In the final year of the 20th Century, the actor Tom Hanks starred in a film called Cast Away.
It had something in common both with a book published in 1719 and an article that was published in 2026. What a strange concoction of facts, history and dates.
Bear with me for a tiny bit and I’ll soon unpack this odd, misshaped ball of thought-yarn.
As is often my custom, let’s begin first with a brief video clip. This time of a film long lol respected and fully successful: Robert Zemeckis’ Cast Away. The film is unforgettable; the fears it unveils are also unforgettable. It’s become a timeless piece.
The story’s segments of near-death, loss and aloneness have good roots of timelessness. Although no one involved with the film admitted to the story’s similarities when it was released, the comparison of it with the time-proven, almost mythological storyline of Robinson Crusoe connects the two like a greenscreen. There are many similarities.
Let’s start with the word “cast away”.
In the 15th century, the term cast away primarily denoted "one who is rejected, reflecting a spiritual or social state of abandonment rather than a physical one.” In 1719 when Robinson Crusoe’s author, Daniel Defoe published his amazing story, the term turned up immediately at the start of the book when the title character states, “I lived like a man cast away upon some desolate island, that had nobody there but himself.” His life, prior to the shipwreck, was one of a reprobate, a self-focused, lost and selfish man who only had a type of limited faith in himself, never affirming the powerful existence of God.
Until he does. And he shares that love of God with people he calls “savages”, because they want to kill, cook and eat him. If ever the use of that word was appropriate, it might be here…
The film, however, deals with a man who was literally cast away from society because of a plane crash that went into the ocean. His only friend is a volleyball named Wilson.
Recently, I had time on a flight back from Poland and Israel to once again watch the film Cast Away, (probably to the chagrin of the person seated next to me: vexed as he was, gripping the arm of his chair during the scene where the FedEx plane hits the ocean – ha!) The thing I noticed as I watched the film, this time, was the not-so-subtle focus of faith in oneself, to overcome, rather than faith in God’s ability to rescue. It caused me to ponder something and to admit something else – I had never read Robinson Crusoe… and NOW I would! I wanted to see if the original story of being cast away was about the individual or the shipwreck.
Upon my return home I ordered the 1719 edition of Robinson Crusoe. I began my journey with this shipwrecked, morally blighted cast away…and was stunned by the character arc in this story. Crusoe is a man beset with no hope, being washed ashore, like Tom Hanks’s character in the film. The reader sees him realize in the course of time that food, clothes, shelter and even personal relationships are meaningless; when one remains a “cast away” from the very Creator Who loves him. This is something absolutely missing in the 2000 film.
It turns out that Robinson Crusoe is a story of true redemption. (Not only that, it turns out that there are actually THREE books written by Daniel Defoe about Crusoe – a trilogy worthy of being purchased and read – click here. I now own all three books and the purchase and immersion into those are what initiated this newsletter.
So how did faith in Christ get washed out of a story like the 2000 film version? Especially when the three books were so fully written with faith in Jesus at its core? And does that absence of the personal relationship with Jesus lessen the value of a film, that was so beautifully shot and superbly performed?
Allow me to suggest the following points for your consideration:
- Our lives have meaning, not because of the result of what we do, but because we were created by God to do those good things. It’s a subtle but important difference.
- Secondly, the impact of what we were created to do lasts long after we are gone. Successfully well-lived lives have a vibrancy to them that calls others to a higher plane of living, a kinder way of life.
- Finally, in the absence of a personal faith in God, we have nothing that lasts past the breath of our own lives.
In this third case, we exit in the same silence that was there in the maternity ward prior to our mother giving birth. This very scene of loss and hopelessness occurs in Cast Away when Tom Hanks’s character is rescued, only to find out that after four years, his fiancé has moved on and is married with children – and he is alone, though he is rescued.
Let’s unpack the first point.
Our Lives Have Meaning
We were created for good works. James R. Wood is the American-born Canadian-based theologian, writer and editor that I referred to in my opening comments. He is a remarkably prescient thinker and writer. His recent piece, entitled In Defense of Cultural Christianity - First Things, is a deep read and a deep well.
My friend and fellow West Point classmate, Jim Hoffman, brought Wood’s recent article to my attention. Jimmy and I were roommates during our first summer (Beast Barracks) at West Point. Always a passionate man of faith, Jim challenged me towards excellence in all things. He still does as we prepare for our 50th Reunion.
The piece by Professor Wood is the most recent example. Here's why: his fundamental claim in the referenced article is simple and profound – Doing good, works; even if done by hypocrites is acceptable. Doing evil by others does NOT work; it is unacceptable.
Wood writes, “Evangelicals, shaped by revivalist and voluntarist assumptions, too often dismiss as worthless any good that is not clearly linked to inward regeneration. By contrast, Scripture and the larger Christian tradition are patient and supple, able to recognize incomplete but sincere conformity, weigh multiple goods, and attend to both the spiritual and the social effects of outward practice. External conformity can restrain evil, inculcate virtue, and render the gospel intelligible within a common moral world.
Hypocrisy remains spiritually perilous for the hypocrite—but it is hardly the gravest threat to society. The greater danger is a culture that no longer expects even public allegiance to the true, the good, and the beautiful, thereby depriving itself of the formative conditions in which faith has historically flourished.” The film and the book work together to prove Wood’s premise
Next point:
The impact of what we were created to do lasts long after we are gone
Lives lived well, matter. Not just now, but on into the future that is not ours. Daniel Defoe and Isaac Newton were contemporaries. Both were English and both well-known at the same time in the same place. Dafoe for having changed the literature landscape through his breakout books on Robinson Crusoe… and Isaac Newton, for his mathematical work, Principia, and his many other experiments and writings, upon which Einstein and others based their later works.
Few, if any, of the names of their fellow 18th century Londoners can be recalled or remembered today. In fact, at a time in the 1700’s when King George III lost America, these two men lived out their lives with their eyes on the horizon. Their contemporary British King was the longest reigning male in the history of England. Yet, he is nothing today. Their King of Kings never died and the lives they lived in His name continue to touch you and me today – even if only by a newsletter, for now.
Live as if you will live forever. Because you will.
Final point:
Without hope in real things, we are really hopeless in all things.
When we succeed in life, it’s not a matter of riches and wealth. It’s the group of lives we touch, the people in whom we invest our energy, our talents and our treasures. That very still, small voice of God that calls us, as Wood puts it, “to the true, the good, and the beautiful”.
Jesus died with nothing left in His possession. And He owned everything. As I tell people when I take them to Israel – God answers both “long distance and local calls.” If you haven’t called Him lately, do it today. He’ll pick up on His end… you’re only a prayer away.
That’s it. Not too heavy, just simple and true. I’m glad I watched Cast Away, I’m glad I read Robinson Crusoe’s three books by Defoe and I’m glad Wood’s article came my way.
How about you? What are you reading/watching? Please share your life with me – I’d like to hear from you.
More later,
Den
Den's Latest & Greatest
- Let me know if you’d like to become a part of a ministry in El Salvador – I can connect you with a wonderful work of a group there called Young Life. I have enlisted the aid of a great friend, Lucas Martinez, who is with that non-profit missions group; he will be translating my own books into Spanish, written and Audible. I think you’d like Lucas. I sure do. Please consider donating to his ministry here.
- On a personal note, my first grandchild, Cole Roe, is graduating from high school and I had the chance to be with him on the day prior to his Senior Prom. I have invested in Cole’s life since he was born. Seeing him so grown up and ready for the future is quite rewarding.