Tag: Worldviews

Afternoon Musing: 1 Corinthians 2:12-14

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***I couldn’t call this a morning musing because it is so late in the day, but it’s not long enough to qualify as digging in deeper into anything. So, you get an afternoon musing today. Enjoy.

“Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I used to love looking at Magic Eye images. Do you remember those? It was a picture that upon an initial inspection just looked like an abstract artistic design on the page. It was just visual nonsense. Even looking closely didn’t change that initial impression. But if you looked at them in just the right way, all of a sudden, the page came to life. There was shape and depth to the image that had previously looked flat and lifeless. It wasn’t always easy to maintain an ability to see what was really there. That took some work and intentionality, but the more you looked at them, the easier seeing what was really there became. If you weren’t willing to take the time and do the work to learn how to see them, they were never anything more than gobbledygook on the page. I have reminded of late that something very much like this is true with life more generally. Let’s talk about it.

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Digging in Deeper: Ephesians 6:12-13

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“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rules, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

A few months ago, several college campuses were roiled by protest movements that were anti-Israel, pro-Palestine, and sometimes even pro-Hamas. While the subject of the protests was undoubtedly a serious matter, one of the most humorous and frustrating things about these movements was that a number of the people who got caught up in them didn’t really know what they were protesting about. Somebody just said, “We’re protesting,” and they cluelessly showed up. In not really understanding the objective of the protest, they didn’t understand who their enemy was supposed to be. This left them vulnerable to all kinds of deserved mocking from folks who didn’t support them. If we don’t know who our real enemy is, it’s easy to get all caught up in fighting and lose sight of what our reason was in the first place. For the last several months I have slowly been watching through the series, Star Wars: Clone War. The series has been immensely enjoyable. Along the way, one theme has risen to the top in terms of a Gospel connection in the story. Let’s talk about Clone Wars, the Gospel, and fighting the right enemies.

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Digging in Deeper: 1 John 2:15-17

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“Do one love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions – is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

When filmmakers set about their craft, I am increasingly convinced their primary source material is the stories they grew up with. Having finally been given the opportunity by virtue of position or technology to tell and retell the stories of their childhood in a way that makes them more real, as well as to pass on a love of these stories to the next generation, they take it. This is why superhero and adventure movies generally have long been such a successful genre. Young people love them because those are the kinds of stories we are drawn to naturally as kids. Older people love them because they enjoy seeing the stories they grew up with brought to life on the big screen (and increasingly the small streaming screen). One of the latest Disney offerings is the series, Ahsoka, from the Star Wars universe. By all accounts it has been absolutely fantastic. I wouldn’t know because I haven’t watched any of it yet even though I am most excited to do so. But its release has set me on a journey that will eventually end in my watching the whole thing. This journey has been taking me through another popular entry from the Star Wars franchise which has given me the chance to reflect a bit on the worldview of Star Wars more generally. The intersection of that and the Christian worldview is what I’d like to explore for a bit with you this morning. Let’s dive in.

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