The Beauty of His Story: A Conclusion

It's time to wrap up our The Beauty of His Story series.

And I think it's fitting that this wrap-up is coming at Christmastime.

The most beautiful thing about this story God is writing is this: He has entered into the story with us.

He is not just some distant author setting a plot into motion and letting us figure out how to live within it. He's been at work throughout the story, providing light and hope, bringing freedom, teaching us how to be good. But He didn't stop there. He knew that this story needed a hero, someone who would rescue us completely from the opposing forces. So He wrapped Himself in human flesh and took on the role that no one else could play.

This is perhaps the thing that amazes me most about Christmas. The boundless God of the universe taking on the boundaries of humanness just so He could rescue a bunch of messed up people. He could have let the story play out without His help, but He knew we could never survive. Instead, Jesus came to be the hero, to fight for light and goodness and freedom and hope and life to win out over darkness and evil and bondage and despair and death.

So what does this tell us about our Author?

• He is good: The Author of this story is on the side of light and freedom and life. Although He allows evil to exist within His story, He is also at work to overcome it. He sent His Son to defeat it. He empowers us to fight against it. In all of this, we see His goodness.
• He is gracious: Throughout the story, we see countless examples of God providing freedom and life to people who have turned their backs on Him. It is true of every person who has placed their faith in Him. Instead of leaving us to our own devices, He graciously carried out a plan to rescue and redeem us.
• He is just: We have talked quite a bit about what will happen at the end of this story-- God will bring our Enemy to justice. Satan will be vanquished and suffer for everything he has done in his efforts to destroy us. In this story, the bad guy WILL lose.

Yes, there will be times when we feel we have no idea where the story is headed. Yes, there will be times when all the dark and evil things seem to be winning. Yes, there will be times we feel utterly without hope.

But we have to remember that those times are not the end of the story. We have to trust that the Author of our story is good. We have to believe that He is continually working to bring light and freedom and life into the midst of our darkness and bondage and death. He already sent us a Hero who defeated Satan. He already determined the end of the story. Regardless of what's happening around us, that will never change. Let that fill you with hope this Christmas.

The Beauty of His Story: Hope & Despair

If you're perfect, raise your hand.

I'd be willing to bet that none of you are raising your hands right now.

In fact, I'd be willing to bet that most of you are listing all the things that keep you from being perfect. There's a voice in your head reminding you of every mistake, every failure, every wrong turn. It's a voice you hear quite often, maybe even every day. Let me assure you: you aren't the only one this voice speaks to.

Despair

As I've stated a number of times already in this series, we have an adversary: Satan. He lives and works in total opposition to God. Where God creates, Satan destroys. Where God brings light, Satan seeks to bring darkness. When God brings us back to life, Satan tries to keep us from being fully alive.

Through a constant whispering in our ears, Satan uses his voice to remind us of who we used to be. The voice speaks through many channels--society, the people of influence in our lives (family, friends, teachers, etc), our own hearts--but the message is always the same: You haven't changed. You're still the same person. Look what you just did! How can you be a Christian and still be doing that?

Quickly the joy of being made alive again begins to drown in despair as we realize our own weakness and imperfection. The Bible calls us to perfection and holiness because of God's perfection and holiness. Satan delights in showing us just how far we are from achieving it. He points out sin after sin, heaping up shame and cackling with delight as we collapse under the weight of it. Despair begins to rule and we cry out with Paul, "Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?" (Romans 7:24, NLT)

Hope

Fortunately that question has an answer. His name is Jesus. And He is our hope.

Jesus died on the cross as the perfect sacrifice to pay for our sins. He did what we couldn't do. And it worked. The cross = mission accomplished! If you have placed your faith in Jesus, you stand forgiven in this moment, no matter what you did last night or this morning or five minutes ago. You ARE forgiven. You were forgiven in the moment you first asked Jesus to save you from sin. And each time you have sinned since then, all you've had to do was go back to Him so He could remind you that you are forgiven. And that holds true for every time you will sin in the future.

We don't have to despair because we have Jesus.

But we also have the Holy Spirit.

God gives the Holy Spirit to every believer (Ephesians 1:13) and the Holy Spirit gives us victory in the battle against sin: You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world (1 John 4:4, NLT). The battle will be long and hard and you will often feel exhausted, but you already have the victory! There is HOPE: I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life (1 John 5:13, NLT). And with that hope, that assured confidence in your status before God, you can overcome the despair.

What does that look like practically?

It looks like remembering the Gospel every day: because Jesus died, you are forgiven.

It looks like confessing your sin: bring it into the light so the Spirit can help you deal with it.

It looks like choosing to believe the truth: though you feel broken and dirty, God sees you as clean and whole.

There will be a new heaven and a new earth where we no longer have to fight sin, but in the meantime, you are already new (2 Corinthians 5:17). Choose to live in the truth of that, to be the new person God created you to be. And when you sin, don't despair. You are already forgiven. Let that build in you a hope that leads to victory over your sin.

The Beauty of His Story: Death & Life

So far we have established that Satan works to keep us from being good and to keep us in bondage.

The truth is, we're even worse off than that.

Because of our sin, we're dead (Ephesians 2:1).

Death

We see it in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve ate the fruit. God casts them out of the Garden so they wouldn't have access to the Tree of Life (Genesis 3:22-24). Prior to sinning, they had access to eternity (physical life) in God's presence (spiritual life). After sinning, they had an expiration date (physical death) and had to live outside of God's presence (spiritual death). 

Paul explains later (Romans 5:12) that Adam and Eve's sin brought death to the whole world. That includes you and me. We may be physically alive (until we die), but we're spiritually dead.

We're talking totally and completely dead here, folks. Not the "mostly dead" that Westley experiences in The Princess Bride. There's no magical chocolate we can swallow to reverse the process. The word used in Ephesians 2:1 means "dead; useless; ineffective."

So what can you do when you're dead?

Nothing.

And that's just what Satan wants. The best way to make you ineffective for the Kingdom of God is to make you dead.

Life

Here's the thing: when you're dead, you can't do anything to make yourself alive again. Just like being made good or being set free, being made alive is something God has to do for you.

And thankfully He did just that. He sent Jesus to die so we could be made alive.

Jesus' death wipes out our sin which is what causes us to be dead (Romans 6:23). When we choose to let God make us alive, our sinful self gets crucified with Jesus (Romans 6:6), wiping away its power and its effects in our lives, including death.

But Jesus didn't stay dead. He came back to life again. And because He came back to life, we get to come back to life, too! This means physical life in the future when we get to spend eternity in God's presence. But it also means spiritual life now. It means that instead of a life of slavery to the power of sin, we get to live a life of power from God, the power to be who He created us to be and do what He created us to do (Ephesians 2:10).

So here's the question: Are you alive or are you dead? If the answer is "dead," all you have to do is ask, and God will make you alive again. Life is a free gift because of what Jesus did on the cross. And I don't know about you, but I can't think of a better gift.

The Beauty of His Story: Bondage & Freedom

Photo by Trevor Leyenhorst (Used via Creative Commons)

How many of you have watched the movie "The Ten Commandments"?

If your family was anything like mine, you probably gathered around the TV to watch it when one of the major networks aired it every year at Easter. I'm still not sure if it was the thrill of watching the movie or getting to stay up past my bedtime, but it was always a much anticipated event.

The story of the exodus, the moment when God freed Israel from slavery to Egypt, is perhaps one of the greatest moments in God's story. It's quite the epic story complete with burning bushes, an evil king, plagues, and the parting of the Red Sea. It's a story of God coming through and delivering His people from bondage.

Fear Leads to Oppression

I find the beginning of this story intriguing. Famine in Canaan (the Promised Land) drives Jacob and his family to Egypt. Because Joseph (one of Jacob's sons) is in a position of power, Jacob's family is able to settle in Egypt, finding provision and protection. This provision and protection allows for the birth of many children and grandchildren, and so the nation of Israel becomes "extremely powerful" (Exodus 1:7). Eventually, Joseph's generation dies and a new king comes to power who knows nothing about Joseph or his legacy. He sees the Israelites as a threat: "Look, the people of Israel now outnumber us and are stronger than we are. We must make a plan to keep them from growing even more." (Exodus 1:9-10, NLT)

Because of their fear, the Egyptians begin to oppress and eventually enslave the Israelites. Egypt decides that whips and chains and ruthless demands are the answer, the way to keep Israel from fighting against them. And it works (until God steps in). In all the time the Israelites are slaves, they never seek freedom on their own. They cry out to God and wait for a deliverer.

Satan is Afraid of You

In the same way that Egypt seeks to limit Israel's power through bondage and slavery, Satan seeks to limit your power through bondage to anything and everything but God. Much like the Philistines who sought to remove Samson's strength so they could tie him up (Judges 16:5), Satan wants to tie us down and subdue us so we can't accomplish what God has purposed for our lives. He does this by leading us into slavery to a number of things:

• Sin: "You let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin." (Romans 6:19, NLT) A few verses later, Paul talks about the shame that comes as a result. We sin; we feel ashamed; we sin some more; we feel more ashamed. It's a never-ending cycle that leads us deeper into bondage, fashioning chains we could never hope to break.
• False gods: "Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist." (Galatians 4:8, NLT) We worship all kinds of things instead of God: financial security, entertainment, relationships, etc. We decide these things are more important than God or can provide better than He can. So we become slaves to them, seeking to serve them so they will be good to us.
• Whatever controls you: "For you are a slave to whatever controls you." (2 Peter 2:19b, NLT) What controls you? Fear? Money? Lust? Food? Your emotions? Whatever it is, you are a slave to it.

When we are slaves, we lose the ability to be what God created us to be. We are restrained by the ropes and chains that bind us. We are locked in prison cells, unable to effectively love and serve the people around us. It's exactly what Satan wants. And he's pretty good at making it happen.

The Time of the Lord's Favor Has Come

Fortunately, the story does not end with us stuck in slavery. Eventually, God sent a deliverer to Israel and led them out of Egypt, out of slavery and into freedom. He has done the same for us.

Jesus came to set us free. It's part of His mission statement, one of the main objectives of His time on earth.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,

that the blind will see,

that the oppressed will be set free,

and that the time of the Lord's favor has come.

(Luke 4:18-19, NLT, emphasis added)

In fact, freedom is such an integral part of Jesus' ministry that it gets mentioned twice! We can't truly have a relationship with God until we've been set free, until the chains are broken and the prison door is opened.

So how do we get freedom? By believing we can have it through Jesus. When we spend time in His Word, we come to know the truth and the truth sets us free. The truth is this: through His death and resurrection, Jesus bought our freedom. All we have to do is ask and He will break our chains and unlock our prison doors. 

After that, it's up to us to choose to live in our freedom by getting up and walking away from the sin and the false gods and the things that control us (Galatians 5:1 and 5:13). We won't be perfect at it. We won't be slaves to sin anymore (Romans 6:22), but we will still sin. There will be a lot of stumbling and falling. But there will always be grace because freedom does not require our perfection; Jesus' perfection is enough. And because of that grace we can continue to put one foot in front of the other, walking in freedom toward God and away from sin.

That is the Good News: No matter what sins created the links in the chains that have kept you in bondage, Jesus is still extending to you the opportunity to be free. Take it. And make Satan afraid of you once more.

What do you need Jesus to set you free from?

The Beauty of His Story: Good & Evil

My most favorite epic stories (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, Gladiator, Independence Day, Doctor Who... I could go on forever) all include that most basic storytelling element: good versus evil. There's a hero (good) and antagonist (evil) who stand in opposition to each other, each fighting to get his (or her) own way as we read or watch with baited breath waiting to see who will win.

God, being the original and ultimate author, writes a story with this same central theme. There is both good and evil present here (as watching any news show will tell you). And they stand in opposition to each other, each fighting to get his way.

Now, you probably already know this, but God is good. We seem to have a hard time believing this (myself included), but it doesn't change the facts. Throughout the Bible, God is celebrated as being good because what He does gives us evidence of it. David says it quite often:

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!

His faithful love endures forever."

1 Chronicles 16:34 (NLT)

"Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!"

Psalm 34:8 (NLT)

"You are good and do only good..."

Psalm 119:68 (NLT)

God is faithful and His love endures forever; therefore, God is good. God provides protection to those who seek it; therefore, God is good. God does only good; therefore, God is good. God cares for His children; therefore, God is good. God rescues His people from physical slavery (in Egypt) and spiritual slavery (more on that in another post); therefore, God is good.

Satan, on the other hand, is evil. Again, I'm pretty sure you already knew that. If you read my post about him a few weeks ago, you probably got that picture pretty clearly from his bent toward destruction. The Bible describes him as a prowling lion (1 Peter 5:8) and the father of lies (John 8:44). Nothing he does is good.

So how does this battle of good versus evil play out in God's story?

God creates the world and man and declares it all good (Genesis 1). Satan swoops in and leads Adam and Eve to eat the fruit. Now man knows the difference between good and evil and we have a choice between the two. Satan keeps working and Cain kills Abel. In a matter of generations, evil has become so great that God decides to wipe out what He created and start over (Genesis 6:5-7). But Satan keeps on fighting, leading us farther and farther along the path of evil that he seems to be winning. It gets to the point where only God can truly be described as good (Luke 18:19). Paul spends the first few chapters of Romans describing just how far from God we really are:

"Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy."

Romans 1:29-31 (NLT)

It certainly looks like Satan is winning.

But he's not the only one fighting for his way.

See God has already stepped in delivered the fatal blow. When Jesus died on the cross, He provided the opportunity for us to trade our evil for His good (Romans 3:23-24). We talked last time about God creating new hearts for us. These are good hearts. They are hearts that allow us to do the good works we were meant to do (Ephesians 2:10) and produce good fruit (Colossians 1:10) because the Holy Spirit is working in them. Every time we do, we wage war against Satan and evil: "Don't let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good." (Romans 12:13, NLT) 

You know how you cheer each time the hero chooses to do the right thing? Yeah, we've got people cheering us on, too. It's all the people who have gone ahead of us, who have already run the race. They're cheering for good to conquer evil, because all the best stories end that way. SPOILER ALERT: Good totally kicks evil's butt in this story. Satan's going to get thrown in a pit of fire and be tormented forever.

So while we strive for little victories in the war against evil, let's find strength in the fact that God's already got the major victory in the bag.

What are some of your most recent victories over evil?

The Beauty of His Story: The Creator

What does it mean to create?

According to the dictionary, creating can involve any of these things:

• causing something to come into being
• evolving something from ones thoughts
• causing something to happen; to bring it about; to arrange it, as by intention or design

Any way you define it, creation is the opposite of destruction. And while Satan is bent on destroying us and the world around us, we can have hope because God is constantly at work to create.

God Created

At the beginning of time, God created. He made the heavens and the earth out of a formless, dark, empty nothing. He added sky, land, plants, the sun and moon, stars, and animals. He spoke things into being. He created and He was creative. I mean, have you seen some of the creatures who live on this planet? Who else but God would have thought to create the duck-billed platypus? He took the time to bring into being from His own thoughts an entire world full of stuff we could never imagine.

Want to know something amazing?

He created it all for us! He created it for us to enjoy. He created it for us to look at and wonder at the One who created it all.

“The heavens proclaim the glory of God.

The skies display his craftsmanship.

Day after day they continue to speak;

night after night they make him known.

They speak without a sound or word;

their voice is never heard.

Yet their message has gone throughout the earth,

and their words to all the world.”

Psalm 19:1-4 (NLT)

And then He created us... well, humans. After all the magnificent trees and plants and birds and animals, He stopped and created human beings with His own hands. He formed Adam and breathed into Him. He created something that had His image, that would carry His characteristics in human form. He gave us creativity and a will and knowledge. He brought us into being.

God Is Creating

In Psalm 139, David praises God for creating him, for knitting him together in his mother’s womb. Every new human who comes into this world is a reminder that God is continuing to create.

Aside from creating physically, though, God is also creating spiritually. This is where He stands in direct opposition to Satan. When we choose faith in Christ, we become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). After his most famous sins (adultery and murder), David cries out to God saying, “Create in me a clean heart” (Psalm 51:10). The Hebrew word we translate to ‘create’ (bara) can mean both bringing something new into existence or recreating into something new. This process of creating is also called restoring, and it seems to be God’s favorite thing to do. 

He doesn’t just make our hearts pretty and clean. He actually recreates them so they’re entirely new. This is His promise to anyone who chooses Him (Ezekiel 36:26). He will take the crushed and broken pieces of the life that Satan has destroyed and make them into something new and glorious. Despite everything, God still wants a relationship with us. And the only way that can happen is by creating. How amazing to realize that in Christ, you ARE brand new, no longer defined by Satan and his attempts to destroy you.

God Will Create

Remember all the things I listed in the last post about Satan being a destroyer? I noted that we have disease, war, greed, power, divorce, abortion, death because Satan will use them all to destroy us.

BUT we can have hope despite all of that. And we can have it because God has created, is creating, and (best of all) will create.

“Look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth,

and no one will even think about the old ones anymore.

Be glad; rejoice forever in my creation!

And look! I will create Jerusalem as a place of happiness.

Her people will be a source of joy.

I will rejoice over Jerusalem and delight in my people.

And the sound of weeping and crying will be heard no more.”

Isaiah 65:17-19 (NLT, emphasis added)

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city of Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!”

Revelation 21:1-5a (NLT, emphasis added)

A new heaven and a new earth are coming where God will dwell with us and Satan’s destruction will end. That stuff I listed before? “All these things are gone forever”!!!! I don’t know about you, but I cannot wait for that day to come. I’m so thankful that in the story God is writing, creation will win out over destruction in the end.

Where do you see God creating in your own life? How about in the lives of others?

The Beauty of His Story: The Destroyer

Their king is the angel from the bottomless pit; 

his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon—the Destroyer.

Revelation 9:11, NLT

The “king” described in this verse is Satan. He is the destroyer. He hides in the darkness, enticing us to walk with him so he can lead us to destruction. He’s all about it. From the very beginning, he’s been bent on destroying anything that is not of him.

In Genesis 3:1-8, we get our first glimpse of Satan and how he works. Disguised as a snake, he slithers up to Eve and asks a question that will change everything: “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” (v. 1b) 

During the conversation that follows, Satan quickly and skillfully leads Eve (and eventually Adam) to destruction.

• He destroys trust by essentially calling God a liar. When Eve speaks of the consequence for eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Satan dismisses it as a lie. “You won’t die!” (v. 4) Those three simple words were all it took to shake the foundation of trust in God. If He lied, He can’t be trusted.
• From there it’s a quick step to destroying the idea that God is good. Satan tells Eve that God lied about the death thing because He didn’t want them to be like Him. By keeping them from eating the fruit, God is holding out on them. If that’s true, how could He possibly be good?
• Once the fruit is eaten, we discover that Satan has successfully destroyed Adam and Eve’s innocence. “At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness.” (v. 7) Before eating the fruit, they had no idea that walking around naked could be shameful; now they can’t work fast enough to cover their nakedness.
• And worst of all, Satan achieves his ultimate goal by destroying the relationship between God and humans. After eating the fruit, the sound of God walking in the garden is no longer a delight to Adam and Eve. Instead, they hide because of their shame. Eventually, they are even kicked out of the garden, no longer privy to constant fellowship with God.

This first story of destruction sets up the rest of history. Disease, war, greed, power, divorce, abortion, death—all of these are part of Satan’s plan to destroy what God created. We look at the world around us and see things like human trafficking and ethnic cleansing and extreme poverty. Satan’s using it to discourage us, to make us wonder how God can be good or how we can trust Him. If that’s all we focus on, we will be left with no hope.

It’s not just the destruction of the world around us, though, that Satan uses for his plan. He works on destroying each of us as individuals, too. He reminds us of our shame to keep us paralyzed and afraid. He keeps us hiding in the dark, hiding away from God and His light. Because the only way to keep us walking with Satan is to destroy our relationship with God. He does it subtly and slowly, like a drip of water eroding a rock. Eventually, though, we’ve shut God out completely, giving up on trusting Him or His goodness.

Fortunately destruction is not the only force at work in this story.

The Prodigal Son & Cheese Balls

I glance up from my computer and something across the room catches my eye. It's barrel-shaped, a clear plastic tub full of small orange objects. My brain immediately registers: CHEESE BALLS!! Like Pavlov's dogs when they hear that bell, I instantly begin to drool; I can almost taste the cheesy goodness...

And then I snap back to reality and see the barrel for what it really is: a container of cheese-flavored dog treats.

Gross.

This is just one moment of hunger-induced delusion I experienced during my first 3 weeks of the 7 experiment. Originally done by Jen Hatmaker (it's the subject of her book 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess), 7 is about simplifying in 7 different areas of life: food, clothes, possessions, shopping, media, waste, and stress. I had seen the book mentioned a few places and was intrigued by the idea. So when my friend Emily suggested creating our own "tribe" to do the experiment together, I jumped at the opportunity. I knew that without accountability and encouragement, I'd never do it on my own.

The first month is food. Jen pared her food choices down to just 7 items. Some of her friends choose to eat like the poorest people in 7 impoverished countries. Our group discussed other ideas like limiting our weekly food budget to that of someone who receives food stamps. I decided to follow Jen's plan. For 3 weeks, I only ate eggs, chicken, kale, spinach, sweet potatoes, apples, and avocados; no spices beyond salt & pepper; nothing but olive oil; I also limited drinks to just water.

I'm not a coffee drinker like many of the other girls in our group, so I didn't have to deal with caffeine withdrawal. My addiction is sugar. I LOVE sugar in pretty much any form: cookies, cake, donuts, ice cream... pardon me a moment while I clean the drool off my keyboard. I'm pretty sure I went through sugar withdrawal during those first few days. I had to adjust my eating habits to make sure my blood sugar levels stayed stable. It sucked.

And then I had moments when I thought dog treats were cheese balls.

I thought was doing pretty well. It's pretty easy to make meals when you're limited to 7 items. I ate pretty much the same thing every day: egg & kale omelette and an apple for breakfast; chicken, kale, avocado salad for lunch, an apple snack; chicken and a sweet potato for dinner. It got boring. And when it got boring, I got cravings. And when I got cravings, I got hungry. Hungry enough to eat dog treats apparently.

I started thinking about the story of the Prodigal Son. He got to a point where he was hungry enough to eat pig slop. And he was probably legitimately hungry: out of money, far away from home, working for a pig farmer. I, on the other hand, am usually not legitimately hungry. Comparatively, I'm rich. And I have lots of food options. But when I get bored or depressed or bored, I feel the need to eat, so I trick myself into thinking I'm hungry. And then I eat whatever I can find. I can't be bothered to look for something healthy. I can't be bothered to wait a few minutes to see if my "hunger" or craving will subside. I want food and I want it now.

Him + nothing = EVERYTHING I NEED

And then I started thinking about my relationship with God. Every desire I have, every seeming "lack" can be satisfied by Him. And yet in the moment, I settle for whatever I can find that seems like it might do the trick. Like my snack choices, it's usually not a healthy choice. And it definitely doesn't satisfy the desire, which was probably just a craving for something I don't have (or can't have) and think I should have. Just like eating an apple will keep me fuller longer than eating a donut, going to God instead of... well... everything else... will keep me spiritually full. That's why we need to do things like fasting, so we can realize that God is enough and more than enough.

I'm back to eating more than just those 7 foods now. But I'm trying to be conscious of my food choices. I enjoyed going to the Farmer's Market each week - buying local produce and meeting the people who are growing my food - so I plan to continue doing that. I want to eat to live instead of living to eat (saw that on Pinterest the other day... no idea who said it but it's brilliant), to see my food as energy for enjoying life and not just something to do when I'm bored.

And I'm trying to spend more time with God, to fill up on Him instead of junk, to realize I need Him just as much as I need food. What better place to get energy for life than from the Creator of life Himself? I'm not very good at believing He is enough... yet. But I have a feeling that's going to change as I continue this journey of 7.

The Beauty of His Story: Light & Dark

On the very first day of creation, God creates light. In this moment, we have opposites—light & dark—and the opposing forces (God and Satan) choose which they will utilize for the rest of the story.

Satan is all about darkness. In Romans, Paul explains that when we know God and choose not to worship Him, our minds become dark (1:21). It would seem logical that the same happened to Satan considering he was the first to make that choice. His heart became dark and that became his goal in life: to darken the hearts of others.

The dictionary defines darkness as an absence or deficiency of light. But it also uses phrases like obscurity, concealment, lack of knowledge, and lack of sight.

Satan likes darkness for two reasons:

1.       He can hide in it- In the darkness, it’s difficult (or even impossible) to see anything for what it really is. All you can make out are meaningless shapes. In the light, you’d be able to see Satan for what he really is. In the darkness, he can make you think he’s something else.

2.       He can use the dark to hide God- Just as it’s hard to see Satan in the dark, it’s hard to see God, too. We are blinded by the darkness Satan seeks to keep us in (2 Corinthians 4:4). We can’t see God for who He really is. We can’t comprehend the message of the Gospel, and so we remain in the darkness with Satan.

There’s no light apart from God, so when we walk in opposition to Him, we walk in darkness (1 John 1:5-6). We can’t see anything. We can’t find the path. We can’t tell who is leading us. We can’t tell what’s good for us and what will lead us to death.

We need a good, strong, steady light.

My senior year of college I was a Resident Advisor. The RA who lived in my room two years before me was deaf, so they installed one of those fire alarm strobe lights in the room to ensure she’d be aware of when the alarm went off. I did not realize the strobe light was in there. One morning at about 3:00, I was startled from sleep by the sound of the fire alarm. I opened my eyes to discover my room was filled with a flashing light. I don’t know if you realize this, but one of those lights flashing in total darkness wreaks havoc on your depth perception. You should also know that my bed was about 3 feet off the ground in order to accommodate my mini fridge. Needless to say, I pretty much fell out of bed and stumbled to the door. Moral of the story: a flashing light in complete darkness is not at all helpful.

Fortunately we have a good, strong, steady light in God.

“No longer will you need the sun to shine by day,
    nor the moon to give its light by night,
for the Lord your God will be your everlasting light,
    and your God will be your glory.

Your sun will never set;
    your moon will not go down.
For the Lord will be your everlasting light.
    Your days of mourning will come to an end.”

(Isaiah 60: 19-20, NLT)

He is light Himself, and He gives us His Word as light: Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path (Psalm 119:105, NLT). We don’t have to walk in the darkness. Jesus’ death and resurrection make it possible for us to be transferred from the darkness to the light (1 Peter 2:9). God calls us to walk in the light because of what He has done for us. There we will find the path with ease (though the path itself might be difficult). We can see who is leading us, and that He is trustworthy. We can see what is good for us and what is bad for us.

Light and darkness seem to be the most basic of opposites in God’s story, and yet they are also the most important. Without light breaking through the darkness, we are stuck with minds blinded to the truth. In the darkness, we can’t see God or Satan for who they really are. Satan tries to keep us there so he can remain in control. But “God, who said ‘Let there be light in the darkness,’ has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6, NLT) God uses a light which the darkness cannot overcome in order to reveal truth, to reveal himself. The darkness doesn’t have to win. 

Where do you want to be?



Read the Introduction to this series here.

The Beauty of His Story

If you spend enough time with me, you’ll eventually discover that I am a literature geek. Actually, depending on the path of our conversation, it might not take you that long to figure it out. I’m the one who will make reference to my favorites whenever possible. I started reading at the age of 3 and never really stopped. My mom used to tell me to put down my book and go outside. I was the kid who stayed up late reading under the covers… well for me it was in the little closet in my room that had a light in it.

I’m a sucker for a good story with good characters and a good ending. I tend to get emotionally invested (a shocker for those who know me, I’m sure!) and have been known to want to throw a book across the room when things aren’t going well (a sign of a REALLY good book, in my opinion). But I also know that I wouldn’t love it as much without the conflict, the seemingly insurmountable odds, the evil that fights so hard to overcome the good.

Perhaps that’s why I struggle so much with the story that God is writing in my own life. I’ve had days with those “throw the book across the room” moments. Those are the moments when I’m frustrated with the author and can’t possibly believe that anything good will happen again. And then there are the days when I suddenly realize the last few chapters have been preparing me for this chapter in particular. It’s like reading a book for the first time, when you have no idea what will happen, or how, or when.

But just like any good book, there are themes running through this story. 

Not just my story but all of history. Themes like light & darkness, good & evil, creation & destruction, hope & despair, life & death, love & hate, bondage & freedom. Actually, those are pretty much the same themes that show up in all the books I love most. And I love those books because the good side usually wins. Want to know the best thing about God? He’s an author intent on the good side getting total victory.

It wasn’t always like this. The story started long before time began with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit hangin’ out with the angels. No opposites. No conflict. Perfect harmony.

And then Satan decided he wanted to be God.

“I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars.

I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north.

I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.”

(Isaiah 14:13-14, NLT)

And thus enters conflict.

God winds up kicking Satan out of heaven (Luke 10:18), so Satan sets up his own kingdom. When God creates the earth and human beings, Satan immediately seeks to make it his. Just like any good book, the story that God is writing has opposite themes fighting for control. In the Chronicles of Narnia, we have Aslan and the White Witch. In Harry Potter, it’s Harry and Voldemort. In The Hunger Games, it’s Katniss and the Districts versus the Capitol. In Lord of the Rings, it’s Frodo and Sauron. Characters and powers with opposite goals in mind. It wouldn’t be a good story without them.

Over the next few weeks, I plan to explore those competing themes, to learn more about the story God is writing. Perhaps we’ll learn about the author as we do so. After all, you can tell quite a bit about a person by the stories that they write.

The Beauty of a Daring Rescue

SPOILER ALERT: If you're a fan of the TV show "Castle" and haven't yet watched the episodes "Target" and "Hunt" (Season 5, Episodes 15 & 16), consider this your spoiler alert. If you don't care about knowing what happens before you see it, read on. Otherwise, get caught up first and then come back and read on.

Back in February, I joined millions of other "Castle" fans to watch the annual "two parter" episode with baited breath. Because I follow the show and some of its stars on Twitter, I knew that the episode would center around something happening to Alexis, but I didn't know how emotional I'd become while watching the story unfold.

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, let me fill you in. Castle is a TV show about Richard Castle, a mystery novelist who shadows an NYPD detective (Kate Beckett) and her team in order to get inspiration for his books. Turns out he's actually a fairly good detective, and 5 seasons (and quite a bit of comedy and drama) later, he's still around and finally dating Beckett. Alexis is Castle's daughter (and only child), and in this season she's in her freshman year of college.

During this episode, Alexis and one of her college classmates get kidnapped. At first, Beckett & Castle think the classmate was the target (her father's an Egyptian businessman who has some enemies). But when the kidnappers release the friend and not Alexis, their thinking takes another turn. They eventually discover that she's being held in Paris, and Castle takes matters into his own hands by flying there himself to try and get her back. The guy he hires sells him out... but Castle is rescued by a mysterious man who turns about to be his father- a spy with dangerous enemies. Together they mount a rescue attempt and manage to free Alexis.

I've been watching this show from the beginning, so I'm pretty emotionally invested in the characters. But as I watched Castle and Alexis run through the streets of Paris to freedom (the US Embassy), I found myself tearing up for another reason. I couldn't help but see the similarities between this rescue and my own. Just like Alexis, I needed to be rescued- not from scary Russian spies, but from the clutches of sin and Satan. And just like Castle, Jesus rescued me- not with explosive walkie talkies, but His body and blood. But Jesus' rescue mission was meant to save more than just me. He came to rescue you, too.

As I've been thinking about it in the weeks since, I think there are three specific ways that these episodes mirror our own situation.

1. Who we are and whose we are matters: Alexis became a target because of who she was. Her classmate got taken because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But as far as Alexis was concerned, this was not a random act of violence. The kidnappers' ultimate goal was to get to Jackson Hunt (Castle's father), and they knew they could do that by threatening something that belonged to him. If Alexis had been anyone else, related to anyone else, she would have been fine. The same is true of us. As human beings, we're created to bear God's image in this world. Satan hates that. So in an attempt to wound God, Satan does his best to keep us from being what we were created to be. We may not be in a visible cage like Alexis, but we're still trapped by sin, addictions, fear, shame. Why is it important for us to know this? Because if we don't, we're looking for the wrong enemy in the wrong places. We'll chase down leads, but we'll never be any closer to rescue until we recognize our enemy for who he is.
2. Our Father will do anything to get us back: Castle vows to do whatever it takes to find Alexis. God is no different. For Castle this meant paying any price to those who could help him (no matter how unsavory those characters might be) or to the kidnappers. He takes matters into his own hands, knowing it's going to take action to get his daughter back. For God this meant giving up His Son as a sacrifice, paying the ultimate price to rescue us from sin and death. It was a plan that only He could think of and execute, and it was the only way to get His children back.
3. Rescue means going behind enemy lines: Castle and his father hatch a plan in which Castle will navigate the sewers of Paris (sounds a little like Les Miserables!) to shut off power to the building the kidnappers are in. To the viewers' dismay, the kidnappers find Castle and drag him back to their hideout. He surrenders his walkie talkie to Volkov (the ringleader) who begins to taunt Jackson; it would seem the plan has failed. As they talk, though, we begin to get hints that Castle's abduction was actually part of the plan. Eventually, the walkie talkie blows up, and in the chaos, Castle frees Alexis and they run to freedom. In the same way, Jesus comes to earth as a human being and allows Himself to be caught and even killed. In that moment, it would seem the rescue attempt has failed. Much like Volkov, Satan was probably confident in his victory... right up to the moment Jesus dealt him the final blow by rising from the dead. Our cage is open; our shackles are broken. Rescue has come, and we are free.

So that is why I sat with tears running down my face as the credits rolled at the end of this heart-wrenching episode. Happy tears for the well-being of some of my favorite characters. But most of all, grateful tears and tears of awe as I remembered my spiritual kidnapping and the God who loved me enough to do whatever it took to rescue me.

How does the truth of God's daring rescue impact your life? Leave your comments below.

Why the Super Bowl Bored Me This Year (or, The Beauty of His Glory)

I'm not sure if it was planned on purpose, but the sermon at Passion City Church on Super Bowl Sunday was all about the glory of God. It was one of those sermons that "blew up my heart" (a phrase often heard at Passion City) and left me on a "God high" for the rest of the day. In fact, I was so high, I had a hard time coming back down to experience the Super Bowl as I normally do. I mean, I usually watch for the commercials because I don't really care about any particular NFL team. But I do enjoy a good football game. This time, though, I was distracted by the true glory that I had heard about earlier in the day.

Louie Giglio, our pastor, defined God's glory as "the infinite and intrinsic weight and worth of God". The key words in that definition are infinite and intrinsic. God's glory is true glory because it has always been and always will be. Unlike the glory we ascribe to earthly things, such as the fame of winning the Super Bowl, God's glory lasts forever. He will always be God. The Ravens are the Super Bowl champions for this year; next year (no matter how hard my friend Jeff believes) another team will earn that title and the glory that goes with it. God's glory is also true glory because it comes from who He is. He is God and therefore He has glory. Again, our earthly version of glory is usually given based on someone's role or achievements. Ray Lewis is famous because he played football at the national level and played it well. If he hadn't, he'd be just some guy from Florida. Beyonce is famous and got to be the halftime show entertainment because she's a very talented singer. Without that talent, she'd be a nobody. The glory we bestow is counterfeit because it is not infinite or intrinsic.

Because God is the sole proprietor of true glory, this story we're living in is all about Him. When you read through the Bible, you should read it understanding that it is primarily about God. Notice how many times it mentions that something is being done for God's glory (watch Louie's sermon "The Glory of God" for a sampling of these passages). It may seem selfish, but God is all about making Himself famous because He wants what's best for us. And He is what's best for us.

With all of that in mind, I sat down to watch the Super Bowl... and found myself almost completely bored with it. Throughout the whole event, I just felt like something was missing. It wasn't until halftime that I realized what it was: the glory of God. As I watched Beyonce dance provocatively in very little clothing, I found myself almost angry at the spectacle. Later I would talk to friends who were glad their young daughters weren't awake to see it, and even one whose 7-year-old son told his dad he was embarrassed by what he was seeing (oh how I hope he holds onto that innocence!). I started thinking more and more about the message of the whole event, the number of sexual images used in the commercials, and the performance that was happening at mid-field. None of this was for the glory of God. It couldn't compare to the experience I'd had earlier that day of worshiping true glory, and that is why I was bored with it all.

Now I want to be clear, I'm not about to tell you that I will never watch the Super Bowl again or that you shouldn't either. There's nothing inherently wrong in watching a sporting event or cheering on your favorite team. But I will watch with more awareness of the counterfeit glory I'm seeing. I will try not to elevate it to the same level as gathering to worship God in His house each Sunday morning. More importantly, though, I want to live each day recognizing the glory of my God, seeing that every moment of my day is oriented around Him and not me. And I want to do whatever I can to point others to this same glory knowing that it's the best thing I could share with them.

New Residency

Well, I made it official today... I have a new residence: the state of Georgia. I now have a Georgia driver's license to confirm it! In a lot of ways, it feels pretty weird to say that. I've been away from home before, lived in other places, even in another country. But those have always been temporary residences; I've returned home to Pennsylvania after a predetermined period of time. This one is permanent. So permanent I opted for the 8-year driver's license!

Reality is, I don't really know how long I'll be here. That's up to God. But for now, this is my residence. I'll have to start telling people I'm from Georgia (although my accent will probably prompt further questioning). I will eventually start referring to this place as home (which my mother will hate). Atlanta will become my default Southwest airport and my default MegaBus stop on their respective apps. I've already made it my hometown on Facebook.

And slowly this new residence will begin to change my identity. It will become a part of who I am as I adapt to the way life is lived here. I might start to like new foods, or come to expect heavy traffic on a Saturday morning, or even develop a Southern accent. All because of my new residence.

But none of that will happen if I don't embrace this change. The simple act of getting a new driver's license was a HUGE step in saying, "This is where I live now." It would be so easy to view this like all the other temporary residences I've had, to live as though there's an end date for my time in Georgia. Instead, I'm choosing to view this as a permanent change until God tells me otherwise. Without that perspective, this place will have no effect on me, nor I on it.

As I type this, I can't help but think of the parallels with our Christian life. Paul tells us again and again that as believers we are now citizens of heaven. We may not dwell there physically yet, but it's still our new residence. But how often do we live as though heaven were our home? Do we let that knowledge change our identity? Do we pick up on new habits, new ways of speaking and acting? We won't if we fail to keep the perspective that this new residence is a permanent change! So do what you need to do to be a fruitful citizen-- get a driver's license; change your address; learn new roads. God wants this new residence to define who you are... so start living like a citizen of heaven!

We All Wanna Be Somebody

I've been hearing a song on the radio lately that makes me think of Once Upon A Time whenever I hear it.  The song is by Thousand Foot Krutch and contains a line that encompasses one of the main themes of the show: We all wanna be somebody; we just need a taste of who we are.

Specifically, it makes me think of the episode a couple of weeks ago when we got to know some of Ruby's (Red Riding Hood) back story.  When faced with the challenge of taking on more responsibility, she freaks out and lets her fear of failure convince her to run away.  In an attempt to find some job she can do, she winds up with Emma, which leads to an opportunity to discover some aspects of her true identity.  When she is truly needed, when she alone has the skills to accomplish the task, she gets a taste of who she is.

The interesting thing, though, is that Henry helps to orchestrate that moment.  Because he has the book of stories, he knows Ruby's true identity, and he knows he she can help.  Sound familiar?

God is Henry... only He's actually writing the story, not just reading it.  And, more importantly, He created us.  He knows exactly who we are.  He knows how our skills and abilities can be used in the moments when we are most needed.  He even orchestrates those moments to give us a taste of who we are.  He wants us to live as we were created to be, not under the curse of ignorance like the characters in Storybrooke.  He even gives us a book of stories meant to help us discover our true identities.  We have a role to play in the greater story God is writing... and until we start taking the steps to figure out what that role is, we're stuck in our version of Storybrooke, living by the rules of someone who cares only for their own happiness.

True Identity

How many mirrors do you have in your house?  How often do you look in them?  How often do you walk away and forget what you look like?  I find it interesting that James uses that illustration in talking about listening to the Word of God but not doing what it says (James 1:23-24).  My first thought is of looking in the mirror, noticing I only have make up on one eye, and then walking away without doing anything about it.  But I'm not sure that's really the point James was trying to make.

I'm currently doing Beth Moore's new study on James, and she wrote one sentence that seemed to unlock the meaning of this passage for me: "What James will teach us is the difference between talking about living in victory over things like self-centeredness, addiction, seduction, and temptation and actually doing it."  So what makes the difference? Identity!  Where are you finding your identity?  In the mirror?  Or in the Word of God?

In her study, Moore focuses in on verse 23, where James talks about "glancing at your face in a mirror" (NLT).  The King James Version translates it "natural face", and the Greek word used there is genesis.  Hearing that takes me back to the book of Genesis where we're told all about our identity: We are created in God's image. And perhaps as we look in the mirror, we see more than just the elements that make up our faces.  Perhaps we glimpse what we were created to be... but, as James says, we all too often walk away and promptly forget who we really are.  We let the world around us, our successes and failures, our past, or even the mirror define our identity.  And this is how we become trapped in self-centeredness, addiction, seduction, temptation, etc.

So how do we get free?  "If you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it." (James 1:25 NLT)  In other words, spend time in Scripture, letting the truth of it define your identity.  Let God's Word be the mirror you stare into to figure out who you are.  Let the law (which Jesus sums up in the commands to love God and to love others) become the guide for your actions, helping you to live out your true identity.  That's why James emphasizes the importance of not only hearing the Word, but also doing what it says.  We can find freedom in every area of life when we allow God to change us through the power and truth of His Word.

Note: For more on letting God define your identity, check out the messages in the Hijacked series from Daybreak Church.

Getting What You Think You Want

I have been shirking my blogging duties over the past few weeks.  Life has been a little crazy, so sharing my ramblings on Once Upon A Time has taken a back seat.  Fortunately, there have only been two new episodes (thanks to the Super Bowl!), so I don't have as much to catch up on.

Both episodes have me thinking about what happens when we go after what we think we want, what we think will satisfy our desires, with little or no regard for the consequences.  How quickly we compromise on our convictions for the sake of satisfaction.

Mary Margaret & David arrange secret meetings or sit very near each other at the diner.  Despite his promise to his wife, they are determined to be together, because that is what they want.  In the end, Mary Margaret realizes it's an impossible situation.  David is still married to Kathryn and isn't free to have the kind of relationship Mary Margaret longs for.

We find out that the Queen's magic mirror was once a genie, set free by her husband (Snow White's father).  The genie falls in love with the Queen and pursues her heart despite the fact that she's already married.  The Queen uses his love against him to accomplish the murder of the king.  The genie uses the last wish left in the lamp to make sure he will never be parted from the Queen.  And so, he winds up in the mirror.

Sydney (the mirror as he is in Storybrooke) comes to Emma with a desire to bring down the mayor.  Although Emma refuses to stoop to the mayor's level, Emma does eventually play dirty in order to get the information they need.  The plan backfires, making Emma all the more eager to partner with Sydney to get to the truth.  What she doesn't know is that this is all part of a plan the mayor and Sydney have concocted to keep an eye on Emma.

All three of these stories are perfect examples of how quickly our desires can lead us astray when we seek to fulfill them on our own terms and timing.  The desires themselves aren't necessarily wrong (the desire to love & be loved reflects God's desire for relationship; the desire to see the mayor brought to justice so others could be free reflects God's desire for truth and freedom).  However, the ways in which each character chooses to act on those desires is wrong.  We do the same when we decide how and when we get what we want (or what we think we want) instead of waiting on God's plan.  We may not wind up stuck in a magic mirror, but we will still face the consequences of heartbreak or becoming entrapped in something that isn't good for us.  Fortunately, there is One who heals broken hearts and sets captives free.  We can turn to Him for grace and forgiveness and a second chance in which He delights to give us the desires of our hearts... on His terms and in His timing.

Trying to Forget

This was the first episode of Once Upon A Time where I wanted to punch the writers.  They chickened out on a story line that was actually admirable...  I wrote a previous post (The Making of a Prince) applauding the fact that David (aka Snow White's Prince Charming) was choosing to honor his marriage commitment despite feelings for Mary Margaret.  And then this week David & Mary Margaret kiss passionately at the end of the episode... He's still married... and just had a conversation with his wife about how he wants to make it work.  Would it have been such a bad thing for him to actually be a man of strong character and integrity?  In the Enchanted Forest, he chooses not to go through with his wedding to Abigail because he's in love with Snow White.  Much more honorable than kissing another woman while he's still married.... Sigh!

Prior to that kiss, though, this episode resonated deeply with my heart.  It focused on Snow White/Mary Margaret and Prince James/David trying to deal with their feelings for each other in both the Enchanted Forest and Storybrooke.  Snow White wants a way to forget she loves him, so she winds up meeting with Rumpelstiltskin who gives her a potion (while keeping a lock of her hair... strange!) that will make her forget him completely.  Before she can drink it, a note arrives from James asking her to come to the castle; if she does, he'll know she loves him and they can be together.  She goes, but of course gets captured and the King tells her she must give James up or he will be killed.  Although it breaks her heart, she does, and leaves in the company of the dwarves.  James chooses not to go through with the wedding and goes in search of Snow, who drinks the potion and wakes on what should be a happy morning with no recollection of the man she loved.

How many times have I longed for that sort of potion?!  Those moments when you know you have to let go of the hope of a relationship but the task seems impossible.  How do you forget the feelings that have been stirred in your heart?  How do you keep your mind from dwelling on him and what might have been?  How do you do any of that when, like Mary Margaret & David, you live in a small town where it's almost impossible not to run into each other?  Or maybe it would be better just to turn off your feelings until you meet the right person... But alas, there is no "off" switch... no magic potion.

I'm learning more and more about the role God wants to play in these situations.  There's a moment in the Bible when we're told not to awaken love before its time.  I don't completely understand the command, but I'm starting to think that God will lull love back to sleep if we ask Him to.  Could we maybe take our feelings to Him when they first start and ask Him if the timing is right?  Could we learn to surrender them instead of dwelling on them and letting them awaken completely?  Could we awaken our passion and love for God instead, allowing those feelings to override anything else and become the fulfillment of our desires?  And when we do allow ourselves to dwell on and develop feelings for the wrong person, can we take our bruised hearts to Him for healing?  I think He would like nothing more than help us fall more in love with Him so the pain of unrequited love can subside.  It's not as simple as swallowing a magic potion... but I think it might work better.

Family

"Hansel & Gretel" has always been the strangest of the fairy tales I'm familiar with.  I'm not sure that I ever really understood the point of it.  Is there a lesson to be learned beyond "don't eat the gingerbread cottage you come across when wandering in the woods"?  And should we really be teaching our kids to push people into ovens?

The writers of Once Upon A Time maintained the creepy weird aspects of this particular story, but they also simplified the moral to one I deeply appreciate: Family will always find each other.  In the Enchanted Forest, Hansel & Gretel literally run into the Evil Queen as they search for their father (aided by a compass instead of breadcrumbs).  The Queen actually sends them to the cottage on a quest for something she needs (we find out later it's the poisoned apple for Snow White).  As a reward for their success, she offers them a home with her, but they refuse, choosing to continue the search for their father.  In her usual fashion, the Queen returns both the children and their father to the woods, but on opposite sides of the vast forest, doomed to search for each other forever.

In Storybrooke, Hansel & Gretel are motherless children whose only clue to their father's identity is a compass.  As Sheriff, Emma does some digging and finds him, but he's unwilling to take on the responsibility.  When Emma tries to take them to Boston (where the Mayor has arranged for their placement in separate children's homes), her car breaks down.  Luckily, the father is the town mechanic, and when he shows up to fix the car, he decides he might be willing to be a father after all.

I realize that in our world, many of my readers may have very negative experiences of family.  You might actually shudder at the idea of family always finding each other.  But the reality is that family connection doesn't have to be merely biological.  The Bible describes God as a father who adopts us as His children.  When we accept His gift of grace, we become part of a family that spreads around the globe and across the generations.  There is a spiritual connection that bonds us together more strongly than anything else.  In this family we can learn to trust each other, to work through conflict, to find encouragement and support... as long as we're seeking to be the family God created us to be.  Best of all, we have a perfect Father who loves us as we should be loved.  And this same Father will always search for us when we get ourselves lost.  Like Hansel & Gretel, we also get a compass-- the Holy Spirit-- to help guide us back to the Father.  As long as it's seeking (and God always is), this family will always find each other.

Who's the Real Enemy?

This week's Once Upon A Time gave us a glimpse into Rumpelstiltskin's past.  We find him to be the father of a young boy living in fear of the Duke who rules the land.  Once children reach a certain age, the Duke collects them to give their lives in the war he's waging.  Rumpelstiltskin tries to save his son by running and winds up meeting an old beggar who tells him how to gain control of the situation: he must steal the Duke's magic dagger and kill "the Dark One".  Of course, as we've already learned, "all magic comes at a price", and doing this turns Rumpelstiltskin into the power hungry trickster we're all familiar with.

Meanwhile, back in Storybrooke, Emma is dealing with the death of Graham.  Mr. Gold informs her that she automatically becomes Sheriff after two weeks.  Madame Mayor, Regina, attempts to thwart this, but Mr. Gold steps in, offering his assistance to Emma.  Despite Henry's warnings, Emma accepts Mr. Gold's help until she realizes that he'll play dirty to get things to go her way.

For me, this episode solidified the idea that we don't really know who the real enemy is in this story.  While Regina (aka the Evil Queen) is obviously bent on doing whatever she needs to make herself happy, Mr. Gold is all about manipulation and control as well.  I'm beginning to wonder if even the Evil Queen is simply a pawn in Rumpelstiltskin's evil plans.

In real life, we have the same issue: identifying the true enemy.  There are people who are totally focused on themselves and their own happiness who hurt others in their attempt to achieve it.  The hurt they cause is real and shouldn't be ignored, but they aren't the true enemy.  The only one bent on your destruction, the one seeking to manipulate and control you, is Satan.  He is the true enemy in this story.  Peter describes him as a roaring lion "seeking someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8 ESV).  And Paul instructs us to put on the armor of God because our battle is not with flesh and blood, but with the "spiritual forces of evil" (Eph 6:12 ESV).  You can't battle your enemy if you have no knowledge of how he works, and you can't know how he works if you don't actually know who he is.  He takes advantage of our lack of knowledge.  Like Emma, we can even be tricked into thinking he's on our side.  Problem is, his way of doing things leads to death and not to life.  So make sure you can identify your true enemy.  More importantly, make sure you know the Savior, the only one who can protect and save you from this enemy of ours.

A Vision for Marriage

Over the last couple of weeks, various views about marriage have presented themselves and set me thinking about how our society seems to be lacking a good vision for marriage.

The first view appeared on the website "Pinterest", a place where people "pin" pictures of just about anything to virtual bulletin boards.  Recently, people have been pinning pictures of things to be added to their Bucket Lists (that list of things you want to do before you die).  One bucket list item I saw was "To be married to the same person for more than 50 years".  I was shocked!  Why is that an item on your bucket list?  Isn't that part of the vow you make when you get married: "till death do us part"?  That shouldn't be something to be checked off a list of accomplishments!  It should be your mindset before you even enter into a dating relationship!  If you aren't in it for the long haul, then what's the point?  In a world where more than 40% of marriages end in divorce, though, it shouldn't be surprising that a long, happy marriage seems more of an unattainable dream than "meeting Justin Bieber" or "celebrating New Year's in Times Square".

Less than 24 hours later, the second view showed up in an article about the demise of Kim Kardashian's marriage.  As much as I hate to admit it, I actually skimmed the article in a magazine while waiting to get my hair cut.  Maybe the fact that I was already thinking about the sad state of marriage (thanks to the Pinterest experience of the previous day) led me to see what the journalists at US Magazine had to say about why Kim's marriage fell apart.  There was quite a bit of speculation about whether the relationship had even been real to begin with-- perhaps it was just a publicity stunt.  But there was one sentence that struck me the most: "Kim & Kris weren't able to live together for more than a week before the wedding."  Supposedly offered by members of her family, this view lays the blame on the lack of opportunity for cohabitation before they were married.  "If they'd only lived together longer, they would have had a better chance."  This fits so nicely into the "try before you buy" mindset that I've heard from so many people over the years.  You can't really know a person until you live with them, so you obviously shouldn't get married until you've lived together for at least a year.  Nevermind the fact that cohabitation before marriage actually increases your chances of getting divorced (if you ever do get married).

The third view came on New Year's Eve via the character of Charlotte Lucas in one of my favorite movies: Pride & Prejudice.  Regarding Jane Bennet's relationship with Mr. Bingley, Charlotte says, "She should show more affection even than she feels so she can secure him as quickly as possible."  When Lizzy protests that Jane should wait to know more of his character, Charlotte states that there is plenty of time for that after the wedding, much the opposite idea of needing to spend time living together before entering into marriage.  Of course, Charlotte spouts this view in the context of a time when women had no hope of financial security outside of marrying well-- one must snatch up a husband quickly or risk not having one at all.  Unfortunately, this view persists today in the form of both women and men so desperate for the companionship of marriage, they do what it takes to secure the first person who shows interest without regard for finding out the true character.

All of these views seem to stem from a self-centered vision for marriage.  "This marriage may or may not last for a lifetime; it depends on how happy this person makes me."  "I have to make sure this person really does make me happy before I can commit to marriage."  "We've only known each other for two weeks, but this person makes me happy so we're getting married."  The only desire is for ones own happiness; the other person never really enters the picture.

In pondering these views, I began to question my own vision for marriage.  Are there elements of these views that have crept in unnoticed?  How much of my desire for marriage is self-centered and how much is God- and others-centered?  Part of God's vision for marriage is our human need for relationship, but it is a relationship that puts the needs of the other person above our own, a relationship in which our happiness is bound up in the happiness of the other.  It is a relationship in which each person helps the other become the best version of himself or herself.  Another of my favorite characters (this time from Louisa M. Alcott's "Rose In Bloom"), articulates it this way: "... I think I shall ask some good woman to 'lend a hand' when I've got anything worth offering her.  Not a saint, for I never shall be one myself, but a gentle creature who will help me, as I shall try to help her."  The other part of God's vision for marriage is more public.  He gives us marriage as the best example of the love Christ has for us: sacrificial, intimate, eternal.  Our vision for marriage should include a desire to reflect that love well to the world around us.  Others should be blessed by our marriages.  We should be ministering through our marriages because God calls together in marriage those who can accomplish more of His work as a couple than they can alone.

I pray that my vision for marriage will be God's and that I will someday find a man who shares it.  In the meantime, I pray that even as a single woman, I can play a part in the work of fixing society's warped view of marriage.  There are two books I want to recommend to both single people and married people: Love & War by John & Stasi Eldredge and Real Marriage by Mark & Grace Driscoll.  Read them with a heart open to God's teaching.  Let Him change your vision for marriage to one that will bring Him glory and bring you joy.