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Clip: The clip starts at 1 hour 18 minutes and 45 seconds and lasts until 1 hour 25 minutes and 12 seconds.
About Time is a sensitive story of love, growing up and family. It explores regret, loss, attachment and finding a joy for life. It also made me cry and want to call my Dad at the end.
As the film progresses, it becomes clear that, while billed as a rom-com, About Time is really interested in the relationship between Tim and his father and asks the question: if you could live your life over and over again - what would you do? Its answer of ‘play another game of table tennis with your father’ is simultaneously heart-breaking and soul making. It’s also nice to have a film to show your young people without things blowing up for once.
The clip that we are looking at in this session focuses on a rather tense moment. After getting used to his newfound abilities, Tim is now happily married and a father. Unexpectedly though, his sister whom he adores starts to struggle with life. After a car crash nearly kills her, Tim takes it upon himself to take her back and ‘fix’ her problems. But is this right and what will the implications be on all the other decisions he’s made in his life? After showing the clip, break into small discussion groups and explore the following questions:
- If you had the opportunity to re-live aspects of your day and change them, would you?
- If you could go back in time to any moment in your past what would you do and why?
- Are we better people after the mistakes we make, or is it better never to make them in the first place?
- Can we ‘fix’ people or do they have to do it themselves?
After discussing the first set of questions, read through Hebrews 12:1-3 together (you may wish to give some context to this passage) and return to your groups to discuss the final set of questions:
• What does this passage appear to be saying about the past and our futures?
• What do we do with past events or actions that we are not proud of - should we be ashamed?
• What does the phrase ‘fixing our eyes on Jesus’ practically mean?
• How could you support others to ‘throw off everything that hinders’ in the upcoming weeks?