Just A Thought

Deep in the tropical forest a jeep loaded with a half dozen cartel desperados is careening cross-country in pursuit of a lone, beleaguered lawman. As these blood-thirsty criminals catch sight of our hero, two hand guns and three machine guns simultaneously open fire. He zigzags as dirt and woodchips are kicked up on every side, but not single bullet grazes his body. Stumbling toward cover the lawman tucks, rolls and releases two quick rounds in the direction of his pursuers. As luck would have it, one of his bullets flattens a tire while the other punctures the gas tank, causing the jeep to roll over and explode, killing or maiming every one of our hero’s enemies.

In the next scene, the lawman has retrieved one of the fallen enemy’s machine guns. After deftly disabling several compound guards, he walks boldly into the command cartel’s center and opens fire. This time, everyone he shoots is riddled with holes. How convenient!

How is it that three machine gunners and two hired gunman can’t hit our hero, but he can kill a dozen men with one machine gun? The answer: Hollywood cheats. In the movies, sometimes a fender bender results in major injuries, but, at other times, a rollover accident that sends a car off a bridge into a raging river leaves the driver with a small cut on his forehead which slightly inconveniences him as he breaks a window and exits the car under water, so he can swim down river and escape those who wished him dead. The screenwriters get to make it up. They don’t have to be honest. They can always bring the story around to their preferred endings.

That may work well in movies, but real life doesn’t work that way. St. Paul said it this way: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7) In real life there are consequences.

I fear that our society has become so media-influenced that many people have begun to believe that life’s rules can be changed; that they can beat the odds just like 007. They see so many movies in which a husband or wife cheats on their spouse, negotiates a lucrative settlement, and rides off into the sunset with their new lover, that they truly expect their affair to end up that way. But Hollywood is cheating. Real affairs break hearts and leave children abandoned. Cheating in real life leaves people lonely and untrusted. Incidentally, few of us will ever have the kind of money movie characters seem to have when they are finished abusing everyone in their life.

Movie characters can sin and evade the consequences. They don’t have to deal with reality like you and I do. But, remember, movies are so unrealistic that it requires a great deal of effort to produce a single scene. For example, director Stanley Kubrick once asked Shelley Duvall to repeat a scene 127 times for The Shining. When Charlie Chaplin ate his boot in The Gold Rush, he did 63 separate takes of that scene. In fact, since his boot was actually made of licorice, he ended up being taken to the hospital for insulin shock due to the high sugar intake. One producer estimated that it takes 400 hours of raw footage to produce an average film.

I’m sure every reader is aware that Hollywood cheats, but I’m not sure we all realize just how many messages Hollywood preaches that have adversely affected the morals and values of our society. Think about the many politically or socially charged movies that have been released throughout the years. Powerful messages are conveyed, but the viewers don’t always stop to consider how much Hollywood cheated when they made their case. You and I live in the real world. We might want to think twice about letting Hollywood serve as our moral or political compass, because Hollywood cheats – big time!

Our world is no accident; it is a glorious display of ingenuity and purpose. Life, itself, is a precious gift that was painstakingly planned. We live on a planet that was especially designed for “abundant life,” in every sense of the phrase. (John 10:10) Scientist have long warned that we should take care of the earth because so many systems must be healthy and in place in order for life to prosper. As author Robert Sawyer pointed out, “If the strength of gravity differed from its known strength by as much as one part in 1 x 1040, stars like our sun could not exist, and therefore neither could a life-supporting planet like earth.” Other enormous factors such as the temperature of our sun, our exact positioning in the galaxy, and the distance between the earth and the moon all testify that somebody bigger than you and I wanted life to exist on this planet. Ironically, our very concern for the health of the earth is proof that we must instinctively recognize that the earth is not an accident just morphing along into something profound and meaningful. Instead, like us, this planet was “fearfully and wonderfully made.”

The knowledge that you and I matter, and that we were placed on a planet that is ideally suited to us can be of great comfort. Astrophysicist Paul Davies, who does not publicly proclaim any particular religious position, notes that “we can’t avoid some anthropic component in our science, which is interesting, because after three hundred years we finally realize that we do matter.” I would go further and contend that mankind is God’s crowning creation. He set us up for success. That is why our earth and its cultures flourish to the degree that human beings are willing to work under God’s directives. Conversely, when we live in opposition to God’s laws there are miserable consequences.

One poet expressed just how much you and I matter to God like this: “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born.  Every day of my life was recorded in your book.   Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them;  they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!” (Psalms 139:13-18 NLT)

The very fact that mankind ponders such wonders is evidence that God gave him a place of great honor in His creation. Man, unlike the rest of the animal kingdom, was given a living soul. Neuroscientist, Mario Beauregard, said, “As conscious beings, we do not simply undergo experiences; we create them. A worm, bothered by light shining on its photosensitive spots, immediately seeks darkness. A human, faced with a similar unwelcome experience, may ask, “But must I flee? What if I don’t? Can I learn from this?”
Perhaps life has been difficult for you lately, causing you to wonder about things like, “Why am I here, and where am I going?” If you were just a mass of random molecules you would not have the ability to ponder those things. Do you suppose it is a coincidence that so many pondering people, for so many years found their answer in a relationship with Jesus Christ? After all, He made us (John 1:3) – that is why we matter to Him.

The concept of heaven has stirred and comforted the hearts of millions of believers throughout the centuries. According to Scripture, it is a place free from sin, disease and sorrow. It is a place where people who really want God to be God are gathered together after death; a place where everyone is obeying God’s rules, thereby making it a place of love, joy and peace. It has also been described as a celestial city with gates of pearls, mansions, a crystal sea and streets of gold. (see Revelation 21)
In 1897 Jessie Pounds wrote a song that became a very popular funeral song in the early 1900s. The song was titled “Beautiful Isle of Somewhere”. The lyrics are as follows:

Somewhere the sun is shining, Somewhere the songbirds dwell;
Hush, then, thy sad repining, God lives, and all is well.

Refrain:
Somewhere, somewhere, Beautiful Isle of Somewhere!
Land of the true, where we live anew, Beautiful Isle of Somewhere!
Somewhere the day is longer, Somewhere the task is done;
Somewhere the heart is stronger, Somewhere the prize is won.
Somewhere the load is lifted, Close by an open gate;
Somewhere the clouds are rifted, Somewhere the angels wait.
I am guessing most people would like to believe in a place like heaven, but what kind of evidence do we have that such a place is real? How is it that so many people have embraced the idea that there is such a wonderful place, beyond the grave, waiting for those who have given their life to God?
The best evidence we have that heaven exists is the documented, historical event that we celebrate at Easter. Easter is the celebration of a cataclysmic breakthrough. It commemorates Jesus’ unprecedented demonstration that there is life after death. When Jesus predicted his own death and resurrection and then his promises came to pass, He provided the evidence that He was who He said He was. By dying and coming back to life on the third day, He demonstrated His authority over death, hell and the grave. Jesus, who had predicted his own death and resurrection was now validated -- meaning that if His prediction of His resurrection was true then His other prediction of a place called heaven is also credible.
Jesus told his followers, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” (John 14: 1-3)
When we celebrate Easter, we are celebrating a God who is bigger than life and who has prepared an awesome place for those who are willing to be a part of what He is doing. Forty days after Jesus proved that there is life after death, He ascended into heaven while 500 people watched. At that event, angels promised that He would eventually come back for those who were waiting for Him. (see Acts 1:1-11) Heaven is a believable, real and wonderful place; have you made your reservation?