms from Jesus, “To be happy.” People would say, “What about earning an income?” Remember, that’s more your backdrop. That is not the focus because if your focus is on getting the job done and getting out of there as soon as you can, then that would be a different focus than happiness. It’s a mis-focus. It’s the same with relationships.
Relationships that are based on needs and demands, or threats or expectations, are not going to serve the goal of happiness. You cannot have expectations about the world and be happy consistently. Relationships are opportunities to undo the expectations, through trust, and that is what this movie is about.
The main character, Kate, a chef, has been hurt in past relationships; she is closed. One of her main defenses for remaining closed is control – wanting to control the environment, wanting to control whatever she can in the world to keep a distance from love. She is going to be given a lot of opportunities to open up her heart and to trust and love. Even if it’s the slightest, tiniest crack and opening, the Holy Spirit will come rushing in to build trust towards opening all the way up to happiness.
When the mind is really closed, the Holy Spirit has to use contrast experiences to get a crack. Kate is being taken out of the comfort zone of her apartment when her niece Zoey comes to live with her. Oftentimes the Holy Spirit will send a child in for extreme cases of closed-mindedness because that’s one of the fastest ways. The Holy Spirit also sends a man, Nick, into her workplace, the restaurant kitchen. These are two of the areas where Kate exercises the strongest amount of control.
Now the elements in her life have changed to bring her out of her false sense of being comfortable with control.
~ To be continued ~
Read the follow-up blog here.
Visit a-course-in-miracles.org to find out more about David Hoffmeister
The online Movie Watcher’s Guide to Enlightenment: over 400 reviews to your best spiritual movies!
