June 5, 2011
Last night, Wendy and I went to a movie together, (don’t go alone too much, usually have a 15 year old along) and I was fairly shocked when she suggested the new X-men movie. On vacation, I was underwhelmed with Thor, so I wasn’t overly thrilled with the idea of X-Men, but I was so tickled that Wendy chose it, I said ok. Growing up, I was more a Justice League of America kind of guy, Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern,…. So I never knew too much about the X-men.
So we go to the movies on a Saturday night to see a fairly new, popular movie breaking all of our rules about movie viewing in theater- Tuesday matinees while school is still in session- (we are not big crowd people) and there is a crowd so we don’t get our traditional back row seats and have to sit on the fifth row.
Wendy tells me that we have seen some of the X-men movies at home, but apparently I slept, because I have no memory of them, except something about Jean Luc Piccard, and that guy with razor knives shooting out of his knuckles (I know, now, Wolverine) but it seemed like pretty new stuff to me.
So the movie starts, and I am hypnotized from the beginning, and I am genuinely sorry when it ends, two hours later, thinking, I really enjoyed that! Why? Obviously, I cannot accept the evolutionary worldview, but it seems that what grabbed me the most was the difficulty each of the X-men had in dealing with his “differences” in the eyes of the “normal” humans. Generally each resolves his conflict in one of two ways: use his difference for good in spite of the “normal” opinion, or use his power to punish those who ostracize him.
In chapter 3 of the book of John, Jesus speaks of a people who can see the invisible, ones who can hear the voice that the world cannot hear, ones who have a life that is not of this world. He says that they will be ostracized, criticized, persecuted and even killed. He says that they will not die. He also says that they will know the Father.
I notice around me today that it is popular to mock and ridicule those that choose to accept the words of the Bible as true, even to call them backward and “unscientific” and close minded and unenlightened. So our struggle today, as believers, is really a struggle against the pull of what is considered “normal”. We usually have two choices as believers: try to fit in, not rock the world’s boat and keep our beliefs to ourselves so as not to offend, or realize that we were really created to be a container to carry around a supernatural life inside this fragile body, and to spill it into the world around us.
As we begin to spill, we discover powers and strengths, heights of joy never before known, and that one Presence we long for, carrying us down roads we would never have chosen for ourselves, on a ride more thrilling than we could ever have known.
The ones that can see the invisible are few, compared to the ones that cannot. If you are one of these, you know it. Would you choose “normal”, or do you want to LIVE?
Enjoy the Ride!
