Flying Upside Down

A whole generation of girls believes the greatest men of our day, are a 90 year old vampire, who looks nineteen and a teenage werewolf. Girls (and not just girls) swoon at the thought of knowing men like them. They have no repulsion toward the bloodletting that one of the characters indulges in, nor do they recoil at the idea of a wolf sleeping with a woman. Their hearts throb in anticipation as a vampire sneaks into the room of a girl their own age every night without anyone knowing, and they don’t even seem a little bothered by the werewolves “imprinting” on little girls.

Our world seems to be flying upside down, as Dallas Willard pointed out in his book The Divine Conspiracy. And the sad thing is that the culture doesn’t even care, because there is not right side up. There is an emptiness, and a searching among us. Yet we are looking and searching in the dark, finding the darkest things to cling onto for survival, longing for some supernatural being to save us from our mundane existence and add excitement to our lives. Thing is, that Supernatural Being died and rose again 2000 years ago to save us, yet we ignore Him in favor of the "undead".

Funny, we are even willing to embrace someone else’s vision to gain our own hope of salvation. That is right, Stephanie Meyer had a dream about a vampire that led her to write the Twilight series, and through that dream came T-shirts, and discussion groups, and pilgrimages to the small town of Forks in Washington State.

At least in the pages of the Twilight books, there is the hope of some sort of redemption. One that is seriously misguided, with eternal damnation as the end result, if by some strange happening death might actually take a vampire’s “life”, but still it is there.

Sadly, I have discovered that there is a part of the world that does not even have a false savior to give them hope. Part of the world is living in such utter darkness that they don’t even believe that there is a way out of the bleakness of human existence. They visit a place called Where the Wild Things Are, and discover there is no redeemer, there is no better tomorrow, there is only pain and sorrow.

If you are not familiar with Where the Wild Things Are, it is a very short children’s book, about a boy who visits an island inhabited by fantastic creatures called the “Wild Things”. That said the short children’s book has recently been transformed into a motion picture, in which a boy filled with anger and rage flees to the Wild Things, and discovers that they are just as angry and destructive as the place of pain that fills his own heart. He promises them that he will be their king and save them from sadness and pain with his invisible shield, but in the end, they discover that he is a fraud and all their hope for happiness is dashed when he fails to save them from themselves. The boy returns home to his own mother, his own family, with the simple words spoke to or by one of the unhappy Wild Things, “It’s hard to be a family.”

There is no redemption just the reality of the joyless, hopelessness of life to endure until death. That, in the end, is the takeaway the movie leaves the audience. I left the theater utterly depressed, thankful that the sun was out in all of its Arizona glory, and that the Son of God reigns in all of His.

I have always told my children that no matter what story, what movie, what book, or play, that I can find Jesus in it in some aspect or another. But I told them that I was wrong. There was NO redeemer in Where the Wild Things Are. When the Son is absent, then too is His light and all that is left is darkness.

When a vampire is the hero of the young, and a movie for kids is filled with so much “realism” that they leave the theaters in quiet contemplation, we know we are flying upside down, about to take a nosedive into the earth.

The postmodern age looks to darkness for redemption and when it does not find it there, it falls into despair.

The Light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him.

Even within the walls and halls of our own churches, a generation is looking to darkness to redeem them. Will we be like the generation Jesus first came to, the one who crucified Him, who were His own, but did not recognize Him because He came as Light.

In Him was LIFE and that LIFE was the LIGHT of MEN!

JOHN 1

Genie in a Bottle, Not

We often see Jesus as a genie in a lamp. We rub the lamp through prayer. We ask for our three wishes so that we can have an abundant life, free from pain and filled with prosperity. We pray in the name of Jesus, and claim all manner of things. We forget prayer is not a magic wand we wave to get what we want. It is instead a means to build relationship with God.

If our child walks up and demands this or that, in a tone of entitlement, we are much less likely to give them what they have so ungraciously asked for. If our kids only talk to us when they want something, or when they get into trouble, we are far less likely to give them what they think they want or lessen their punishment. But if we are in relationship with our kids, if they tell us about their day, the friends they have, how they did on their math test, what they are struggling with in life, what their passions are, who they need help learning to love, we are far more likely to give them what they want. When constant conversation is in place, our kids don’t have to demand their wants, nor subvert our authority when they are in trouble. No, when there is relationship then their wants are known and often given freely. When there is a bond of love, the discipline for misbehavior is consistent, loving, and given with mercy as well as justice.

When we know our kids, and they share their lives with us, then there is respect on both sides not a demanding, spoiled brat, speaking to a parent. When our kids have gratitude for what we are able to give them, then it is much more enjoyable to give them more. So too our Father loves us and wants to pour out abundant blessings in our lives, but He doesn’t want those blessings to be demanded. He wants to freely give to us what is best for us. But if all we do is feel entitled, then we won’t pray to know our Father but instead to get what we want from Him.
If you never talk to those you love, can you really love them? If you never listen to your friends, can you really know them? So too, if you never talk to or listen to your Father, you will never be able to really love Him, you will never be able to truly know Him.

All the things we think we need are worthless without the surpassing knowledge of knowing Jesus.

We often pray for God to remove us from our trials, but in my life, the trial actually produces the fruit. For some reason, we believe that we should have a life free from pain, and if we name our demand and claim it from God, He has to grant our request. I am not sure when the teaching on what it means to be a Christian became so misguided, however. Christ suffered. He asked three times for the Father to take away the need for the cross, but in the end, Jesus surrendered Himself to His Father’s will. We are to follow Christ’s example. We are to identify with Him in our sufferings. It is through His suffering that we know Him most deeply. Apart from Him, apart from what He suffered for us on the cross, we can do nothing. If God does not remove our suffering, it is not because He does not love us, but because His greater purpose needs to be fulfilled in our lives.

The way we can know His love, His will, His heart for us is through a constant attitude of prayer. Not demanding our way, not rubbing the mystical lamp of prayer, but by talking to our God, and sharing our heart with Him. He might not decide to give us a new car, nor take away our pain when we want Him to, but He will walk with us through it all.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Philippians 4:6-7