With reference to the novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde

You see, Hyde’s tale, “Pay It Forward” begs this kind of parallelism like no novel-turned-movie in recent times. And it is not simple Christological analogies that make this so (although they are numerous: spanning from his unusual birth and childhood situation through his selfless attitude, failing then fruitful followers, and finally his ultimate sacrifice for the movement). The savior-child Trevor McKinney is no chosen one “Neo” whose not so subtle action-movie Messiah martyrdom was blunt and contrived. Rather, the single-parent kid plays as backdrop to the real hero of the movie: the idea.

The idea is a simple one in its profundity. Trevor took the world-change idea assignment of his social studies teacher (Ruben St. Clair) seriously, and came up with a whopper. He would do something remarkably big for three people. It would be something you might “do for your mother or your sister” but not a friend and certainly not a stranger. This deed of good will would be a huge favor no one would ever ask you for. More than just a random act of kindness, this would be an intentional and strategic mission. And he would not let the three pay him back for the favor. They would be kindly asked to “pay it forward” instead of back. And in the face of such good will, the kid believed the three people would do just that, and start a chain of events that in only a short list of exponentially extrapolated levels would touch every human being on the face of the earth.

Yes, sir-more than a little campy-but Hyde’s white trash and down-n-out yarn makes you more than just buy the idea, it coerces you into rooting for every pagan person on the karmic-pyramid to pass it on. She’ll have many church folk readers humming, “It only takes a spark, to get a fire going” for the first time since youth camp.

The idea is not just parallel to Christian principles; it may in fact be what the real “Movement” was meant to be. Consider this: what thing can a Christian do that can never really be paid back to them, but can only be “Paid Forward”? Yes-leading someone to Jesus as his or her personal Savior is the most inherently “paid forward” good deed one could come up with. But is the derivative reversed? Which comes first, the Christian Chicken or the Paid Forward eggs?

And therein lies the broader conundrum we find our over-examined selves in. In this age the downward spiral may have come full circle… to the point that hopeful and integrity-filled ideas are being propagated by secular culture. How dare they! They’re stealing our message! Hyde’s “paying it forward” concept is not alone in this beyond-parallelism-toward-sameness quality today.

Possible options on how to deal with it:

1) Consider the Source Option. You can’t trust stuff from the world, regardless of how divine its content seems to be. The apples just never fall that far from the tree and it’s dangerous to over-spiritualize or Christianize the blind wanderings of those not in the Church, lest we become lemmings to the wrong message.

2) This Is My Father’s World Option. If we “hear Him pass” in “rustling grass”, can we not also hear His words from the mouths of those he created in his image? Inner Light enthusiasts see Pay It Forward type ideas as the natural springs from the truth well placed in every person’s conscience.

3) Redeem That "of the World" Option. There are lots of “half-way” truths out there in the world that need a little figurative holy water sprinkled on them before taking them hook-line-and-sinker. We should be wary of taking these things in like doctrine before they are translated and purified by discerning Christians.

Are there other options? Probably. But since I like the second option, I’m only putting the other two down to appear open-minded. Regardless of the way we respond, we can all agree on one thing: these occurrences are growing in frequency and intensity. Now that Christianity has been relegated to the sidelines of real life today, those of the more artistic persuasions are producing more than tired religious deconstructions, and are in fact creating new perspectives on matters of the soul and our identity as humans in the world (Author Douglas Coupland may come to our minds as a fitting example).

This may be the exclusive jewel that Postmodernity has bequeathed us. Generations are coming of age that carry little-to-no Church-tradition baggage. These are not formerly-rebellious-seekers who need to be convinced that our church is not at all like their father’s Oldsmobile. These are generations who were handed a clean sheet religiously (while we sat by and did nothing but complain about the statistics), and while many are making meaningless paper airplanes out of their proverbial clean sheet, some artists and authors are painting portraits of keen insight.

This is the case with Hyde’s Pay It Forward. Its keen insight lies in a view of the human position more than condition. Sinful behavior and even inclination is a given. There is no attempt to make the individual the source of utopia, which was the common dead end of the individualistic Modern era. Rather, the uniquely Postmodern Pay It Forward draws upon the collective desire we have make the collective better.

We would do well to capitalize on this sentiment-not because it is a chink in the culture’s armor we can take advantage of-but because that sentiment might be Truth with a capital “T” rather than just another cultural anomaly to add to our irony checklist.

David Drury plants churches in the Great Lakes region and has written many things no one has ever read or would ever want to. His best friends are his son Max and his wife Kathy and his hero is Eutychus.