Alice In Wonderland

I recently saw Alice In Wonderland. There were many highlights for me. I heard a lot about Johnny Dep, and the technology used, but what struck me most was the message of Alice's struggle. It is interesting to me that the movie came from someones LSD trip, which upon viewing will be very obvious. Anyway, I wont give away the entire story, but I'll touch the major theme. As she goes into the wonderland, she finds out that the dream is hard to separate it from reality, because the dream is actually this huge inner struggle she has within her real life. People have these crazy expectations on her, and in the process she never really knows who she is. As soon, as she enters the rabbit whole shes trying to find out who she is, and the journey through wonderland deals with all of her unhealthy expectations that have been put on her, and in the movie it's her responsibility to fight against them. Upon coming out, you see the characters in the alter life, are actually real people. As I was reading my Bible this week, I came across some scripture that I thought was parallel with this theme. In first Corn. Paul writes a letter to his church members, more specifically his church leaders. In the letter he tells the church that they are up to things that even pagans aren't into. I mean...weird..family...leather...whips...sheep...You get the idea, they were into some weird stuff. So naturally anytime we do something wrong, the easiest thing we can do is point a finger at someone else. Paul plans on visiting the Corinth church assuming they got the message and instead hears the are not repentant. Paul opts out of the Corn. visit because of unknown reasons. The intent of his trip was to encourage and uplift, and because he doesn't make it out there,the accuse him of being fickle. Historians say the church is questioning his apostleship. So, in 2 Corn. 5, he addresses the church again. In this letter he says, we are all going to stand before God, you will be judged, I will be judged. The point is that you live to please God. Its almost like he saying, you don't have to please me, and I don't have to please you. If I were him I wold be saying, "It's not like I want to write these kind of letters." Paul's feeling the weight of his church talking bad about him. He decides not to take a trip to Corinth because of his own reasons, and doesn't buckle under what they wanted for him. It is so hard to stay clear of the expectations people put on us and live for God alone, and likewise it's hard to keep our expectations off of people. The way God is please is from something that has already taken place. Jesus Christ died so God would be pleased. His expectations have been met, so why do we live with a higher set for others and ourselves? It's impossible to please man. We veer of so quickly don't we? The movie goes way deeper if you really pay attention to the details. As I was thinking about the man who wrote this movie, this was his struggle. The thing is we all sin, so there is a little Alice in all of us. If we know this kind of love, we won't have to keep pleasing anyone. It's even harder when it appears to be things that are noble.For example Paul's trip back to the church Paul started. As Alice slays the "dragon," and finds her way out of the rabbit hole, she begins living like she has nothing to prove. I think the message Alice of the story is really the message of Christ making us significant, and whole. I like to believe its not a movie from a crazy guy that went on a LSD trip. Its a movie about a God who is calling out to a man on LSD.

A Hope and Future?

If you have been around church in America at all you have heard the scripture in Jer. chapter 29 verse 11 that God has purpose at a hope for you. I grew up hearing that at least once a week. Hope is something we all need. Life is hard, and you need something to help you keep going. With everything that is good, we can miss the point, and it seems we can take good things and make them harmful to us. Isn't that so frustrating? Our hearts are so confusing. In America, we adapt these verses into what we think it means to have the American dream, and become really miss led, and when its seems to fall short, we fall away. I've been guilty of this in the past, and this is very revealing about what we really care about. What does God actually mean by a hope and a future? What is blessing, are all questions we need to ask. In recent months, I've thought the hope and a future, or blessing, was a job, a significant thing to do, but it's neither. I've found out that the hope and a future is my relationship with God. You know, it might happen, I may get a job and something to do, but who cares. I really have it all right now. The other hope and a future robs you of now...today....the love you can share with people around you...God's voice now....and peace that is beyond you. C.S Lewis has some interesting Dialog with in the book the Screw Tape Letters. There are two demons talking to one another about the tricks they can pull on the mortals. In this conversation they talk about how in thinking about tomorrow we can have them wasting today and render them unfruitful. It is so true. The hope and a future is about God's love to you and relationship that he has to bless you. The other stuff isn't even what its about. God really knows that this is what makes us truly significant. For example, in the Gospel there is a man that is asked to leave his money to have eternal life and he goes away sad. The interesting thing I recently learned about the account is that his name isn't recorded because its said that the writer was drawing the analogy that he had no identity apart from his stuff. How sad! This is a man that took the hope and future the wrong way. He was saying he wanted to follow God, and we actually found out that he really didn't want God. What defines you? What is really your hope and a future? Is it Jesus, or his goods? The latter with always leave you needing more.