The Original AVATAR

My family and I went to see the much-hyped James Cameron movie "Avatar." It was beautiful, and contained many not-so-subtle moral lessons. I am second to none in my realization that sometimes nations and men are blinded by their purpose and stomp all over anyone who gets in their way. It is tragic and un-Christian. However, to continually beat ourselves over the head with the perceived guilt of our forbears serves little purpose. That is also un-Christian. Jesus, the original Avatar, taught us to forgive others and ourselves. We cannot go forward with any real integrity unless we are able to leave the past in the past. What has been done cannot be changed with any number of belated apologies or entitlements.

Jesus came to Earth to free us from this kind of insidious manipulation by the enemy. Satan wants us to remain captive to our insecurity, greed, lust and fear. If we can look at our mistakes and sins without rationalizing, and without self-flagellation, then give them to the One Who has already cast them into the sea of forgetfulness, we can finally learn to walk free like He did.

The God Who was and is and is to come, poured Himself into His creation. He designed this beautiful world with us in mind. He could have made it any way He pleased, but He made it to please us. He gave us senses and emotions to truly enjoy the works of His hands. Like a lover who wants to give everything He is to the one He loves, God waits to see your reaction. Will you acknowledge His love and sacrifice? When it became clear that we would tend to get caught up in ourselves and wander from His beautiful plan for us, He, Himself, came down in the form of one of us. Like the avatars in the movie, He wanted to experience life the way we do. He wanted to relate to us and have us relate to Him. It's easier to understand Him as Jesus, the man, because we are human. We have never been omnipotent gods, and could not always grasp what He wanted us to know. He came in human form to get closer to us, and allow us to get closer to Him. What a great God we have.

Keep it Simple

I am re-reading the book Living With Less by Mark Tabb. I understand why folks say they are sickened by "The America Way." But we have no one to blame but ourselves. Think about it. We are all in debt because we want more stuff than we can really afford. We want this stuff because the advertisers have spent a lot of money telling us how wonderful our lives will be if we have it. Besides, everybody else has it. Is it the advertisers' fault? No. If the ads didn't work, if we didn't go spend the money, they would quit doing it. We can't blame the ad companies or pop culture spreaders any more than we can blame the government for our materialism. The desire for more is human nature. God gave us minds to think about decisions before we make them, so we don't have to be slaves to that urge to grasp for more. The capitalist system is not responsible for greed in America any more than the NRA is responsible for gang related shooting deaths. Individual responsibility has to come into play somewhere. We want to blame someone or something else, but the fact is we choose most of what happens in our lives. If we refuse to make a choice, that is also a choice to let things happen instead. If you don't like greed, start by looking into your own heart and root out the greed there. Live more simply yourself and be an example to others of the lower stress and higher level of quiet joy that can be had. Don't expect the government to legislate to others something you are not willing to do and espouse yourself. So. In many ways I am preaching to myself. We have a lot of stuff. Stuff I don't even see anymore because it's in boxes stored away. The next project at the Johnston household is to go through the stuff and only keep what we really love, need and use. The point of life is not the stuff we have. Our stuff has nothing to do with who we are. Our relationships define us. God created humanity because He wanted somoeone to love Him of their own free will. Did you ever wonder why He gave us a choice when He knew we would abuse it? Think about it. Would you want a love that was coerced or given mindlessly from someone who didn't know they could choose any other way? Of course not. We all want to be loved by someone who has a choice and chose us. How much more the God Who created us? So what are you doing with your free will? Don't give it away to pop culture or the propaganda of the hour. THINK and CHOOSE. Don't drift and wind up where everybody else is going.