“May the force be with you.”
Recently I was able to spend 11 nights watching every movie in the Star Wars saga with my son. By watching one nightly in a short period of time, I was better able to make sense of all the stories on a whole. I also was able to see the underlying theme that played throughout the movies. We can all see that the sagas are a battle between good and evil. We can understand the inference of faith each time someone says, “May the force be with you”. What wasn’t so obvious, at least to me until I saw them all played out together, was that they were also a battle of pride vs. humility and fear vs. hope. We all know the line, “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re our only hope,” but there was so much more. I was filled with the presence of God as He taught me so much about fear and hope through these science fiction movies. Without giving away any movie spoilers, I’d like to explain what I mean in this post and the post next week.
THE MOVIES
The times when fear played a major part began with pride. While it can be manifested in many different ways, pride basically gives one the attitude of entitlement. With entitlement comes a sense of the need to control the circumstances in order to hang on to what one feels they are entitled to have, what they are unhealthily attached to. Fear of loss begins when the entitlement is threatened. In the movie, as the entitlement and, therefore, fear grew, anger grew as well. It easily followed.
With all this, the ground then becomes fertile for the threat of some sort of loss to be perceived as great and the door for battle to be opened. Armed with the interior destructive weapon of fear that was built on a foundation of pride, anger seemed justified, drastic actions were engaged and hate followed closely behind. Nothing short of a recipe for disaster. The only way the characters in the movie could protect themselves from losing what they loved was to enter the door and fight. In addition to the interior battle tools of pride, fear, anger, and hate being used, they employed secrecy. They never explained the truth of their greatest fears to those who loved them and had always been there for them. With nobody to help eliminate their fears, they only saw battling as the answer. Having put themselves on the pedestal of power, they believed that they could fix everything through their skills and power. Anybody who stood in their way would be eliminated. While they insisted they were acting for the good of others, their fear of loss exposed the truth. All their actions were to ensure that they did not have to suffer the loss they so greatly feared, a loss that was easily exaggerated in their imagination because it began with pride that was so tightly connected to all the fears that had developed and then kept a secret.
With fear causing the initial action, destruction became the fruit and instead of saving what they did not want to lose, they lost it and so much more. Jesus told us the only way to save our lives is to lose them (Luke 9:24), but fear has trouble seeing this and we become totally blind and increase the destruction once we hate.
LESSON
Anger, in whatever form it takes, reveals much. It never starts independently. It is rooted in other causes and can show us things such as how closely connected pride and fear are.
Anger, including things like passive aggressive anger or stubbornness, often reveals what we are afraid of losing. In short, they expose what lies in the heart.
That can be true even if we don’t recognize fear and only see pride being revealed. Pride has a measure of entitlement and attachment connected to it and when those are threatened, one can fear suffering their loss. Pride/fear can be in one area or in many that have built upon each other. Pride/fear can turn to hate slowly or quickly, but in general, if we don’t address it sooner than later and a door of something greatly feared is opened that allows the anger to manifest into hate, we are going to find ourselves on the losing side. The sooner we recognize where the fear lies, the sooner we can address it and protect ourselves from the devastation and blindness hate causes. We should never be afraid of revealing the fear we hold within to those we love. It loses its power when we have the support of someone who can identify when fear is unfounded and instead helps us to embrace humility, truth and hope.
What happens when fear is warranted and the threat of loss is real and righteous? I will cover that in my next blog when I discuss humility and hope. For now, I will reflect on these points so that I may grow in my relationship with God by growing in trust and fearing not. I invite you to join me.
REFLECTIONS TO PRAYERFULLY PONDER
Scripture can help us on this journey. The problem is that often times we say we believe what our faith teaches us, but then when we are asked to actually live it, we forget what we have learned.
Do you just repeat scripture or do you live it?
Do you believe pride comes before the fall?
Do you do a daily examine to see if pride crept into your day? If it does, do you address it immediately?
Do you recognize fear or anger in our lives? What are you afraid of losing?
Do you say scripture tells us not to be afraid 365 times and then become fearful?
Do you say that perfect love casts out all fear, but fail to practice it?
Do you say love conquers all and not mean it?
Do you have a trusted friend who can pull you out of pride and fear before it becomes overwhelming?
Do you talk to God about your fears and why you act like you believe or do not believe in His teachings about not being afraid? Do not be upset with yourself. Wounds take time to heal and God is patient with us.
Pray and reflect on all of this with God.