What is faith? What is this concept that the media mostly gets wrong, or Christians sometimes get wrong or at least confused by? Heck, even some pastors get it wrong. Is there a clear definition for it in the Christian life?
Recently, I woke up in the morning and the first thing that popped into my head was The Goonies. It wasn't a slow process, but rather a thought that sprung me awake like lightning bolt to my consciousness, THE GOONIES. It occurred to me that Christians could probably learn a thing or seven from the classic 80's flick especially about faith. So, I will be relating this film to our walk in faith as well as making some arguments about what faith really is and means. Once again, like in my recent posts, I ask you to keep and open mind and open heart to what is going to be said in this entry.
The Goonies? Da fudge is dat?
Hopefully everyone has seen or at least heard of the Goonies, but in case you've been living under a rock for the past thirty years I'll give you the rundown of the movie. Taking place in Astoria, Oregon it tells the story of a group of teenagers who are struggling with the fact they have to move due to a bunch of developers who bought out their parent's mortgages and also bought the surrounding land to build a golf course. Mikey Walsh, the protagonist, is super bummed that he wont be able to keep hanging with his group of friends he grew up with, nick-named the Goonies. So anyways, a bunch of them get together at Mikey's and mope about how their fates are certain unless miraculously their parents come up with the money to stop the deal. Mikey's dad just happens to be a curator at the town's museum and one of the friends, Mouth, suggests that maybe their is something in the attic they can sell to come up with the money since Mr Walsh stashes stuff up there all the time. They find a treasure map and Mikey convinces most of the others to take up the search for One Eyed Willie's treasure. That Desperate Hour Much like Mikey and his friends we all face times of desperation where you are looking for a way out of your difficult situation. You pray and you pray and you pray, then you wait and wait some more. Finally an answer appears, but is it the answer you need? How are you sure it will get you out of your predicament? Who knows? You take the leap anyways! People on tv walk around saying "I've got faith! Hallelujah, I got faith!", but the thing of it is is that faith isn't a possession, there's no bogo offer on it. I would argue that it's an action, Hebrews 11:1 reads "Now faith is the substantiating of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.(DBY)", some people might get on me for using the Darby translation, but I think it represents my point pretty well. For another example look at Mark 5:25-34 when Jesus heals the bleeding woman, she saw Jesus and took her chance, all she needed to do was touch his robe. When Jesus realized some power went out of him he turned to her and reaffirmed her action, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering." In my mind this clearly demonstrates that one aspect of faith is about seizing the opportunity, she had heard that Jesus healed people, it was enough for her and she was rewarded. Of course it was easier when Jesus was on the Earth, there was almost an instant gratification to this healing. We, like Mikey, might have to risk a little more for our answers in faith. All he had to go off of was a treasure map and a doubloon which supposedly led to a treasure, but that seemed enough for him even if he wasn't certain the map would lead to anything.
That's what I said! I said booby traps!
When we exercise our faith that doesn't mean that everything is going to go swimmingly, or that everyday birds are going to sing a Disney tune and everyday is going to be sunny from here on out. Having that kind of attitude would probably lead to a mental meltdown. Jesus himself said that in this life we will have trouble(John 16:33), so while we cannot be certain about the outcome of our risks that we take through faith, we can be certain that God's grace is sufficient enough for us to get through our trials(2 Cor 12:9). We also have this jerk of an enemy, the adversary, who seems ever at our heels much like the Fratellis were to the Goonies, who sets booby traps for the faithful to throw us of the rails. His attacks combined with misconceptions about faith that we might have could serve to damage our walk with God especially when we are already going through something difficult. For example, let's say a person's family member get's severely ill and it interferes with the finances, they get behind on the bills. That person might say, if I just believe enough, have enough faith, things will get better. Then that person gets laid off and has little to no income. How are the medical bills going to get paid? Regular bills going to get paid? How are we going to eat? "I thought if I had enough faith God would carry me through this!"
While some of these events are influenced in the spiritual realm, we must consider the realm of free choice where events are effected by other's choices everyday. As Job's friends learned after they accused him, it wast't his lack of faith that caused his problems. Job was being tested, and through his testing, through the booby traps the devil placed in his life, Job persevered because he ultimately trusted God. With that being said I believe another aspect of faith is perseverance through trust(James 1:12). I'm not sure if Mikey believed in a god, but I know that he did place his trust in the rest of the Goonies to get himself out of some jams. Therefore we must be careful to not set booby traps for ourselves and we can avoid this by examining what faith really is, like author and theologian Greg Boyd asks in his book "Benefit of the Doubt", is a faith not examined worth having?
An Unexpected Treasure
Mikey and his friends took the risk on something they didn't know was a sure thing. They persevered through the booby traps and defeated the Fratellis, however they had to give up the pirate treasure in order to save their own lives. In our walk with faith there are times we are going to have to give things up, maybe it's a friendship, maybe it's a job, or maybe it's a prized material possession. Whatever the case it's important that you line up your faith with what God's will is and I know that sometimes it is the hardest thing a Christian can do, but ultimately it is for our benefit(1 John 2:17). Even though they lost the treasure, the Goonies were still over joyed at seeing their parents, and at the end of the film you could see that they had learned a lot through their experiences. It seemed that they came to terms with the fact the situation was out of their hands and when those country club jerks came around for the contract they decided to sign it, but then something unexpected happened. Mikey's house keeper Rosalita was searching through his jacket and found a marble sack full of precious stones! When we finally submit to God and confess we can't do it on our own anymore, we are opening ourselves to the possibilities of what God can do in our lives, we are putting His will above ours. This is the last aspect of faith I'll be making an argument for, that faith is also submission to God. He will exalt those that are humble to him(Luke 18:14) and you will find comfort in His grace which abounds. If this is the case then God may reveal a treasure that we never thought to imagine.
Hey You Guys!
In this assessment of what I believe faith really is I did my best to make sure I brought as much information from the Bible as I possibly could. I admit that some of what I have argued has been influenced impart by some theological readings I've completed over the past few years. Having said that I made sure that those authors were using a biblical source. In the end some may not agree with my points, but whatevs, I'm always willing to hear arguments that inspire growth in faith.
As some of you may know I decided about a year ago that I wanted to go to school so I could become a pastor. One of the requirements is to have read the Bible completely at least once. Admittedly I have not done that, so over the past year I have skipped around to different books in the Bible and read them. For my 31st birthday my wife got me a life applications study Bible and with it I decided to study the New Testament books in order. I have since devoured the book of Matthew and would like to share a taste of what I have learned. I'd like to ask you to please keep an open mind and an open heart to what I have to say, thank you.
Common Misconceptions
When some people think of the four Gospels they are confused on why there needs to be 4 different books about the same events. In reality they portray Jesus using different themes such as Matthew trying to prove that Jesus is King/Messiah to the Jews of the time. Next we have Mark who's theme is about Jesus as a teacher, then Luke's theme is Jesus as the perfect human being. Lastly, John's theme is that Christ is our only path to eternal life. Another common misconception which is wide-spread due to popular mainstream media is when the "Wise-men" visited Jesus. If you look at pretty much any movie or nativity play the wise men show up right after Jesus' birth, but in fact Matthew states that the Magi as they are called do not show up until 1-2 years after the birth of Jesus. Matthew 2:11 validates this as it says the Magi showed up to the house not the manger. It is also the reason why Herod orders the deaths of male babies up to 2 years of age. It's easy to be dismissive of this this, I mean does it really matter? Yes, in a way it does because it illustrates that most people got there information from other media rather than the original source. People aren't getting their knowledge of Jesus from the Bible, but through TV and that's dangerous because if we have been deceived so easily about something so small, what else have we been deceived about?
Political Climate During the Book of Matthew
At this time period Israel was under Roman rule and the Jews of the time could not stand it. They were supposed to be God's chosen people and they waited for a Messiah to come and lead them to a military, or political victory by destroying the Roman government. There were two main factions of Jewish religious leaders, the Pharisees, who followed the laws of the Old Testament and segregated themselves from most non-Jews. Then you had the Sadducees who only believe in the books of Moses and used their beliefs to further their political positions. These two sides often butted heads, but when Jesus showed up on the scene and started teaching they teamed up to get rid of Him. Also during this time in Israel they were sub-ruled by King Herod. He was not appointed by God, but was appointed the by Roman government to keep things orderly. The citizens didn't really like him that much, but he did help to build the temple in Jerusalem so they put up with him. Herod died and then one of his sons took over.
Drawing political similarities to then and now As I said above, the Jewish leaders were expecting their Messiah to crush the Romans and lead them to a political and military victory so that Israel could once again be an independent nation. This got me thinking. We still expect our Messiah to do the same thing today, maybe not in a military sense anymore, but definitely in a political sense. How many times do we see politicians or pundits proclaiming they're on God's side, have the values God would want them to have, all to get the attention of Christian voters so they can get elected into office? Too many times. The problem with this is that God's kingdom is above all kingdoms or any Earthly political office. If you really want to get down to it we see in the Book of Revelation it says that the enemy is the one that gives authority to the Earth's governments(Rev 13:4). Am I saying that everyone in congress or any government is evil? Not at all, but what I am saying is that if you think God/Jesus is going to lead us to some political victory over heathens, unbelievers in an Earthly political sense, than you may be miss-characterizing God's Kingdom. The pharisees and Sadducees did not understand this because they had hardened their hearts towards Jesus and they were so legalistically following the laws and traditions that the traditions became more important than where the traditions were supposed to point to. Look at the walls we build between us with actions like this, when in actuality Jesus came to breakdown spiritual walls. I'm not saying to not use the values of your faith to vote for people who share the same, just don't use them as a violent weapon against others who don't have the same ones. As Christians it is our duty to seek out lost sheep (Mat 18:12-14), not to cast them out if they don't agree with our political beliefs. Remember the greatest commandments; (Matthew 22:37-40 NIV) "37 Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.38 This is the first and greatest commandment.39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
I ask, how can we do this if we pit Christ against one another politically?
How did Matthew Prove Jesus was/is the Messiah
An important thing to remember while reading the book of Matthew is that he was talking to the Jews of his time, to convince them that Jesus was/is the one they were looking for. For this, he lists the Genealogy of Jesus showing he was the descendant of Abraham and David. Next he called upon Scripture of the Old Testament's prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah. The first example of such use is Matthew 2:6-7, which concerns the birthplace of the Messiah. Then of course there is all of the miracles he performed. Miracles are great yes, but it was really the teachings of Christ that showed them and now us how to usher the kingdom of God into this world, what kind of kingdom it would be and what we needed to be like to get into this kingdom. He did most of this by teaching through parables starting with Matthew chapter 13. I'll provide the whole parable to give an example and Jesus' reasoning behind it:
3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed.4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
10 The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”
11 He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.12 Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.13 This is why I speak to them in parables:
“Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. 15 For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.
16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.17 For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
18 “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means:19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path.20 The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.21 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.22 The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.23 But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
Again Matthew displays that Jesus also uses prophecy to reveal he is the King with verses 14 and 15. It also shows how the Bible confirms itself through the Old and New Testament.
Conflict with the Religious leaders Time and time again the religious leader would try to snare Jesus in a verbal trap, but he was already aware of their intent and often made them look like fools with his answers. A good example of this is Matthew 18:15-22 which has the famous verse "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's". I already mentioned that the religious leaders wanted a superhero for a messiah, but another reason why they despised Jesus so much is that he was constantly calling them out on their hypocrisy. They would live so strictly by the law that they forgot the intent of the law, or they would appear so pious on the outside, to receive the admiration of the public, and yet had an immoral lifestyle behind closed doors. The example that's fresh in my mind is Matthew 27:4 upon where Judas realized what a huge mistake he made and went to the temple to tell the priest that he had sinned and wanted to return the money they gave him. They replied "What is that to us? That is your responsibility." Which was wrong because before the death of Christ it was the priest's job to be an intercessor for the people of Israel to God. Essentially the priests turn their backs on their role. Another great example is found in the Gospel of Luke 18:9-14.
It is important as believers to confront our hypocrisy. We all have been guilty of it at times, we are human after all, right? We want to live life as Christ like as possible, but being human we are bound to stumble, much like Peter did a few times. Appearing to be pious on the outside while having a poor relationship with God on the inside is a stumbling block and sooner or later some one may call you out on it. That is why it is important to have a humble heart before God and others, it is not a weakness to admit your mistakes, and more importantly, practice what you preach dawg. The Miracle That Was Right Under Their Nose
It has long been an opinion of mine that humility is one of Christians' most powerful assets. Just imagine how powerful it is in the hands of God, but do most people put God and humility hand and hand? Maybe, maybe not, I haven't asked to many people to be honest and if we look at the definition of the word humility it's not so flattering: hu·mil·i·ty
(h)yo͞oˈmilitē/
noun
1.
a modest or low view of one's own importance; humbleness.
Not so impressive right? Look at humanity as a whole, we're pretty meek even though we like to act tough with our big weapons, SUVs and what not. Yet, it only takes a natural disaster to wipe us off the map. So then, take the creator of nature and the universe and put Him next to us and surely we are the meekest. The miracle that the religious leaders missed, the sign they were looking for, was that God, creator of the Heavens and the Earth, came down to our level as a weak and humble man, "...the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Matt 20:28) Just think about that for a minute, even if you're not a believer, just play along and say that there is a God who created the cosmos and everything in it including you, think of a being that powerful. Then think of Him saying I love you so much, I'm going to take on all of your issues, your negative actions, your suffering, your guilt, I'm going to take all of that on to myself and sacrifice my Son, (which essentially Himself) for you so that I can be with you eternally. Is not a being that powerful coming down to our level, OUR LEVEL, a miracle? If that is not the miracle that we all need than I don't know what is. And then of course we have the triumphant Resurrection.
Like I said at the beginning of the entry, this is only a taste of what I learned. If I told you everything it would probably take a year or seven . I hope this encourages you at least a little to pick up your Bible and study it. You may find things in there you never knew about. For example, one thing I didn't know was that after Jesus died, the tombs of holy people who died were opened up, they were resurrected and walked around Jerusalem for a bit. God Bless.
P.S. I say a lot in here about the religious leaders of the time who were Jewish, it is true that they conspired to kill Christ, but we must remember that Christ was destined to be sacrificed, so to be harboring any grudge against a person of Jewish faith today is foolishness.
During our lives there are numerous times we call out to God with a prayer. Some do it out of a jest, most others do it out of earnestness especially when they are going through a difficulty they cannot overcome with out him. They pray for guidance and they pray for answers. Most followers of Christ know that God doesn't answer in the time we would like him to, but that His answers always have perfect timing whether we'd like to admit it, or not. Then we see the benefits of waiting, "But they who wait for theLordshall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." Isaiah 40:31 Occasionally there are impatient people that don't like to wait for God's answer and they make a decision out of frustration, which can cause unfortunate consequences. It is my belief that most Christians are guilty of this, heck I've done it myself more times than I care to count. We are human and as Tom Petty famously sang, "TheWaiting is the hardest part", this especially applies to when we are hoping to get the answer we want. Or is it the hardest part?
About that...
It's no secret I'm a huge geek. I love science fiction, fantasy, comic book character, etc. When I was young, like a lot of other boys and girls, I fell in love with the original Star Wars trilogy. The story, the light sabers, the force, the toys, Princess Leia. Then nerds around the world got wind that the mighty George Lucas was finally going to make the prequel trilogy. Before we knew the Episode 1 hits theaters! Everyone was stoked, people camped out for tickets, dressed up in full costume at the premier, my brother in-law and sister brought my 9 months old niece to the theater, cats and dogs living together! Mass hysteria! Woo hoo! right? Right?.....Right.....? Anyone? (Audience is silent, man in back row coughs)
No, no, no, no, NO!
This was NOT the movie I was looking for. This was not the answer I was looking for after waiting years for this to come out. This was not what I thought had been promised to me as a loyal fan. I thought I did everything right as a fan. I watched all the movies, bought the special edition films, played with the toys, pretend to be Luke Skywalker and Boba Fett and this is what I get? Jar Jar freaking Binks? What!?!
I think you get the picture of what I'm trying to say. Sometimes we have to wait and we deal with it, we do what we think we're suppose to do. Go to church, sing songs, love your neighbors as yourselves, yada yadda yadda. Then God gives you an answer. An answer where you question if anything you did, or all the time you spent praying was even worth it. You may feel like Moses did while he was leading the Israelites through the desert, "If You
are going to treat me like this, please kill me right now...[sic].” Numbers 11:15
Pretty rough right? Although, that had more to do with the fact that people were complaining so much to him about only eating Manna and basically asking "Where's the beef?" But still, we feel like that when we get an answer we don't like, or when we think God isn't listening.
Speaking of complain-y Israelites, that leads me to my next point. They spent a lot of time doing just that, forgetting the fact that God delivered them out of Slavery and had promised them a land that flows with milk and honey. Sometimes we can get blinded by our resentment that it transforms in to something ugly and we start to blame our problems on anything we can get our hands on even if it doesn't make sense. Sometimes we take it out on each other and blame each other for why we can't have the things we asked God for. I remember when the Phantom Menace was released and people were soooo ticked off. Overly ticked off. Yes, Jar Jar Binks was pretty lame, but people crossed the line when they started to blame the entire movie's failure on a 9 year old. Jake Lloyd got so much undue flak over the years just because he wasn't the best 9 year actor on the face of the planet. He was 9 for crying out loud! How about you realize the actual reason the movie stank, for example George Lucas' obsession with special effects and green screens!
Do we have a right to complain about Star Wars? Who's story was is it after all? It was George Lucas' story. He made it they way he wanted to. He "wrote" it the way he wanted it to. We asked him for years to make another trilogy and he teased us for years about making another trilogy until after a long wait he finally did. We had all of these expectations and then we were let down by a lackluster story, but it was still George Lucas' story not ours and it was Just something we had to get over. So I ask again do we really have the right to complain over the prequel series? The short answer to this is yes. That is because you spent all this time, money and energy on waiting for a promise made by a man who people thought would take his fans into consideration and he ultimately didn't. He placed a higher value on what he could do with a computer instead of actors or a story. A story that showed promise 20-30 years ago.
Now, do we have the right to complain about an answer to prayer that we get, which we don't particularly like? After all the time we spent praying, going to church, fasting, being a good person, as if all of those things will guarantee you'll get the answer you want? The answer is a resounding no. Here's why. Once you commit your life to God through Jesus Christ, you forfeit your own story for God's. God is using you to bring His kingdom to the world and His story is better than yours. His story is better than the plans you had for yourself and we need to remember that. We need to remember that God is perfect in all the things that He does, unlike George Lucas who is a human being and falls short just like the rest of us. “For my thoughtsare not your thoughts,neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my wayshigher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55: 8-9
Also people tend to forget that God isn't going to saddle you with an answer you can't handle. People tend to forget that hey, "I can ask God to help me deal with this answer", and that is something that He will definitely do. We complain anyways sometimes, even though the Bible tells us that we should do all things without grumbling. We grumbled so long about Star Wars and this is what George Lucas had to say about more Star Wars movies "Why would I make any more when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?" , and then he went and sold it to a company people compare to the Empire. Disney.
Could you imagine if we had a God who gave up on us because we complain too much? I don't know if I want to imagine something like that. Thankfully we have a God who gave us a new covenant through His son. Thankfully we have a God who always gives us what we need even if we can't see it at that time. Thankfully we have a God that can carry us through anything.It's difficult waiting sometimes, but just remember the reward. It's hard not to complain about an answer we don't like, but just remember God will give us the grace to handle it. "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" Heb 4:16
As a Christian we are suppose to be in the world, but not of it, and for me that is one of the hardest things that I struggle with daily. There are things in my everyday life that do not glorify God, or even come close to it. Some people wouldn't think of it, but it is somewhat difficult to be a nerd and a Christian at the same time. A lot of things in the nerd world conflict with the Christian worldview and could even be considered blasphemous.
How do I tell other Christians that one of my favorite video games is one where you are trying to survive on an island while mercilessly killing off enemies who are part of a crazy cult? Did I mention that said cult practices human sacrifice? How do I tell other Christians that my favorite series of books is about private detective who is also a wizard that had a remnant of a demon riding along in his head for a a while? Should I mention that having that demon in his head made him capable of using magic that had a touch of brimstone to it? Or should I mention that his brother is a vampire who has incubus like powers and feeds off of women's "bedroom vibes"?
And how in the world do I justify to other Christians that my favorite weekly television show is about two brothers that go around the country hunting supernatural predators including; Demons, vampires, changelings, ghosts, sometimes angels. Speaking of the angels in this show most of them are d-bags except for one. God is constantly absent and has left a mess basically. Not to mention if the brothers need to summon help or bind a supernatural foe they use occult spells that involve their blood and things that some might think unsavory. It's probably the most blasphemous show on network television in religious terms.
I've mentioned before in at least two other blog entries that I grew up going to church all of my life and that in the 1980s there was a particular movement by churches to warn us about worldly influences. Church leaders criticized the music industry and Hollywood. Then of course there was the explosion of AIDS and church leaders were quick to say that these diagnoses were the result of living a worldly lifestyle. In part they may have been right back then, but the delivery of such a message was awful. What does that have to do with this blog entry? Well, I think people who started out in that era and have the same interests that I do might have a great sense of conflict within them as a result of past dogmas they've experienced.
I've come to an age now where I really want to explore my faith and grow in it. Doing so questions have arisen like "Are these interests helping me or hindering me?" and "Are people going to consider me a hypocrite for talking about God to them and finding out I like Harry Potter?" I admit that while searching for Bible verses to help me with this dilemma I didn't find what I hoped for initially. What I did find farther down the list was verses about loving your neighbor and treating them with kindness and showing Christ's love for them. I want to be a beacon for others to lead them to God, but I have to remember that too much piety is a downfall. Nobody likes someone with a "holier than thou" attitude, it is often a turn off. I also remembered that I in fact am a human being who is not perfect. So of course I want to be a beacon, but I also want to relate to others so that they can relate to me in a sense where I could possibly draw them in and share my faith with them.
I also feel a strong sense of duty to fight against the stereotypes of Christians have been given(through no fault of our own sometimes) so that we can have a better chance to witness to others. I remember at the beginning of the new millennium everyone was nuts for Harry Potter and they were excited for the first film to come out. There were Christians that came out of the woodwork right away and condemned the film because of the subject of magic/witchcraft and I admit I was one of them. I was all Evil This and Evil That, but then one of my friends who also happened to be a Christian said that I should actually read the book or see the movie to at least give it a chance. I pretty much immediately fell in love with it. I was an idiot to judge it especially after reading the whole series and realizing that the magic is secondary to the actual story. That's when I realized using that kind of judgement while practicing Christianity can be a poison and can hurt your work with God. Oswald Chambers author of "My Utmost for His Highest" says that every way we serve God hurts him. Ouch! When I read that it shocked me. So you can imagine how much it hurts God by judging others when it is not our place.
By then it was to late for me anyways. I was already a fan of Star Wars, Star Trek, The Sword of Truth Series by Terry Goodkind, The Lord of the Rings(of course), The Chronicles of Narnia, and a huge fan of Indiana Jones. They had cemented my interests in the nerd world and they had all given me stories and characters to love. So, I don't have to justify the fact that my favorite literary hero is a wizard P.I. with an unshakable moral center. I don't have to justify to others that my favorite weekly show is about how strong the bonds of family are between two brothers. Other's don't have to justify to me loving a masterfully written story about a boy wizard who does all he can to stop the forces of evil and to do the right thing, not just the proper thing. God gave us brains did he not? So why not use your imagination which is a result of having a brain. Another thing, I am an adult, I know how to separate reality from fantasy. In the eighties and nineties some preachers were worried about the effects some shows and books would have on our children, but if one is a parent it is that person's responsibility to teach the difference from what is fact and what is fiction.
If you are a Christian and are feeling conflicted than maybe there is a deeper issue. Maybe the Holy Spirit is knocking at your door and asking where you have been. Are you seeking the Kingdom of God first? After all the Bible says that you cannot serve two masters. After you put God first, and fully commit to keep him first, than hopefully all of those tensions will ease. You'll remember there is only one Judge instead of worrying about what others might think. You'll remember that He has loved you with an everlasting love. You'll remember that God made you an individual. He gave you a soul, He gave you a brain and He gave you an imagination so don't be afraid to accept it. Live long and prosper!
In my last post I talked a lot about magic, or a wizard that does magic. I don't believe in the type of magic that Harry Dresden does in the books nor in the kind that is in Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. I do however believe in other supernatural things. I believe there is a supernatural realm that we can't physically see and that there are things battling over our souls, but most importantly I believe in God and his son Jesus Christ as my savoir. This post will stating my decision to follow Christ and why I made it and everything that has shaped my faith into what it is today, I promise I will try not to be too preachy in the process.
The Early Years.
Let me start off by saying that I don't have some super dramatic conversion story, it all came about more subtle than that. My parents had already been going to church for a while before I was born, in fact that is where they first met, so I was pretty much brought up in the teachings of Christianity. When I was a child church to me was where I would meet up with my friends and sing, learn a little about God, but eventually run around and play. For the most part it was fun except for the fact that we had to go on Wednesday nights, that was the last place I wanted to be after going to school all day. Also I wasn't allowed believe in Santa Claus or watch some cartoon shows like The Care Bear, The Smurfs, and He-man because they used magic. But that was the eighties church I guess and things were a lot more legalistic back then and looking back on it I don't think I missed out on much on those cartoons, except for maybe the care bears. When I was eight, I'm not sure if it was an Easter Sunday or what, but the pastor did an altar call for people to come up and get saved. I thought it was a good idea and I thought my parents might like it so me and some friends when up and got saved. At eight years old I pretty much knew the basics, if you get saved, you get into heaven where all your loved ones are. Also, Jesus died for our sins so we could get in to heaven.
When I was ten my family was a attending a different church that was a little more laid back. I could go out trick or treating finally and dress up, I could watch most cartoons an most importantly, power rangers. Ten was also the age when I got baptized and I remember it was a pretty good experience. I observed and studied the reasons for baptism and it all made sense to me, basically it meant washing your old life away and cleansing your spirit to live a new life for Christ.
Teenage Years...
Twelve and Thirteen were some pretty awkward years for me and I remember being a huge brat. My parents enrolled me into a private Lutheran school because they thought it would be better than a public school..... I made it through though and then in high school I ended up going to a public school anyway. I was never to concerned with God in the beginning of high school because I was more worried about trying to fit in. Eventually I found my niche with the theater crowd towards my junior year I also started attending an early morning prayer group with a handful of other students in the high school, I started to understand the bible a little more and I was getting closer to God. My senior year trying to figure out my faith was interesting to say the least because I did stupid things to represent what I believed in and I stupidly dumped my girlfriend who did nothing but support me. There is this thing that I like to call "New believer Fever" where people who find their faith in God or rediscover their faith tend to start telling what their friends believe is evil....There is a right way to witness to people and there is a wrong way to witness to people, you're never going to win someone over with a threat, let's just put it that way. All of it pretty much flew out the window after high school though.
After High School and my early-ish 20's
The September after I graduated I had been back with my girlfriend for a few month and I was on the fence about school. My parents announced they would be moving to Massachusetts and I of course was not cool with that because I had established my life in Minnesota. My parents worked out a deal where if me and my brother paid the mortgage like rent than we could stay in the house, so that's what we did. It was going good for a while, my girlfriend and I were going to a church called Woodland Hills and it was awesome. It was probably the first time where I had a pastor that challenged us to believe that God actually wants us to think in Church. Challenged us not to just take someone's word on something but to really get down to the nitty gritty of how God works and works through us and all sorts of intellectual ideas.
The deal with the mortgage crashed though and my parents had to sell the house after 9 months of us trying to pay it. In June I moved to my friends house where his parents said I could stay until I found a place, well tow months passed with no luck and I was feeling the pressure to get out of there. I admitted defeat and moved out to Massachusetts to live with my parents. At that point I went into a depression and I was pretty mad at God for the way things had turned out and I again pretty much put him at the back of my mind again. Some times the discussion of faith was brought up and I would say yeah I'm a Christian, but I didn't live the life of one.
Living the life of a Christian? What does that actually mean?
There is the stereotype of the Christian person, someone life
Ned Flanders, or a Bible Thumping evangelical and don't get me wrong
those people exist, but I view it differently. To me when God calls us
to lead a different life he is asking us to leave things behind that
we already knew weren't very good for us in the first place and
other things that might be considered destructive to an individual.
I got a job and then I enrolled in a community college. I started hanging out with some people at work who I didn't fit in with very well but hey it was something to do, I also started drinking a lot. In college, or I should say in that college I made some pretty good friends but I also participated in some very questionable behavior and things got messed up for a little bit. Then I moved to Salem and I was going to try and do school and live with some roommates, but we just ended up partying and spending our money at the bars and doing other stupid stuff. It was a confusing time, very confusing time and God was pretty much no where to be seen. Then I met a girl who offered something different and I moved away from that kind of life especially when I found out I knocked her up. Having Ethan changed things, but even though I thanked God everyday for Ethan things for 3 years between his mother and I were not that great for a variety of reasons. There were times when I was just so angry with where I was in life that I would yell at God in my head. His mother and I split up and I moved back to MA and at this point I didn't know what to do, here I was 26 years old living at my parents place with a child that lives out of the state and no job to support him.
Something changed though, my sister who has always been a big Jesus freak had recommended a book by Brennan Manning called "Ruthless Trust" all about trusting God and how freaking hard it was to do so. It was about half way through where I realized that hey, maybe I should actually listen to God and once I did that, one I made that decision, things went from night to day almost immediately. Sure things were still a little tough, but I had gotten a job and was able to support my son and I also met my wife during this time period. Eventually I moved down to Georgia to be with her and we built our relationship using God as a foundation and he's proven to be solid. I enrolled in school again and that is going exceptionally well because I have is support. Just because I follow Christ doesn't mean I'm always going to be happy, it doesn't mean I'm always going to be successful, in fact God says in the Bible that "In this life you will have trouble". Going from 8 to 28 my thoughts about heaven and hell and life and death have totally evolved and I'm sure they will continue to evolve. In the end I chose to Christ because he has always been there for me, no matter how far away I got he was always there to say hello again. I'm sure in the future there will be things I struggle with about God, but that's normal, as humans we are suppose to do that, it means we are learning to understand him better, the very name Israel means "To wrestle with God". He'll always be there though if you let him.
While some of these events are influenced in the spiritual realm, we must consider the realm of free choice where events are effected by other's choices everyday. As Job's friends learned after they accused him, it wast't his lack of faith that caused his problems. Job was being tested, and through his testing, through the booby traps the devil placed in his life, Job persevered because he ultimately trusted God. With that being said I believe another aspect of faith is perseverance through trust(James 1:12). I'm not sure if Mikey believed in a god, but I know that he did place his trust in the rest of the Goonies to get himself out of some jams. Therefore we must be careful to not set booby traps for ourselves and we can avoid this by examining what faith really is, like author and theologian Greg Boyd asks in his book "Benefit of the Doubt", is a faith not examined worth having?
