By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS
Reflecting on travel documentaries like Pole to Pole, I admire exploration yet feel sadness when the explorer expresses awe of nature but fails to glorify God for it. In many of these docs, I watch seekers yearn for meaning but misattribute the meaning of life to creation.
Hulu has a new reality series out, in conjunction with National Geographic. It’s called “Pole to Pole” starring movie actor Will Smith. He explores the world from top to bottom, east to west. Being a NatGeo production, you know that the scenery will be wonderful, and the information given in this non-fiction series will be good.
I like exploring. Some of my favorite books are authored by people who went afar and wrote about it. I myself went afar and it was a satisfying portion of my life.
But these kind of documentaries also sadden me.
In the excellent documentary called “Antarctica: A Year On Ice” we follow the people who live and work through a year’s cycle at the various scientific stations on the most remote and brutal continent on the planet. When everyone else leaves for the winter, they stay. I wrote about a scientist who is not a Christian seeing the Aurora Australis for the first time. She fell to her knees and cried tears in awe of the beauty and wonder. Yet as per Romans 1:18b-19, she did not glorify the Creator, but only praised the creation. “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived“…
I became so sad for her. You can virtually watch her soul yearning for meaning in God but blindly not seeing Him.
Same with “My Octopus Teacher“. This documentary won the Academy Award for best documentary and it is a great film. I loved it. The film is often described as an “an ode to the heartbreaking unbelievability of nature.” A burned out man searches for healing and decides to snorkel every day in the kelp forest in front of his home to observe 1 year cycle of the ocean. He meets an octopus and makes a connection with her (they are hugely intelligent). The documentary is often interpreted as a story about finding spiritual connection through the natural world.
This Christian reviewer said ‘My Octopus Teacher’ “it’s also a poignant picture of a person looking for something outside of himself in a culture where most voices tell us to look inside.“
Of course, Christians can almost see the seeker ascending to heights in his yearning for meaning and then sadly falling back down when attributing that meaning to the world and not to God. Or an octopus substituted for God.
This reality journey TV show called Better Late than Never, featured William Shatner, Terry Bradshaw, Henry Winkler, George Foreman (passed away in 2025) traveling across Asia on their own with no schedule and no itinerary. Foreman and Bradshaw profess Christianity, Winkler is Jewish, and Shatner is ‘spiritual.’ Shatner especially was shown speaking of trying to find meaning in life, and Bradshaw several times witnessed to Shatner. Shatner would not concede his soul to God and would not attribute the beauty and wonder around them to His creative abilities. Yet he kept questioning and wondering what it’s all for. Sad.
I did the same thing in my journeying years. I tried to find meaning. Why are we here? What is the point of life? I definitely was seeking. Seeing the creation I understood it was all made by something intelligent. God, maybe? But where is He? How do I know Him? I’d firmly rejected the idea of Jesus and the cross and the blood thing though. Why? I’m no sinner. Yet…in HIs timing the Lord graciously condescended to wrest my heart from the world and fill my soul with knowledge of Him. Glorify the Creator and worship Him only! I know that now, blessedly.
So in Will Smith’s journey around the world from pole to pole, he said in episode 1 early on that his acclaimed and illustrious mentor Dr. Allen Counter said “the answers to everything important are out there at the edges of our world”. The NatGeo blurb says Will is “Inspired by his late mentor to explore life’s big questions”.
I’ll watch the series because I enjoy these kind of entertainments. But they are always tinged with sadness for me on behalf of the person who is obviously seeking what he knows not but is the answer to everything: God. I’ll pray for Will Smith that he not only has interesting and satisfying journeys, but that he will one day, even now, attribute the answer to everything important is not at the edges of our world, but above it, transcendent and mighty to save.
the-end-time.org 