The Beginning of All Comings and Goings...
It was like this, The tree which sprang from the core of the Apple that Digory planted in the back garden, lived and grew into a fine tree…when Digory was quite middle-aged (and he was a famous learned man, a Professor, and a great traveller by that time) and the Ketterleys’ old house belonged to him, there was a great storm all over the south of England which blew the tree down. He couldn’t bear to have it simply chopped up for firewood, so he had part of the timber made into a wardrobe, which he put into his big house in the country. And though he himself did not discover the magic properties of that wardrobe, someone else did. That was the beginning of all the comings and goings between Narnia and our world…
~~from The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis~~
Certain tales stick with us for life. Maybe its because they help us define something about our existence. Maybe its because years after they have been read, they can be picked up by the adults-once-children who have taken on the weight of the world of circumstance, and usher them back to a place of child-like magic and wonder. For those who are children now, I believe those stories will be Harry Potter (and whatever it is he might be facing this tome around). But, for my generation--the emerging generation--the tale that is as much a part of us as breathing is The Chronicles of Narnia.When my family left Japan when I was a young boy, our church gave us the boxed set of the Chronicles. I read through them voraciously. It was as if I had never read a book before. I simply devoured the tale. I witness the Founding of Narnia and the arrival of evil upon her shores. I’m there as Lucy Pevensie travels too far into the wardrobe, arriving at a lamp in the wood and meeting gentle Mr. Tumnus. I taste the Turkish Delight as Edmund consumes his own judgment. I cry as Aslan (Turkish for “lion”) pays the horrifying cost of Edmund’s treachery. I am riding the Narnian horse, Bree, with Shasta as he escapes from a life he was never meant to live in order to discover his true identity and destiny. You get the idea. The tale has stayed with me. And now, Disney and Walden Media have just finished principle photography of the first film in the series, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, releasing Christmas 2005. Soon, a whole new generation will experience the magic of C.S. Lewis’ created world.The Magician’s Nephew is my favorite, though. It’s like the special features of a DVD. A lot of people don’t watch the special features, which is simply a waste of DVD’s capabilities, I think. Sure, knowing what a grip boy or second assistant director does isn’t that important. But, occasionally, you’ll get some insight into what a director or actor was thinking as a certain scene was fleshed out in reality. Inevitably, it always adds something to the experience of watching the film. This is what The Magician’s Nephew accomplishes, giving the reader insight into what went on before all the journeys in Narnia began. It provides the reader with a glimpse of the adventure before all other adventures. How did Narnia come to be? Was it exciting? Where did the White Witch from LWW come from, or was she just always there? What makes Narnia so magical?
Right now, The Magician’s Nephew is kinda where I am in life. I’m part of this church plant on the east side of Detroit. But, its in it’s infancy. This past Sunday, a small group of seven people gathered together in my pastor’s basement and we simply prayed. We prayed for a lot of things. We prayed for direction. We prayed for decisions. We prayed about spiritual attacks. We prayed about the character of the people God would have lead this part of His Church. We prayed that God would bring people with talents and servant hearts out of the woodwork. These are things going on behind the scenes of what God is doing.The Apple in Digory’s back garden has been planted, has grown into a tree, has been blown over, and now we are fashioning a wardrobe from the timber. In a year and a half, prayerfully, the doors of the wardrobe will open to the east side and people will leave the Shadow Lands so they might enter a magical land--a land where they might experience the Great Lion, “the son of the Emperor-over-the-sea, dwelling beyond the Eastern Ocean, past Aslan’s Country, and the World’s End.”See you on the other side of the wardrobe.
For Pharaoh. May your heart be softened.
Happy Birthday, bro.
The Confusing Plan of God
"Confusion is a word we have invented for an
order which is not yet understood."
~~Henry Miller, American Author~~
So, I’m twenty-five and this is not where I envisioned my life. I’ve had my fair share of bad days. I’ve made my fair share of mistakes--large and small. I’ve got my fair share of regrets. I’ve had my fair share of failures. Sometimes I look back and wonder why the heck I even started some of the riskier things I tried. I’ve been told that dreams, more often than not, end up shattered. Not too sure I agree with that. Maybe we just lose sight of them.
Since I was in middle school, I’ve always known God has had plans for me. Sometimes it has led to pride. I mean, come on! When you’re in middle and high school and your faith hasn’t had a real chance to be riddled with holes and cynicism from postmodern or emergent or whatever we’re calling our culture at the moment, it’s not hard to get overly prideful about it. God, sometimes referred to as ‘The Creator of the Cosmos’, has big plans for me. There are 6 billion people on the planet. It simply boggles the mind that a being with “phenomenal cosmic powers!” has set aside enough time to think up a part for me in His grand play. Think about it. This is the same dude who makes the sun rise and set, keeps gravity working, and the moon controlling the tides. Did I mention, it’s the same guy Who gave us the belly button, the natural lint trap? And, while all this stuff is going on, I’m part of something He’s up to.
The main thing about knowing that God has a plan for my life is that pride is not the major feeling I get. I live in a continual state of confusion. There are countless failures that haunt me. That’s just me being brutally honest. Of course, it could have something to do with the fact that the same God Who makes the sun rise and set, also allows earthquakes, tsunamis, genocide, euthanasia, and terrorism. I suppose He’s got his reasons, though. I don’t presume to know the mind of God. But, that’s not the point. Confusion reigns supreme. I wonder, how can this God--this God Who has this big plan for me--allow me to make mistake after mistake after mistake followed by regret after regret after regret?
By no means do I play the ‘perpetual sufferer.’ You know the type of person I’m talking about. The person that is simply a drain to be in a relationship with. Sure, I’ve been victimized. Conversely, I’ve also been the victimizer. I am both sinner and saint. Strange dichotomy. But, then again, so are most of the people reading this. I think we all are unsettled with where we are in life, whether our mistakes will keep us from our dreams, and if the plan we think God has for our lives was nothing more than bad Chinese coupled by light from Venus reflecting off swamp gas near some power lines we live beneath.
Next week I’m checking out Rochester College in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Maybe I’ll get to attend in the fall. Maybe I won’t. Being a 26 year-old university freshman was never part of the plan. But, it’s a step toward understanding. Does that mean it’s a step away from God’s plan for my life? Gee. I sure hope not. Guess I’m just exercising all that free will I keep hearing so much about. Who knows? I could be just as confused about God’s plan while in college as I would be out of college. Admittedly, one is a cheaper route than the other, but I’ll never know unless I try something.
