The Portrait of You and Dorian Grey

I have been listening to a lot of politics lately and one of the main themes coming from everyone seems to be deception. It made me think of the the movie The Picture of Dorian Grey. When I was young, I watched the 1945 film version of this story. Basically, a young man desires to always be as beautiful as he is at that moment. He makes a deal with the egyptian gods for the portrait to age. Little did he know that the portrait he kept hidden in his room would show all his sins as well.

Inside his private world, this portrait hung. He could take it out and look at it. He could see his past mistakes, the passage of time and who he had become. Dorian was deceptive and uncaring the whole of his painted life. His heart and mind had grown cold and selfish. What he needed was a change of heart and mind. Ultimately the way to fix the problem of Dorian and of the world is to radically change the wills and hearts of those who live here. From desiring selfish things, to desiring good and freedom for our neighbor.

This can only be done with faith in Jesus Christ. Why is this? Because he is the one who can see the paintings of our heart. In 1 Samuel 16:7 it says, "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. A man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." His love changes our desires. Instead of deception, truth. Instead of desire for what others have, we desire more of Him and good to others. Instead of the must haves in life, a greatful heart blooms for what we do have. Jesus is the one who can see the portriats of us all, place your trust with him and he'll lead you to freedom every time.

Distance makes the heart grow fonder

After a short hiatus, I'm back! While healing through injuries and several other life things. I couldn't get the last book of Christopher Paolinis' out of my head. He describes the distance between dragon and dragon rider as an unbearable ache. After leaving his dragon behind; the dragon rider missed her presence in his head. Missed having her understanding love and her disciplining care. Everything about her, he missed. I couldn't help but think of the Old Testament. About how the people and their decisions brought them closer or further away from God. The emotions all tied up in these decisions and how it is the same today for our walk with Christ.

When we make decisions for God, we are close to Him. We walk with Him and have the ties that bond us to Him. When we don't; when we decide to go out on our own, we end up with the same feelings as the dragon rider and his dragon. When we forsake prayer, Godly actions and Godly thoughts we begin to miss the still small voice of Christ. Miss his discipling care. The piece that makes us whole. He is the friend that dances with us and that tells us when we mess up. He is an integral part of ourselves. Bonded from the moment we are reborn to him and a life long friend that can always be counted to defend and love us.

As Psalms 119 says: "Your laws are my treasure; they are my heart’s delight." {111}, "You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word."{114}, "Your testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors." {24}, "Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path." {105}. His testimonies and laws and words are all God getting to know us; presenting himself to us to love and be loved in return.

Forgiveness in a Jurassic Park

Last night a group of friends and I sat down and watched Jurassic Park. My husband has never seen it and we all decided that it was time. I haven't seen this movie in about 10 years, so I forgot some of the elements that were in the movie itself. One such element was the pairing of the use of Gods' name in vain and a curse word. For me, this is an unaccpetable thing. However, I completely forgot it and told my husband he would Love this movie, that it was great! That he would love it!

This is kind of what forgiveness looks like.

This movie would have never made the cut for viewing if I had remembered those words were in there. But since I didn't, I did nothing but praise it and encourage others to participate in it. God wants us to forgive each other the same way {Colossians 3:13}. He says that when He forgives, those sins are as far away as the east is from the west {Psalms 103:12}. He forgets they were ever there and praises us, participates in our lives and sends others to do the same.

Going Charlie X on God

Charlie X is a Star Trek episode where this kid Charlie has telekinetic powers and is able to make things happen for him just as he likes.. or else.

Many times we try to do the same thing in our relationship with Christ. We try to take the helm, like Charlie sitting in the Captain's Chair, we try to manuever things in our lives to go where we want them to. We block messages {like Charlie did when Uhura was trying to recieve a message from Command}, we break people {sometimes emotionally and sometimes physically, poor Spock got his legs broken}, we try to manuever around until it all gets too much. The ship gets too big and there are too many people to manage all in our own power.

Proverbs 3:5-7 basically says that we should lean on God for all of our navigation. Otherwise we end up just like Charlie; overwhelmed, disliked, always upset, begging for help and ultimately ending in heart break. In the end all the destruction we cause can be reversed by Jesus. Just like the aliens who reversed what Charlie did; Jesus can restore all that we lost or have broken {1 Peter 5:10}. God should always sit in the Captain's Chair.