The Dude: Yeah, well. The Dude abides.
The Stranger: [voiceover] The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. (The Big Lebowski)
The Big Lebowski, a Coen Brothers extravaganza that flopped at tbe Box Office, now a cult classic with a dedicated following.
Some of the taglines from the movie posters:
They figured he was a lazy, time-wasting slacker. They were right.
It takes guys as simple as the Dude and Walter to make a story this complicated … and they'd really rather be bowling.
Lebowski: not a man, a way of life.
For a guy who takes things easy and lets life roll at its own pace, there is still a telling, though subtle if not indirect parallel, to another Dude, a Dude who did not waste his life trying to get a carpet repaired, a Dude who took all things for us that we could have the easy life.
This Dude is Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, not just a way of life.
When we recognize that He controls everything, including us, including our tired and tiresome circumstances, then we are no longer tired. He offers us complete rest:
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)
And the writer of Hebrews exhorts us to take advantage of this rest:
"Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." (Hebrews 4:11)
What, then are we to do once we have entered this rest?
Abide!
"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples." (John 15:4-6)
We abide, we bud by the power of the Holy Spirit, and thus we bear much fruit for our Heavenly Father, who in turn is glorified. How cool is that?
Yes, this dude abides in the Dude, and therefore the Dude abides!