My 14 year old son LOVES the Divergent book series. He is not an avid reader but he flew
through all three books of the series.
He couldn’t wait to tell us about everything he was reading and, as a parent,
I loved that he was reading a book that he said contained no sex or cursing and
yet completely kept him enthralled!
Last Friday night we decided to take Sophia and Dominic to
the movie. We wanted to make it a
family event and enjoy the “bonding time”. As the movie was starting, Dominic could hardly sit
still. He was so excited to tell
me who each person was, who was awesome and who he hated. The problem is that the further into
the story the movie got, the more agitated he became. All of a sudden, he was squirming in his seat and completely
ticked.
“This is nothing like the book!”
“This didn’t even happen in the book!”
“They don’t even have one of the most important
people!”
“The whole ending is wrong!”
As the movie ended, we had to calm him down because he was
completely irate!
I take this illustration to people looking at our Christian
lives. They hear about what’s in
the book and what the author wrote, but they don’t see it in us (I put myself
squarely in this camp). We
take what the author has written and make our own “movie” complete with
“creative interpretation” and “rewrites” to make the movie more palatable for
us than the book. People
eventually get tired of our movie and then want nothing to do with the book…or
it’s author.
The challenge becomes to live by the Book as the author
intended and not become the producer of a short film (my life) with personal
interpretation. I hope and pray
each of our lives remain true to the Author’s original intent and make others
want to read the book.
Ok, but can a person use you or I as a legitimate excuse on the day of judgment, or is it really just an excuse. I grant that holiness is a serious issue, I wish the churches were more concerned about it, but I am terminally imperfect until my terminal day in this age.
ReplyDeleteThanks for responding! I appreciate and enjoy the dialogue.
ReplyDeleteI know what you're saying and you are right, we won't be perfect in this life, ever. I think what really sparked this for me are the conversations I have had with Christians who have knowingly made comments, posts,had attitudes, etc... knowing that it was purely out of selfish response and they had no desire or intension of change. I actually had a person tell me once in regard to an argument with another believer "I know I'm wrong but I'll just let God judge me later". It's a terrible, and dangerous, response to have.
This is Good!
ReplyDeleteIt is encouraging to me to see you and many other pastors developing an online and social media presence. Maybe we don't have time to tweet all day but just for the connectivity and possibly instant feedback, the Internet should be seen as a God-send.
ReplyDeleteThe price for all of our sins and attitudes was paid in the cross. But we need to learn to take the Bible seriously, "the fear of The Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
Talk to you later.
Peace and joy in Him!