A Lesson in Love - Phantom of the Opera

When I was young I wasn't allowed to watch Phantom of the Opera because it was "too dark" and had too much seduction, sensuality and violence.  I finally watched it earlier this year and it is true that it has a lot of negative themes throughout.  What impressed me, though, was the climax near the end.

Some back story first:  The Phantom grew from a child who was never loved because of facial disfigurement.  He was mistreated from childhood and grew to be a very talented, but very twisted man.  He victimized himself and blamed his choices in life on his misfortunes.  Christine, herself, points out that his dark fate is not simply a result of his outward appearance but the condition of his soul (implying that his choices led to where he was at that point:  a seductive liar and murderer.)

So near the end, The Phantom is threatening to kill Christine's fiance if she did not choose to marry him.  The situation seems hopeless and here's what intrigued me:

Christine and her fiance, Raoul try a few different methods of arguing and reasoning with the Phantom as he is on the verge of murdering Raoul.

First they try reasoning with him, then Christine gains courage and says that she might have cried for him before, but now all she feels is hate.  How many of us have done this?  I know I have.  Thinking that if we let someone know how angry we are, it will convince them to change.

This has only a small effect on the Phantom and he continues to threaten.
Next Christine tries a guilt-trip.  Acting hurt she says that she trusted him and he deceived her.
This also has little effect.  The Phantom says she is trying his patience.

 Finally, something breaks.  This scene makes me think of an illustration I have thought of when dealing with people.  If people feel threatened or want to pick a fight or control things it's like tug of war.  If you pull on the other end of the rope then it is a full-blown battle, but if you let the rope loose a bit, the fight is over and the other person feels less threatened and becomes more trusting.  Peace is restored.  I don't know if this is what was going through Christine's mind but she suddenly changes her tune.  Looking on him with compassion she comes and speaks to him and touches him like no one ever has.  She says, "pitiful creature of darkness, what kind of life have you known?  God give me courage to show you, you are not alone!"

With that, the Phantom is overcome.  He sees how her actions came out of kindness and this gives him a measure of honor within himself.  He suddenly frees them to leave.

Christine and Raoul are safe, the Phantom is overcome and does find love in his heart for Christine especially now that he saw her selflessness in showing him - a monster - true love.
You may say Christine did that to seduce him into letting them go.
You may say Christine really loved him.
You may wish that Christine would be with him.
Maybe it was desperation that she chose to kiss him.
Here is what I saw:  Christine did not love him as a partner but she showed him true love by putting his need for someone to care before her own needs.  She chose a new way, a way of compassion and love to change a heart - even by a small measure.

I just think it was so profound, so beautiful.  I am glad she went with Raoul, he was what she needed.  Raoul was the sensible, realistic choice.  The Phantom never forgets her kindness.

Dear, dear, Christians...Oh, dear...dear, Christians

Dear, dear, Christians...Oh, dear...dear, Christians,

I recently heard about all the miffs Christians are having with Starbucks... or at least a few Christians.  I don't know.  I don't know who really cares about the "red cup" or the fact that Starbucks doesn't say "Merry Christmas" or whatever.  

And then there's the logo.  I've seen videos by Christians saying the logo at Starbucks is a deep, dark, satanic thing,  I watched a whole spiel about how it's a mermaid and mermaids were put on ships to protect them from mermaids and mermaids are mythological creatures signifying all kinds of bad things.  This guy implied that all of this is good reason to boycott Starbucks and it's evil brainwashing powers.  He said there are countless other "seemingly everyday" symbols that we all are accustomed to and it's brainwashing us to side with Satan, essentially.  He considers it his duty to unearth these things and bring them to the attention of Christians so we might repent of ever coming in contact with them.

Here's what I have to say about the lot.  He is telling us all the same things that Jesus told us:  this world is wicked.  It's no surprise.  It's nothing new.  He's right.  I do not, however, agree with him as to how we are to respond to this.  At least on social media, Christians seem to think we are supposed to "expose evil" and run far away from it.  

Is that what Jesus told us to do?  If we do that, if we expose all the evil in the world and boycott it all, we will be boycotting everything and everyone.  We would have to boycott ourselves, because we too are wicked.  Everything in this world, apart from God, is wicked   And what did He tell us to do? To be a light.  To be an example of speech, conduct, love, faith and purity.  I don't think many people know what that means anymore.  They will hear these words and still think their walk with God consists of fighting people on Facebook, following "Christian" trends and boycotting Starbucks.

Lets outline what God has really told us to do:

1. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2. You shall not make idols.
3. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother.
6. You shall not murder (nor let anger reside in your heart towards a brother which is just as wicked)
7. You shall not commit adultery (nor look lustfully on anyone whom God has not given to you as a spouse for this is just as wicked)
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet.

"Take up your cross and follow me, deny your flesh and forget earthly things.  Sell all you have and give the money to the poor, leave everything and come to me, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, do not offer to remove the speck from your brothers eye when you have a plank in your own, remove your plank and then help your brother with his speck"

These are the things we are supposed to do.  They are much more challenging and not as easy as "defending Jesus" on social media.  

So stop all the silliness.  You don't have to take part in it.  You don't have to be afraid of this wicked world.  You only need to look for God.  Where is He?  What is He doing?  Seek Him with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.  He didn't say boycott the world, He said be in the world, but not of the world.

Friends and the Will of God

I think I have come to or am very near to being perfectly fine and happy with being single.  You may laugh because you may think I am young and have not had enough years to experience loneliness but I truly feel I am in a good place.

Last month I was having a hard time, life was a bit stressful and I was wishing that I didn't have to be that girl who lacks the excitement of romance in her life.  I was also feeling confused about how to have a relationship with a guy, simply platonically. A friend helped me by saying
"Make friends, lots of friends.  Pursue friendships!  It is ok!"

I think idle hands makes way for melancholy and a feeling of missing out on life.  When I have a project to work on or a goal of some sort to work towards, I find myself wishing less and less.

I know that for me any old project will do, but I don't want to be happy and busy
doing my own thing outside of God.  I want to know what He wills for me.

"What willest Thou for me O, Lord?" is my constant cry.

I know, for sure, that He is preparing me.  Everything I'm learning or have learned, everywhere I go, is something He will build upon in the future.
He will take me places and let me do things that build on my experience.
I have to trust that right now, I am right where I am supposed to be.  I have to keep following Him if I want to go anywhere.

So friendship.  That is something that is very important.  I don't pursue friendships enough and seeing as many of my friends have moved away, it is a challenge.
I must make new friends and make an effort with the ones near me.

The iPod

I don't want to be the way I was with the iPod.
My brother had an iPod .
I wanted it when he didn't need it anymore.
He got a new phone and could play music on that
So I asked for the iPod.
He said he might give it to me.
I waited and he still didn't give it to me.
I complained and was rude. I felt misused. He got annoyed with me.
Finally, he gave it to me for Christmas.
As he did so, he reminded me what a b**** I was about it,
Which made it not so pleasant for me because I regretted the way I had behaved.

Now there's something else that I want and I staked my heart on it.
Now it looks as if I will not get it.
My heart is breaking.
Before, when a similar thing was in my sights I "held it lightly"
Knowing that it may not be in my destiny.
I told myself that if I didn't get it, I would be resigned and happy.

With this one, though, I held no reservations,
I staked my heart on it and promised myself it would be mine.
What am I to do now, when it seems there is no hope?

I don't know why my heart is breaking.
I am not hormonal right now.
I just think I made all the wrong choices within myself concerning this thing.
I promised myself and did not take all the precautions in my mind when I saw it.
I took a small moment to warn myself and tell myself not to sign my heart away,
But that lasted a week.

I don't want to be the the way I was with the Ipod.
I don't want to complain and yet I do.
I want to cry and wail.
I feel like I'm in the dark.
I don't know what my future will be now.
How silly of me to imagine that I knew my future in the first place!
It was all imaginary.

I feel so foolish.  I just want to cry.
Others have gone through this
And when they didn't get what they wanted, it was for the best.
Maybe this is for the best.
Maybe there is something better coming.
But I am not the one who will make it happen,
I will not bring it about.
God will.
He has the best plans, I know this.
I've seen His work and He is an expert.

So I want to give up the iPod.
I want to trust that I am loved.
I want to trust that either I will get it in the right time,
Or I will receive something else of greater or equal value.
I want to not be afraid of the unknown.
I want to not be afraid
That there are blank pages in front of all the filled up ones.
I want to trust that those blank pages
Will be filled with things just as amazing
Or even more amazing than the ones before.

God is Good(ness)

If you were to ask me "What do you know about God?", I would say that I know God is good.

I was talking with my nieces yesterday.  I had taken them out on a pull-wagon ride around our 100-acre property.  We had stopped at the playground and had a fantastic time playing for about an hour.  On the way back to my house I couldn't help but mentioning it:
"Girls, did you know Ingathering is coming?"
Ingathering is like a church reunion for us.  Everyone gathers in from all the places God has taken us and we get together and have what I guess most would call a revival.  But basically, it's no different than what we do all the year long and that is praise God, talk about God and talk to one another about the ways we see God every day.  We eat together and sing and dance and most years we camp-out and sit around fire pits til morning.

I was so excited telling the girls about God and everything I had learned about Him came together in that conversation.
"God is good.  He loves everything that is good and He's inside all of us.  When we get together at Ingathering God will get bigger because He's in everyone who will be there."  I realized this probably sounded like people were going to get bloated so I said that you can't see God, He's a spirit, He's everything that's good.

"What is good?" I asked
"Obeying."  Jenna answered.
"And sharing, and joy and peace" I said.

The Bible says man without God is wicked, any good within man is from God.  Dignity, strength, compassion, gratefulness, all of this is from God and IS God.

I've heard people my whole life say that God is in us.  I wondered what that meant.  Now I know that the good in us is God.  When we all come together with that goodness in us, the goodness grows and that is God.

God is good and anything good is from Him.

What if we believed that God is love?

Who Holds the Power?

Things that hold power over us should be handled with care. Someone told me that around the world the three most powerful things are food, music and sex. I would add money as well. These things are powerful in the ways that they can change us spiritually and physically. They have the power to enrich us or destroy us. They are gifts from God and it pleases Him to see us being good stewards of His gifts.

 Here I am scarfing popcorn as I type. Food is powerful. It does things to you when you eat it. It does things in your brain and your stomach. Hormones and chemicals start reacting. It becomes apart of you. There's food that tastes good and food that tastes not so good. A lot of times the food that tastes good is not good for you and the food that is good for you tastes less than good.

It all depends on how you were raised too, and we can change towards food and learn to love the things that are good for us.  We can also fall into bad habits with food.  It has the potential to invigorate and empower us to do amazing things.  Good food can help us reach our goals and make us feel like gods.  It also has the power to give us headaches, and sour stomachs.  It can make us feel like a big nasty blob that can't move.

Food has power over us and if we're not careful, it can rule us.  Some of us have become slaves to food and it can make us do things we don't really want to do.

Music is powerful, it does things to you when you listen to it. It does things in your brain. Hormones and chemicals start reacting. It becomes apart of you. There's music that sounds good and music that sounds not so good. Sometimes listening to the wrong kind of music can be bad for you.  Our opinions on music can change depending on what is going on in our lives.

We can also fall into music that influences us to think a certain way.  It has the potential to invigorate and empower us to do amazing things.  Good music can help us reach our goals and make us feel like gods.  It also has the power to give us headaches, and sour stomachs.  It can make us feel like we don't want to do anything or see anyone.

Music has power over us and if we're not careful, it can rule us.  Some of us have become slaves to music and it can turn us into things we don't want to be.

Sex is powerful.  It does things to you when you take part in it. It does things in your brain. Hormones and chemicals start reacting.  It can be something beautiful and pure or it can be something terrible and wrong.  It has the potential to invigorate and empower us to do amazing things.  Good sex can help us reach our goals and make us feel like gods.  It also has the power to give us headaches, and sour stomachs.  It can make us feel guilty or empty or lost.

Sex has power over us and if we're not careful, it can rule us.  Some of us have become slaves to sex and it can lead us down to places we don't want to go.

Money is powerful.  It does things to you when you receive and use it. It does things in your brain. Hormones and chemicals start reacting. It can be spent wisely or foolishly.  A lot of times the things we have to spend our money on are not very fun things at all.  We often end up spending it on things we don't need but just want and the list of wants never ends.

The way we were raised influences how we think about money.  Whether we were poor as kids or if we were rich growing up, can reflect onto how we look at money today.  We can fall into bad habits with money.  It has the potential to thrust us forward and empower us to do amazing things.  Money can help us reach our goals and make us feel like gods.  It also has the power to give us headaches, and sour stomachs.  Lack of money can get us down and cause us to make bad choices or the lack can inspire us to be creative or become more responsible.  We start to gain perspective and realize what's really important and what we really need.

Money has power over us and if we're not careful, it can rule us.  Some of us have become slaves to money and it can make us do things we don't really want to do.

All of these are gifts from God.  He has a certain way He wants us to use each.  It's challenging to be within His will.  That's why He asks us to follow Him and to seek Him.  He's in each of us so if we stick together we can help each other to see the will of our Master.  My prayer is that we can become so lost in Him, so in love with Him and in such communion with Him that all these things fall in their rightful place.  These things can control us if we don't let God be the one in control of them.  He has to hold the power - not us not the thing itself!

If we take it into our own hands to supply what we want, we'll mess it all up.  God is so wise and He knows more than we know,  I say let Him handle this stuff and I'll follow His lead.