I Found God in 'Breaking Dawn...'

I am a Christian.
I also LOVE fantastical tales.
One of my favorite series of books is Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series.

And yes, it is a book about Humans, and Vampires, and Werewolves.

But the point of this blog is opening your eyes to God's way of weaving Himself into everyday, ordinary life, and I have found God in many fantastical stories - Twilight included.

I really believe author John Granger's thesis on fiction: That all humans naturally resonate with stories that reflect the greatest story ever told-- the story of God who became man... [and that] parents wanting to share the Christian message of love's victory over death, of our relationship to God the Father through Christ, even of Christ's two natures and singular essence [can find it in many fictional tales... naturally woven throughout the stories].
~Looking For God in Harry Potter, p. xix

In this particular case - I notice a distinct similarity between a scene in Meyer's 4th book, Breaking Dawn, and one who accepts Jesus into her heart:


*NOTE: if you are a Twilight Fan and and haven't yet read Breaking Dawn, this contains spoilers of a BIG nature. Please stop my post, go read the book, and then return! :)




When Jacob (a werewolf) finally "imprints" (find his soul mate), the change in his mind, body, and soul is described in this manner:

My shaking jerked to a stop; heat flooded through me, stronger than before, but it was a new kind of heat - not a burning.

It was a glowing.

Everything inside me came undone as I stared at the tiny porcelain face of the half-vampire, half-human. All the lines that held me to my life were sliced apart in swift cuts, like clipping the strings to a bunch of balloons. Everything that made me who I was - my love for the dead girl upstairs, my love for my father, my loyalty to my new pack, the love for my other brothers, my hatred for my enemies, my home, my name, my self - disconnected from me in that second - snip, snip, snip - and floated up into space.

I was not left drifting. A new string held me where I was.

Not one string, but a million. Not strings, but steel cables. A million steel cables all tying me to one thing - to the very center of the universe.

I could see it now - how the universe swirled around this one point. I'd never seen the symmetry of the universe before, but now it was plain.

The gravity of the earth no longer tied me to the place where I stood.

It was... [the girl] ... that held me here now.
~Breaking Dawn, p. 359-360

What if you changed a few words?
What if the catalyst for that change was not a mere person (or vampire or whatever) - but Jesus Christ? It would read something like this:

[I felt] a new kind of heat - not a burning.

It was a glowing.

Everything inside me came undone when I accepted Christ into my heart. All the lines that held me to my life were sliced apart in swift cuts, like clipping the strings to a bunch of balloons. Everything that made me who I was - my love for my family and friends, my hatred for my enemies, my home, my name, my stuff, my self - disconnected from me in that second - snip, snip, snip - and floated up into space.

I was not left drifting. A new string held me where I was.

Not one string, but a million. Not strings, but steel cables. A million steel cables all tying me to one thing - to the very center of the universe.... To God.

I could see it now - how the universe swirled around this one point. I'd never seen the symmetry of the universe before, but now it was plain.

The gravity of the earth no longer tied me to the place where I stood.

It was... God ... that held me here now.

Proverbs 3:5 (The Message)
Trust God from the bottom of your heart;

don't try to figure out everything on your own.

Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;

he's the one who will keep you on track.

Don't assume that you know it all.

Run to God! Run from evil!

Your body will glow with health,

your very bones will vibrate with life!

Honor God with everything you own;

give him the first and the best.

Your barns will burst,

your wine vats will brim over.

But don't, dear friend, resent God's discipline;

don't sulk under his loving correction.

It's the child he loves that God corrects;

a father's delight is behind all this.

Two things I get from this:

1. That God can speak to us in my ways - through many different venues. I find him in Harry Potter, Twilight, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, etc. - places where others would deem unlikely, but places where God knows He can find me.

2. When you open your heart to God's love, the ties that bind you to Earthly "things" are severed. And, the new "steel cable" now tethers you to Him and the truths of His Word.

The safest way to navigate the tough and tricky journey of life, is to secure yourself to One who created this Life in the first place. The glowing you will feel is worth it.

♥ Mags

Credits:

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

Looking for God in Harry Potter by John Granger

Verses from http://www.biblegateway.com/

I Found God in Alexander & His Terrible Day...

Note: I actually completed this entry late last night... but in fitting with my lousy day, my connection to the Internet failed on the desktop computer and I could not post it...... of course. *sigh*

Today I am defeated.

My head hurts.

My eyeballs hurt (who even knows why??).

I've got snot.

My laptop has just been reformated for the SECOND TIME in 7 days, and right at this very moment, a remote Dell technician is reinstalling programs on it.

When he's done, I'll still have at least a week's worth to time required by me to reinstall all of my own programs.

I'd lay my head down and cry... but I've done that already... and it just led to more snot.

One of my very favorite childhood books was Judith Viorst's Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Here is just the first page:

I went to sleep with gum in my mouth, and now there's gum in my hair, and when I got out of bed this morning, I tripped on the skateboard, and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running, and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Page, after page, it continues...

On the way downstairs the elevator door closed on my foot and while we were waiting for my mom to go get the car, Anthony made me fall where it was muddy and then when I started crying because of the mud, Nick said I was a "crybaby" and while I was punching Nick for saying "crybaby," my mom came back with the car and scolded me for being muddy AND fighting.

I AM HAVING A TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY! I told everybody.

No one even answered.

Alexander continues chronicling his awful day - wishing all the time that he could just ESCAPE to Australia because surely in a place that far away, things must be better... At the end of the book, when his mother is tucking him into bed - and things are still going terribly for him, his mother tells him that "some days are like that........even in Australia."

No matter where we live, some days just stink. Some days leave us feeling like the BUG squashed on a windshield - defeated and spent. It is those days when prayers are most needed. Praying (shrieking?), "GOD...HELP ME!" doesn't mean that God is going to swoop in and fix things up for you all nice and neat (but, OH, how I wish he would!). It does mean that God will lend His strength to you so you can keep your priorities in order and deal with whatever obstacles are in your way. I know that today, my patience is short and my temper is huge because I'm feeling sick AND frustrated. I know that this 4-and-a-half-hour online/phone call with Dell is just the first of many hours of getting my laptop back the way I want it to be. It stinks, for sure. But it's not God's fault. And it's not the end of the world. Other people have bigger things to deal with than a little bit of snot and a busted computer, and I'm fortunate to just have those two things on my plate right now.

So I guess my big word for today is "perspective." Some days we just need to crawl in bed, pull the covers up over our heads, and wait until morning. For me, today is one of those days... But I have hope that my tomorrow will be better - and either way, I know that with God, all things are possible, and He will be my source of strength.

God and Pants... Part 3

Considering I wrote two different posts on my cursed pants / Jesus pants, it would stand to reason that I would take a moment to write about another pair of pants... The Traveling Pants. :)

In 2001, Ann Brashares wrote The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants. What a cute story!! Four girls stumble upon a pair of well-loved blue jeans in a thrift store - and amazingly enough it fits all of them perfectly: the tall athlete, the curvy tempermental, the willowy beauty, and the small-boned rebel. That it fits all of their vastly different heights and frames AND makes them feel beautiful is no less than a miracle.

In the premier novel and the 3 books that follow, the girls share the pants each summer - mailing them back and forth across the places where they visit. From summer camps to visits with relatives... from digs in Turkey to movie internships, the girls use the pants to keep in touch with each other and keep their friendship connected. And the pants are there through all of their summer experiences: the divorce and remarrying (to other people) of Carmen' s parents, Lena's first love... and loss, Bridget's coping from mistakes she made with her boyfriend, Tibby's grief at the death of her friend, Bailey, plus various other family, social, or school issues. The pants are a constant comfort to each of them.

In the final book, the pants are lost - mirroring the feelings of loss the girls are going though as their individual lives push them farther and farther apart from each other. However, the girls come to realize that the pants were only a symbol of their everlasting friendship, and that the jeans, specifically, didn't have to be physcially present for their friendship to endure.

Now think of our Lord... a one-size-fits-all God who is with us through our hard times and our good times. He's with us when we succeed and when we make mistakes. He will comfort us when we are hurt and celebrate with us when we are happy.

When you meet other Christians, you have something instantly in common. No matter your size or weight or style, your faith links you together.

When Jesus died on the cross, the apostles were "lost" at first. How could they go on? How could their Lord continue if he had been crucified? But like the traveling pants, Jesus lived on in the hearts and minds of those who believed in Him. Tibby, Carmen, Bridget, and Lena discovered that they didn't need the actual pair of pants to remain best friends - even as miles and miles might physically separate them. Likewise, we don't need the physical body of Jesus to be there for us to be covered by His love.

For the girls, believing in the power of the pants was enough.

For Christians, believing in Jesus is a power in and of itself.

If you were to re-read this series of books with the parallel of God & Pants in your mind as you read, I think you'll look at this "humorous, light, fluffy, summer read" in a whole new way. But that's the fun of this blog... finding God in everyday, ordinary places... and what's more "ordinary" than a novel?! :)

If you'd like to read Parts 1 and 2 of God & Pants, follow these links:
Part I "I Found God In Some Cursed Pants"
Part 2 "Not Cursed After All... They're Jesus Pants!"

I Found God In A Brick Wall...

By now you've probably seen the coverage of Randy Pausch - author of The Last Lecture - who died recently after losing his battle with pancreatic cancer. This computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University first spoke in September 2007: a lecture entitled Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. It's remarkable how Mr. Pausch remembered his dreams as he grew into adulthood and how many he could actually accomplish.

The lecture is fascinating - it has been turned into a best-selling book, you can listen to the lecture in it's entirely on YouTube, and you can read a transcript of the lecture as well.

There are many life-quotes spread throughout the lecture, but my favorite is about a brick wall:

"Brick walls are there for a reason.

The brick walls are not there to keep us out.

The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.

Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.

They’re there to stop the other people.”

I just love that idea - the idea that an obstacle in my path might have been placed there to give me a chance to prove that the prize on the other side is something I really, REALLY want. But I have to reconcile this idea with the one that I've written about before:

That God allows hardship in our lives to warn us we are on the wrong path.

Are the two mutually exclusive?

God wants us to be persistent - to never give up:

2 Chronicles 15:7 "But as for you, be strong and do not give up,

for your work will be rewarded."

But he also wants us to pay attention to the signs He provides when we are straying from the path He has set before us. So how do we discern which message to head? When does "persistence" make way for "get a clue?"

My first thought is that God would not use a brick wall... but something even sturdier - a reinforced, bullet-proof, steel wall of infinite height and density... or he will erect many brick walls - a stumbling of hurdles blocking our path. Of course, people are often stubborn and ignore the bright, blinking warning signs that God provides. I suppose it is easy to take the brick-wall-is-merely-there-to-get-you-motivated idea and run with it willy-nilly through all blockages in your path. Perhaps we need some method of discernment? Can you ask yourself if the prize on the other side of the wall is something that God might want for you? Can you know that your methods of getting over the wall won't hurt another person in your quest? Will your Christian life be better for achieving your goals?

I'm all about rules - following the big ones AND finding loopholes in the others that would allow me to circumvent them altogether. I'd be the first to glare at the brick wall before me and find the angle that would allow me to climb over it, dig under it, wrap around it, or bust through it. But the brick wall is there for a reason - either to inspire me to want to get past it, to warn me that the path ahead is lined with hardships, or to thwart me completely from making a BIG mistake.

I guess for each wall, I just have to figure out which! :)

Good luck scaling the walls in your life,

:) Mags