Resonation With Reconciliation

That may sound weird, but I'm pretty sure there's a huge part of our heart that resonates with the concept, the value, the principle, the picture ... of reconciliation, that beautiful thing that takes place when two hearts return to one another.

So, here's what happened ... we had our friends, Spencer and Jana, over to hang out, eat spaghetti, watch a movie, and eat brownies and ice cream - classic Saturday night. We were discussing which movie to watch ... the potentials were: Elizabethtown, First Knight, Hitch, Knight's Tale ... all good options, but then a movie was starting on TV ... Just Like Heaven. (Reese Witherspoon and that guy from 13 Going on Thirty ... not that I've seen 13 Going on Thirty, but I heard he was in it ... anyway) We decided to just watch that.

Well, like any good movie it had us wrapped up pretty good about halfway through as we were starting to really wonder whether the two main characters were gonna get together. And it really had us wrapped up right at the end when one of them decides to do something crazy in the name of love. But sure enough, at the least opportune time a basic commercial break turns into a 10 minute break due to tornado warning updates from the weather guy ...

We were considerably less than happy about this (I know, very insensitive) and the four of us sat there, waiting, wondering ... what was happening in the movie (which at this point had gone from fiction to reality in our story driven minds), how much longer is this guy gonna be, will they pause the movie or will it continue and we miss the most crucial part of the whole thing? I could just picture the weather guy saying "we now return you to your originally scheduled program" ... only to have the screen change to a picture of our lovers kissing in the sunset and us having no idea how the conflict was resolved! And it was killing us!

Just when we thought we couldn't take it anymore, the movie comes back on ... and our worst fears were realized ... no, the tornado wasn't headed our way ... the story had gone on without us, we got dumped back in having missed the most crucial aspect of any narrative - the conflict resolution! We quickly turned the channel while expressing our true brokenness over not knowing how things got worked out ... not to fear, we live in the age of the internet ... within minutes we've pulled the movie up on Youtube and are finding where we left off ... sweet relief ... as you may suspect, the story ended with the kiss of two lovers ... together again ... ahh, sweet reconciliation ... the heartbeat of human longing.

What in the name of narrative was going on in our hearts that made us so set on finishing the story, knowing what happened, and HOW?! What were our hearts communicating to us about how we're wired? Why were we so irritated with the poor meteorologist who was keeping us from the narrative our hearts had connected to and needed to return to? Ok, I get it, tornado warnings are important, lives are at stake ... but in our hearts something else big was at stake ... reconciliation ... and not just reconciliation, the means of reconciliation. We're hard wired for story, relationship, and purpose ... and in a broken world, reconciliation is a key part of any of those. Our hearts demand several things ... to be part of a story, to know that it works out in the end, AND to know HOW and WHY it works out in the end! Why wasn't it enough to just see them kissing at the end and be happy knowing they got together? We had to know how, and this isn't just some culturally conditioned movie madness ... the desires we experienced open a little window to our hearts ... and to our design.

I believe every human heart understands that we live in a broken world, and they long to know that it's going to work out, but as much as they want reconciliation, they also want to know how it can be. As Christians, we value Genesis 3 because it lets us know why the world is broken, we value the Revelation because it lets us know that it's going to work out for good in the end, God wins. BUT ... Revelation wouldn't be near as satisfying without ... the Gospels ... the MEANS of reconciliation. We long to know it's going to be ok, but we also long to know how it is possible that it's going to be ok ... and for Christians, there's only one answer ... the cross ... our means of reconciliation.

May my heart beat as passionately for a deeper understanding of the beauty of the cross as is did to finish the movie tonight.

This Could Be My End

That's what I was thinking as I sprinted through the woods ... angry barking dog at my heels. I had been walking in the woods for some fellowship with the Creator. A beautiful day, a babbling brook, cool breeze, and some great time to breathe deep, focus on the goodness of God, and remember why I exist. And as much as I enjoyed the time it was time to head home. I was walking through someone's backyard for just a sec, headed back into the woods to take a shortcut home ... still in a meditative peaceful mode ... when I heard the sound of a ferocious man eating dog barking and charging me. I went immediately into a dead sprint, dodging trees and hoping for the best. But at one point I was quite certain this dog would indeed catch up with me, tackle me from behind, and proceed to eat my flesh. At that point I decided I wasn't goin' out like that, so I stopped, turned around and proceeded to yell at the dog. Amazingly it stopped (which I thought at the time was due to an invisible fence but ... people don't bury invisible dog fences in the woods ... he was intimidated by me), but he continued to snarl and bark and desire me for his next meal. So I took off again and he didn't follow, but I heard its owner calling him. I thought that it was a call to come back home and leave the poor innocent pedestrian alone, but when I got out of the loud rustle of leaves and was on the road I heard quite the opposite: "good boy, get him ..." What kinda nut? Anyway ... It's funny how quickly I went from peaceful communion with God to running for my life. Sounds a lot like walking out the front door of a church after a service. I think my ferocious dog anecdote paints a good picture of the reality of the world at war that we live in. Whether we stay aware of it or not, the world is not a friendly place to those who are in Christ. And as important as it is to have those times of peaceful communion with God, it is just as important to stay alert as we re-enter the world at war. I Peter 5:8 puts it like this, "Be self controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." Lion, dog, whatever, the point is - the enemy is real, and just like the owner displayed no pity on the poor shmuck running for his life through the woods ... our adversary shows no pity. So it is extremely important to seek and enjoy those intimate times with God, but always be alert and re-enter this world ready to fight (or run in my case ... maybe that's where the analogy breaks down?) ... remembering Jesus' words: "In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world." John 16:33.

Some of you are wondering how I managed to get a picture of the killer dog ... let's just say sacrifices were made to enhance the effect of this post. Dedicated bloggers press on.