Understanding Spirituality and Culture through Christ
When we are stuck in obsessions, trying to find our happiness and rest through some attachment of ours, the way to let go of our obsessions is to to trust in God for our rest and happiness. Life is a journey with God. It is a journey filled with wonder towards freedom. It is our trust in God who fuels this journey of wonder towards freedom.
Read MoreSometime we are tempted to approach faith as something that can "help" us to live comfortable lives. Voltaire said, "I would rather have a servant who has faith so that he will not steal from me." This kind of way of looking at faith is the kind of faith that is there to "help" people. Faith of this kind is seen as something that helps people to be less anxious, to be more hopeful, so that one feels good about one’s life. This is not necessarily bad, but it is not complete either. The faith that God calls us to in Jesus is not this "it helps" faith, rather it is a form of "it is everything" faith.
Read MoreWe live in a society which is increasingly fragmented. Millennials are one of the loneliest generation. The UK has appointed a minister of loneliness because it has realized the importance of being connected to community, for the overall health of well being of individuals and the hence the nation. Durkiem was a sociologist who analyzed the pattern of suicide in the early 20th century. He found that the persons who committed suicide often were isolated individuals. Joker is one such anomie, in fact one of his jokes in the journal read, "may be my death will make more cents than my life." Arthur Fleck was an anomie who if he had been living in the early 20th century would have committed suicide. But the Joker of the 21st centruy is an anomie becomes a psychotic murderer.
Read MoreWhen the actions we do is not easy to come, our identity becomes our motivating force just as it did for Tony Stark when he had to chose to give up his life to save planet earth. Next time you face a tough choice, going against the values of the culture, whether it be finding time to pray or going the extra mile for a friend, or to listen without arguing, take a breath, appropriating Tony Stark, remind yourself, "I am a disciples of Christ," and way of Christ-like self giving love.
Read MoreThe movie Mary Poppins also depicts a form of biblical pathway of redemption in the sense that Mary Poppins comes down to earth as an incarnation to instigate transformation. In a superficial sense Mary Poppins serves as the Christ figure who comes from the heavens to the earth to save people, as in helping people to see that relationship matter more than material things. Mary Poppins, as in Mother Mary, births new life. Though we have the potential for both good and bad in us, we often need help from the outside to change. The idea of God incarnating into the world as Jesus Christ in order to redeem humanity is the essence of the Christmas story. Using this incarnational lens, it is possible to see Mary Poppins as a Christmas movie in its essence. Mary Poppins like Jesus, comes down to earth to save the broken lives of people, making Mary Poppins a Christmas movie.
Read MoreIt is only with the heart that we can see rightly because most essential things in life are invisible to the purely rational mind. For example, the enchantment of love can only be perceived with the heart. It takes imagination to see with the heart. A a mind that is solely rational will be scared by the disruptive enchantment of falling in love.
Read MoreIt is the pain of deep but unfulfilled longing that keeps love potent. When Westley, the lover of the Princess Buttercup, in his disguise taunts her loss of first love, the Princess shouts at him, "Don't mock my love." Westley replies, "Life is pain... anyone who says differently is selling something."
Read MoreIn as much as our lives do not have hope for redemption, our stories seem meaningless. If there are no stories worth living for, then we end up living for something else - money, power or knowledge. In as much as our identities are solely determined by the bottom-lines factors of money, power or knowledge we end up living lives of shunted humanity. In as much as we take a step back from our bottom-line obsessions with money, power and knowledge, we will see that there are richer stories to be lived with eternal hope (Rev 21:4) in which our stories will be redeemed.
Read MoreThe opposite of obsessive desires is not to disavow desires, rather it is yielding to rightly ordered desires. Rightly ordered desires starts with loving people close to us, which is exactly what the mythic Sultan, Von Rumple, and the magicians Angier and Borden miss and end up as lonely angry men dead in their spirit.
Read MoreInside Out is a brilliantly written deeply moving story that shows why knowing how to grieve is important for healthy living. Inside Out takes an inside out view of the human psyche to show that if we do not know how to make grief into a shared loving experience, we will loose our ability to be human.
Read MoreThe willingness to suffer is a prerequisite for any enterprise to be successful. Pain avoidance is a bad strategy. People who are unwilling to suffer cannot participate in a purpose bigger than them selves. In the case of Tony Soprano, the bigger purpose was Tony's own glory. In the case of the Christian, the bigger purpose is the Kingdom of God.
Read MoreWhen I was a kid, Robin Williams was enough to make me happy and hopeful for more happiness. Now that I have grown and become more aware of the cynical hopeless of life, my need for wonder and hunger for hope to compensate for the 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short' life has grown such that I need more than a phenomenally talented Robin William, I need a powerful and loving, transcended and immanent God to make my happy.
Read MoreI could not have dreamt of a day when I would use a romantic Disney movie to exemplify the sort of 1 Corinthians 13 'real love' that St. Paul talks about - the real one that isn't about 'having it easy', but about moving mountains, albiet thorough pain and suffering.
Read MoreIn the depths of deep despair, when we appear to be lost tumbling about in void without a sense of orientation of who we are and what we are to do, we will do ourselves a favor by reminding ourselves of the our true place in the BIG Story of redemption that God is writing.
Read MoreEvangelical Christians, as is normally the case, have rightly diagnosed the problem of obsessive demonology, but unfortunately the strategy evangelicals appear to be pursuing, of running a million miles in the opposite direction, suffers from the mistake exchanging simplicity for a complex all encompassing worldview.
Read MoreChrist did not just say 'let him that has ears hear', He also said, 'let him that has eyes SEE'. What do we Christians have to show? Nothing much really, not so much in terms of our sacrificial Christ-like lives, not so much in terms of our symbols/arts either. We mostly spout out some hot air as the monk in Monty Python and the Holy Grail does when he preps to bless the 'holy grenade' which will kill a rabbit
Read MoreNow that I am grown up, I see that my childhood dream of someone creating a Jurassic Park has been fulfilled. But Not in the sense that I thought of when I was a kid though. The Jurassic Parks of today, from Facebook to the Fed are built by men who take themselves more seriously than they should, often as monuments for their own glory, are an attempt at building something spectacular that controls the destiny of mankind.
Read MoreWhat is lost on modernism, with declining marriage rates, is that even in singleness, Safety is Never Guaranteed. Christ wasn't safe even as he was single. Married or single our earthly Safety is Not Guaranteed. Thanks be to Christ, our heavenly security indeed is... for we are steadfastly loved!
Read MoreWe are made in the Image of God, like the Trinity we are united but still distinct. We are to bear our own burdens, but we are also to help others bear their burdens. We can't err fully to either collectivism or individualism, both need to be held in balance.
Read MoreFor there to be true love, the one loved has to have freedom to chose. If there is no freedom, then there is no love. The movie at a very deep level brings out the desire that human beings have to be loved 'eternally' by the Creator, for if there is no eternal love then life becomes meaningless.
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