From Netflix to Jesus

So in the past two days, I saw three movies: the Immortals, the Last Airbender, and Conan the Barbarian.  Two of these movies had a pretty revealing sex scene (the Immortals & Conan), and all three involved a main character who ended up being the savior of the movie.  Two of these characters (the Immortals & the Airbender) lost their parents when they were young, and sought to avenge the deaths of their families throughout the movie.

In the Immortals, the main villain sought evil because he had cried out to the ‘gods,’ but did not get an answer.  The central villain in the Last Airbender had a son who fought for his father’s approval.  The son had been shamed because of a loyal act to protect his innocent friends, and banished for his actions.  Torn between joining the cause for good and betraying the protagonists for his chance at proving himself to his father, the son’s apparent family issues hold the whole story in limbo.

On another note, all these movies included a central spiritual aspect.  There was an aspect of ‘faith’ in at least some kind of spiritual world.  The Immortals movie found all the characters believing in the Roman ‘gods.’  The Last Airbender depicted ‘spirits’ that lived in different creatures.  It was these ‘spirits’ that kept everything in balance, and prevented total chaos.  Conan included clear aspects of witchcraft and ‘magic.’  It had an obviously dark and dreary feel to it, as there were witches and magic used against Conan throughout the movie.

Now, since I saw all three of these movies in such close succession, I find myself a bit engulfed and immersed into the story-line of them.  It’s like I can imagine myself as the hero in my life—like I am the center around which everything revolves.  I feel very empowered and pumped with pride.  This very Western cultural value however, is at odds with how God calls us to live.

While these movies depict almost ordinary people who fought through adversity and hardship to build resilience and courage, Christ calls us to give up our lives—to pick up our own cross and lose our lives to find it.  The end goals though are almost polar opposites.  Western movies and cultural values teach us that comfort can be attained by following the mysterious path that combines the desires of the heart and the ever elusive ‘fate’ that is beyond our control.  On the other hand, Christ invites us to eternal relationship with our Creator and Lover, God Almighty.  All we have to do is accept Christ’s sacrifice four our sake and enter into this relationship with Him while still here on earth—which implies a roller coaster of hardships & joys.

So while one offers a struggling attempt at something so glorious and desired, which can be attained with just the right conversion of external/environmental events, the other represents an almost equal balance of crazy good and depressingly low moments in a journey to get to know this God who loves for some unexplainable reason.

Now, the former offers a more immediately desirable end, possibly including iconic glory and shameless passionate love.  The latter though, does not conceal the inevitable dips and lows—which depreciates its face value almost immediately.  It also requires more of an investment of time, energy, and effort.  Of the two options, I like the transparency (and relative certainty) of what the latter offers, but I just can’t ignore the appeal of the former.

One thing that cannot be ignored is that along with the uncertain probability of attaining all the glories of the former comes an unstable assurance of protection—that any sort of event can corner you to a wall with little or no method of escape.  While in that place, all you have is the hopeless despair that your goal will not be met.  If you do have any hope, it is only that this trial will make you stronger to push harder towards your goal.  Following Jesus presents a totally different outlook in the presence of inherently bad events.

Following Jesus means that despair is on the horizon.  It means that depression becomes a norm in the journey of following Him.  It also means that what we want will not always come to pass.  However, through all this, Jesus is there with us.  We are not alone in the struggle, and we do have a hope for a future where “He will wipe every tear from [our] eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4).

So for me, the decision is so obviously clear-cut: I’m following JESUS!