On Eagles' Wings

When you're a kid, and the world is small, it is easy to imagine that you can make a difference; that you can save the world. Which is ironic cause most kids can't tell you why the world needs saving. They just know it does.

When I was young I fantasized about being a hero. I imagined that I could fly--that I could sweep in and save someone from harm and take them away to my secret hideout in the side of a mountain where nothing evil could reach it.

As I grew older and my world changed, I began to daydream that that same safe haven wasn't so safe. Family situations began to develop and my ability to comprehend the dysfunction started to shake the paradigms that I had developed within my concrete, 5-year-old mind. In my imaginary world I found that I would have to defend my sanctuaries against attack. Regardless, the place I had conjured in my mind was safe because I fought to keep it safe. Looking back as an adult, I can see the direct correlation between my imagination to my real life issues that I was trying to process out through story.

By the time I was a teenager, my imagination begat fewer and fewer beautiful realities and replaced them with stories of pain and struggle. Stories that didn't always turn out "happily ever after." And everything around me screamed that this...this was normal.

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There is darkness and suffering. That's undeniable. It's everywhere we look. The beauty of the Gospel is that all can (and will) be redeemed! Christ, our great hope, is the foundation for believing and chasing after a world that is filled with peace and unity! In Christ, we can dare to believe that the impossible can happen; to believe that skin color, gender, and a thousand human variables don't have to divide us and that, in Christ, they won't!

Behold! the Light has come and the darkness cannot understand it!

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Life has a tendency to clip our wings and strip us of our armor. It's easy to fall into the trap of hardship and despair; to forget that as kids we once flew above the tree and fought against ghosts and goblins. We have grown cold in our elder years with the pain of love and loss. The kingdom of elves has been closed off. The land of golden rivers and sapphire tress has all but vanished. 

"It's time to grow up", they say, not even knowing what they mean or why. 

Should growing up mean that we lose our wonder or that hope must be tucked away in a chest like it's just another child's toy that is no longer relevant or acceptable to play with? 

What would happen if we allowed ourselves the opportunity to hope again? to hope for a unified and peaceful humanity? to dare to believe that we can put an end to racism? to live in a world where border control wasn't needed or travel warning lists could all be burned?

What if we dared to believe that we could fly?

Heroes and Heroines: The Role-models That Shape Us

We have thousand of of stories of heroes and heroines. I believe that a lot of these stories of heroes, along with their antagonists affect the way we look at the world we live in and change how we function. I think that we might be, sadly, implanting false concepts into the minds of our children.

Everyone loves Superman. The shining beacon of perfection for all humanity right? Superman stands above all the other characters in Metropolis in that he is the only one who always thinks of others and he alone protects the whole of metropolis...and the world. With a few punch and couple shots of laser-eye power, the big, blue boy-scout overcomes villain after villain.

So...the only purely amazing and moral human is...well, an alien? I guess that's also why there are so many evil people and so few good ones. Is this being translated into the minds of our kids that there is more evil than good and if good is to prevail it needs to come in the form of something alien to ourselves and is buffer
than the Governator and flies fast enough to out run a bullet and maybe even turn back time? Well...coming from a Christian perspective of the world...goodness comes from God and sometimes He seems alien enough, but strength of a single "human" isn't what will overcome evil.

Let's look at Wonder Woman. The woman carved from stone to be a daughter for Hades and...whatever her name was. Again, we find ourselves with a leader and guardian that is very...alien. Additionally, it seems that a woman can only be heroic is they dress like they just came out of a strip club. Can't they beat their enemies without trying to distract them with their own lust and raging hormones? That's fighting dirty! Most Heroines seem to have the mindset that they can't fight unless that show a little cleavage and/or mid-drift. Sorry sweetheart, looking good is not an essential part fighting crime and overcoming evil. This sets an unhealthy mindset into our daughters...and quite frankly our boys as well. Personally, if I had a daughter I wouldn't want her to grow up thinking that the only way she can lead and change the world is to run around in her panties and a tank top! A little more leg doesn't increase your chances of saving the day. Sorry, Zatana.

I think there needs to be more stories like that of Batman, an ordinary man that, through discipline and willpower, overcame his limitations and became the humble hero that made the hard self-sacrificing decisions and used his whit and passion to drive himself to being a force to be reckoned with. Additionally, the story of Batman tells of a need for community. Bruce Wayne cannot single-handedly defeat evil. He needs the faithful, loving care of Alfred and the companionship of others to reach his goal. He leads and he disciples.

The X-Men and the Avengers series also show the need for community and relationship that is vital for living in the real world. We need community to overcome our weaknesses and to form our special gifts and talents. This is reality. Even the Lone Ranger wasn't all that "Lone".

We need more stories that display truth and teach our kids that you don't need super powers of some bizarre origin (like a father that happens to be the Greek god of water) to be able to slay dragons and topple regimes. However, we need the beautiful stories of meta humans and Avatars that spark imagination and creativity in the minds of our children...and even in the minds of adults.

Grace and Peace,

Stephen

Reason For Imagination

This past week I went home for a few days and while there I offered to take my mom's Kindle for the purpose of downloading various free books and the like since she was unsure as to how it was done. Luckily I found the process rather simple. Additionally, I have delighted myself in taking advantage of having the Kindle and have begun reading "Orthodoxy" by G.K. Chesterton (yes, it is a free book!).

Chesterton is a delight to read, even if sometimes just a little over my head. His sarcasm mixes beautifully with his arguments and startling defenses. I am still working my way through (and most certainly am taking my time to ensure I grasp all that he is attempting to convey), but already I have been struck by one of his claims. Chesterton argues in favor of imagination and the need for it. Chesterton claims that it is the artist that seldom goes insane and the chess player that most certainly loses his sanity.

"The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits."          -G.K. Chesterton

                                                                                                 
 He makes it clear that he is not attacking logic and reason, but merely stating that logic and reason alone will drive one to insanity. It is the beautiful, healing remedies of the imagination that keep one sane. It is fascinating that our culture drives one to either be a dreamer or to be logically, but not both. Fairy tales and folk lore should stir us to think and to see what is around us for as Chesterton once said elsewhere among his writings "In fairy tales, apples are made of gold so as to remind us of the reality that they are in fact green; rivers run with wine so that for a brief moment we remember that they actually run with water."

Music has long be thought of as a remedy to the soul (as well as a corrupter thereof), and it is through poetry and imagination that we can go beyond the shackles of mere reason and live fuller, happier lives. God is the God of logic and reason, but He is also God of the aesthetic and of imagination.

If God desired that spiders could live unbound by gravity and fly in their already given state in spite of the
lack of a logically explanation as to how they are flying...He could. However, in His being true to His own nature and being loving and merciful He (most appreciatively) chosen not to give spiders flight, though sadly he has given a certain strain of the species known as "snake" the ability to do so...at my dismay.

May we learn to appreciate not only the intellect and ability to reason that we humans have, but also the gift of imagination that allows us to create poetry, music, novels, and the like.

Peace be with you,

Stephen