Truths From a Galaxy Far Far Away

As I watched The Empire Strikes Back with my children (Luke and Leia) tonight, I was reminded of some classic truths that are core to my faith.

1. There is a darkness inside all of us that wants to take over. The Bible calls this darkness sin and Romans 3:23 tells us that we all have it.

2. Fear is a path to the Dark Side (or sin). Fear and worry are not from God. Jesus told us not to worry about the future and Yoda said that this was a major problem in Luke's life as well. God has not given us a spirit of fear. It is definetly from our sin nature (Dark Side).

3. Unbelief leads to failure. Luke tells Yoda that what he wants is impossible and that he does not believe he can lift his X-Wing from the swamp. Yoda tells him that is why he fails. In Philippians Paul tells us that we can do ALL things the Christ who strengthens us.

I am sure there are many other truths such as Tauntauns make great Hot Pockets, if a cave shakes when shot it may not be an actual cave, and if you are looking for someone you have never met he may in fact be the little green puppet rumaging through your things.

What truths have you noticed in Empire or the other Star Wars films?

Faith or Fear? What Force Do You Rely On?

  
      When a new Volkswagen commercial debuted during the Super-Bowl, it already had over 7 million views on YouTube. It starred a six year old dressed as a pint sized Darth Vader. Over 100 million people watched the big game, and the YouTube video has since increased to around 22 million views. It has already placed first on both Hulu and YouTube in votes for best commercial.
    
      If you have not seen it yet, then you have been in a coma for the past few days. It features a young boy imagining that he can use the force to manipulate objects with his mind. When he points his hands at their car, his father turns the engine on remotely. I immediately thought of my son, Luke, (named after Luke Skywalker) who waves his hand at every automatic door that we come to.
    
      It is this childlike imagination that we seem to lose as we grow older. We still have dreams and desires that seldom make it past the chopping block of the cynic within. The part of every adult that wants to remind us of our limitations. We stay where it is safe, because if we don't try, then we will never fail. Meanwhile, our vision is crushed underneath the boot-heel of realism.
  
     What if your vision is more than just a dream? Could you inadvertently be running from a calling that may turn out to be your purpose in life? Jesus says, if we have faith, we can cast a mountain into the sea.
  
     What if you could put your fear to rest and your faith to the test? You could raise your hands to that obstacle in your way. You could stare down that mountain in your life. And maybe, just maybe, your heavenly father would stand back watching your faith and move the mountain for you.
  
      Our God is the God of the impossible. What has He asked you to do that you have been putting off?

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Childlike Faith

Childlike Faith

My Grandad died when I was thirteen years old. I remember it vividly. I accepted that he was indeed dead, but I also believed that God had power over death and life. All of this faith and I was not even a believer yet. I buried my face in my pillow and cried. My crying turned to screaming and soon I was yelling at God. I did not think that this was wrong because in my mind he had taken my grandad and there was still some negotiating to be done. I mean, what is the point of God raising Lazarus or Jesus from the dead if he did not intend to stay in practice? I remember begging God to bring my grandad back and when I had finished my rant and settled down, I went into the family room. I sat by the phone for the next hour or so honestly expecting a call saying that my grandad was back. Yes, he would be back in his body to finish out his life until such a time as I and God agreed on his rightful departure. How naive, but full of faith I was.

Somewhere on the path of life to adulthood we seem to lose our childlike faith. The same thing happened to Jesus' disciples when he had been preaching to a large crowd. They wanted Jesus to send the people away so that they could buy food. Jesus told them to feed the people. This was an absurd suggestion, but one of the disciples found a boy with five small loaves of bread and two fish. The boy was willing to give the food to feed the over 5000 in attendance. Jesus' followers said that it was not enough.

I remember being like that boy. I believed in the impossible. I believed that I could be anything if I only dreamed it. The disciple's faith is where I find myself too often. I find myself thinking, "Sure it can happen--but it's unlikely."

Jesus prayed for the food and fed everyone with it. Here is the kicker though--he made the disciples pass out the food. They saw first hand what Jesus could do with one boy's faith. Then Jesus asked the disciples to do something strange. He wanted them to pick up the left over scraps that the people had left on the ground. Why would he do this? The food was probably dirty or partially eaten. They could just leave it for the animals since they were outside the city. I believe he did this as a lesson. Each one of them picked up an entire basket of scraps. There were twelve baskets in all. One basket full for each of the disciples that had doubted what God could do.

I hope you will keep in mind that there is always hope where there is faith. We should choose to have the faith of a child. That whimsical belief in a box-less God who can do the impossible.