Christians interpreted the movie "The Matrix" the way we interpret a lot of things.  Because of our inexperience, and lack of understanding of what it really means to know God and abide in his love, a lot of us latched onto the most obvious metaphor the movie provided.  Neo was supposed to set people free from the pretend world where people were unconscious slaves to the machines.  Just like Jesus sets us free from our slavery to sin.  And the fact that the "real world" was dark, dingy, full of pain and suffering, hard work, and constant danger, fit very well with a worldview that many Christians hold. 

Sin is glamourous, full of color, bright, shiny, just like the pretend world of the matrix.  But of course anything that glitters can’t be God, so the real world must be shades of grey and black with striving, and suffering everywhere.  But hey, at least we’re not living in that awesome pretend world of sin anymore…

This is a twisted view of reality.  The Matrix had it backwards.  And a lot of us bought it hook line and sinker.

The reality is this.  Sin is not glamourous, it’s not shiny.  Sin is dark, it’s miserable, and it eats you from the inside out.  Our life without God resembles more of the "real world" of the Matrix.  No refuge, no comfort, just a confusing maze of tunnels and robots that like to try and kill us with their long tentacles.  OK, so I made up the part about the robots, but really, we need to stop treating sin like "it looks so good but it’s really not".  Take a look at someone who’s lived a hard life of sinnin, and see how glamourous they are.  And the thing is, sin is not fake. It’s very real, and so is the pain and despair that come along with it.  It’s a cursed land, and people who live there are going to have to deal with all that comes along with being separate from God.

So if sin is like the "real world" in the matrix, what does that make life with Jesus like?  I have found that in the past 2 years, my life looks more and more like the fake world inside the matrix, except that it’s real.  My world is brighter, more joyful, more peaceful, and I can leap from one building to another with a single bound.  I honestly think that the colors of nature around me are brighter and more colorful too, but that could just be because I’m finally able to take time to look at them instead of living my life in fast forward always thinking about the next thing I’m going to accomplish.

This metaphor is far from perfect, but I hope that it makes some sense those who read it.  Life after death to sin is not supposed to be a constant struggle, a dark world of grime and grease and robots.  Rather, Jesus sets us free from a life that looks like that, and opens up the door to constant communion with the Father, and that kind of life is full, overflowing, and abundant.  Maybe not always in the physical sense, but what we experience in Him does not have to match what’s going on around us.

If your picture of "the Christian life" has looked more like the Nebuchadnezzar in The Matrix, ask yourself if this is the kind of thing Jesus really died for.  Sin separated us from God, and we’ve been miserable ever since.  Did Jesus die so we could wake up to a life dirty torn clothes and cold metal beds?  Or did he die so that we could wake up into a new world of uninhibited, unconditional love from our Creator?

Recently, my four year old broke his elbow. Not fun. He took a dive as he was riding his bike. It was unreal. Brandon fell about twelve inches into some grass off a bike with training wheels and while wearing a helmet. I did not think he could have hurt himself that badly. He was crying, but that is normal for a traumatic experience. The tears subsided and I thought we were on the way to being OK. But then he would not move his right arm. He kept it tucked safely by his hip, not letting anybody touch or move it. So my wife and I decided it was time for a trip to the emergency room.

Checking In

I get him there and we go from room to room as the nurses and doctors try to ascertain what it is exactly that is wrong with their tiny patient. The physicians assistant that examined Brandon said he did not think it was a broken bone, but he would take some x-rays just to be safe. Thankfully he did. It turns out that Brandon has quite a high tolerance for pain- a trait he did not inherit from me.

Busted!

His right elbow had quite a long fracture running parallel up his bone in his forearm. So a staff member approaches me and says he would like to have specific doctor come and check the x-rays as well as set and cast the arm. He then proceeds to ask me what insurance coverage I have. I tell him and he says that is great and he will call the doctor.

Good Choice

The insurance I had was accepted by this very expensive orthopedic specialist. If I would not have had the right insurance, my son might have seen a doctor with less experience and who knows what would have happened. The break was pretty dangerous according to the specialist. His statement was, if I cast this correctly, Brandon will not need surgery.

So, happily, my son got top-notch care because of the insurance card in my wallet. But that made me think. I was admitted to this exclusive club because of my membership. What about those who do not carry the golden card?

God Choice

I am so thankful God does not operate like that. Nobody is cast aside for not carrying the correct card. God is so awesome. He does not require any sort of membership. I do not need to show a piece of plastic to get top-notch care from him. You can come to him in any state, with any membership to any organization and he will smile and love you as he would any of his children. Because that is what you are- his child.

Psalm 34 1:8 (emphasis mine)

I will bless Jehovah at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul shall make her boast in Jehovah: The meek shall hear thereof, and be glad.

Oh magnify Jehovah with me, And let us exalt his name together.

I sought Jehovah, and he answered me, And delivered me from all my fears.

They looked unto him, and were radiant; And their faces shall never be confounded.

This poor man cried, and Jehovah heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles

The angel of Jehovah encampeth round about them that fear him, And delivereth them.

Oh taste and see that Jehovah is good: Blessed is the man that taketh refuge in him.

My friend is asymmetrical. He is a twin. The interesting thing about being a twin is one of the two typically gets pretty beat up in the womb. One twin will squish, for lack of a better term, his/her sibling as the two grow. During that time, the one who is receiving the "squishing" usually becomes malformed. Noses can be crooked. Ears might be lop-sided. Nothing awful or majorly disfiguring typically, but definitely formed asymmetrically. This is the plight of my asymmetrical twin of a friend.

The Math of Beauty

Humans appreciate symmetry. In fact, we base our beauty meter upon it. People who are considered beautiful are symmetrical. Models, actors and actresses are often symmetrical and therefore seen as pleasing to the eye. So, geometrically speaking, we see someone as beautiful if their bodies are angled and measured equally on both sides.

Not Just Symmetry

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder according to the saying. There is a certain "look" that is the accepted norm for beauty and we, as a culture, strive for the agreement between that look and our bodies. It is no secret that our culture pushes a beauty look. From media to diet pills, the "look" is well-defined. We must be skinny, We must be tall. We must be tan. Just pick a detail about the body and there is a accepted beauty norm attached to it.

Our culture speaks volumes about our bodies. Whether you ever realized it or not, you have been influenced by culture and its statements about what you should look like. Just shopping for clothing is a form of being influenced by culture. Ever notice we all look nearly identical when it comes to clothing? Not really a coincidence.

God’s Ideal

Now God does not see it that way thankfully. You are beautiful as you are. God loves the human body. He loves it. He thought of it. He made it. He came in it. He rose in it. He exists in it today. Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father in a human body! And he is coming back in it. God loves the human body. No matter the condition, he loves it. And he wants you to be happy with you.

Mirror, Mirror

So next time you walk by the mirror, smile. Smile because the ideals placed in front of you via television are not truth. Smile because, no matter what, God sees you as gorgeous. Smile because your body is what he made- signed by the Creator.

I’ve always felt a little bit like prayer had no purpose other than as a ritual to demonstrate how much I loved God.  I was certainly no expert in the in’s and out’s of Omnipresent and Omniscient, but I was pretty sure that God knew everything I was praying about.  So naturally I often wondered, what’s the purpose of this anyway?

Am I reminding God of something he forgot about?  Does he ever get a startled look on his face when I pray "God, so distant and powerful, I want to remind you about that thing that my friend is dealing with right now." He never actually answered me by saying "Oh yeah, that thing…. Don’t worry, I got it covered, thanks for reminding me….", so I always suspected it was kind of pointless to bring up stuff as if he didn’t already know.

But something inside me knew that there had to be a reason to pray for someone.  We’re not alerting God of a situation he wasn’t aware of.  He’s not watching our prayers like we watch the news to get the latest updates.  He’s already ahead of us on all of this stuff, but there has to be some reason he wants us to pray.

In order to understand it, I think we have to look at what his entire purpose of creating us was.  Relationship.  For whatever reason, God keeps wanting to involve us in his will on earth.  Sounds crazy, knowing how good I am at taking care of my own responsibilities, but for some reason he gives me the opportunity to interject my disfunctions into his divine will instead of just letting me sit on the sidelines.

So I think I’m starting to learn that prayer is not about waking God up from his power nap after church to remind him that one of my friends just got fired and needs a job.  It’s about realizing that he’s already working in that person’s life, and all he wants me to do is agree with him here on earth that I want His will to be done in that person’s life.

"Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven".

Nothing ruins a good action movie like the main character drifting off into some daydream sequence, away in some peaceful place with his family……

When I watched "The Gladiator" with Russell Crow years ago, I was in awe.  That’s the kind of movie that makes you want to be noble, to do the right thing, and in some weird way learn how to fight with a sword. (more…)

Year Of Choice

Elections are upon us. It seems as never before the attention of the country is drawn to the political scene where many promises are made and many hopes are placed.  America will decide who will lead us for the next four years in November, but the campaigns have been ongoing for months and months.

Fear not, I will not endorse a soul in this…

(more…)

There’s a saying in the software world "Good, Fast, Cheap, pick two".  The basic premise is that you can make software that is good, and it’s done fast, but it won’t be cheap.  Or it can be done fast, and cheaply, but it won’t be good.  Or it will be good, and cheap, but it will take forever.

It seems to me that in our culture, there’s a widespread trend of buying lots of stuff, as soon as you can, for as cheaply as you can.  This brings me back to the title of this post. (more…)

Recently while Lori was away on a business trip, God sideswiped me with something I was definitely not prepared for. Throughout our almost 5 year marriage, there have been many times when I stepped out of the role of a husband and into the role of a teacher. Talking to her as if she was a kid who needed instruction. She would tell me how much this upset her, but I never really knew why. (more…)

Waiting in line at Subway is not normally the place to have revelation, but I’ll take it wherever I can get it. I evaluated all the meat-containing subs, and was about to choose one of them, when I remembered what Lori had told me the week before. Processed, preserved meats have a connection with cancer. (more…)

I’ve gotten awfully comfortable with God over the past year.  As I learned how integrated He is with everything I do,  I have experienced a great deal of peace as I stopped running, stopped pushing for more accomplishments. 

However I find myself now facing some new things in life that could mean some radical changes to the structure I’ve gotten used to.  (more…)