An Eternal Truth from I Robot: The Heart is Essential!
I just finished watching I Robot. I’d seen it before, but this time I was intentionally looking for a message to take away from the movie. Most stories speak eternal truths whether they mean to or not, and I easily found one. The best line of the movie came between the two robots VIKI and Sonny. VIKI has decided to take away the free will of mankind because they are too destructive toward themselves and toward the existence of robots. Sonny is rushing to destroy VIKI to prevent her from essentially enslaving all of humanity.
VIKI: Do you not see the logic of my plan?
SONNY: Yes, but it just seems too… heartless.
You see VIKI is a super computer that follows logic alone. The logic she follows leads to cruel actions toward others and it completely lacks any heart. Sonny on the other hand is a robot who has been designed with free will, emotions, and most importantly of all…heart.
A simple message perhaps, but a profound truth. Brain without heart is less than human and for that matter less than God. A significant part of our humanity is our heart. God see’s the heart and knows our motives. Thank God we’ve been given a good restored heart through Christ! And that heart comes from our Creator (in Who’s image we were made and in who we are redeemed through the blood of Jesus). When we think of God as all brains and no heart it’s no wonder we doubt His intentions and fail to see Him as truly good. We doubt Him and we doubt our true selves.
Read MoreA Conversation with God about (GASP!) Lust.
Do you ever just sit down and have a conversation with God? I don’t do it nearly enough. I had the opportunity this last weekend to do just that in the midst of a battle with temptation. I don’t remember exactly how I worded it, but essentially the question I asked God was, “How are we supposed to do this? Why do I struggle with sexual temptation at times? What is it about women that sometimes creates such inner conflict within me?” It was pretty cool because I was able to turn my struggles over to God in conversation. Here’s what I felt like God had to say to me:
“Andy… You have learned to use what I intended for good, for your own glory. Self worship is the heart of the matter. The answer (or response) to self worship is not self hatred, rather it is truly loving oneself (which always points to the Father). Beautiful women are not for you to consume, they are daughters of the King to be cherished.”
At this point I decided to look up the definition of the word “cherish” and found these helpful definitions:
1. To hold or treat as dear.
2. To care for tenderly; nurture.
It occurred to me then that “cherishing” entails doing what is best for others not focusing on what you think you can best get out of them.
So then this is my prayer… “God help me to remember this. Lord burn it into my heart and my mind. I bring the cross of Jesus against voices that would encourage me to think otherwise, and I ask for protection against all foul spirits. Lord help me to crucify the flesh, rebuke my enemy, and lean not on my own understand. I exercise the authority given to me as a believer in Christ through His Death, Resurrection, and Ascension. Amen.
Read MoreSelf Rejection
So I’m reading (or rather listening to) a book by Brennan Manning called “Abba’s Child.”
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I first heard of Manning nearly ten years ago when researching the life of song writer/musician Rich Mullins (who’s music I came to love because of my dear friend and spiritual mentor Seth Loyd who was seemingly obsessed with Mullins when I was in college at Iowa State).
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I read “The Raggamuffin Gospel” a few years ago and would heartily recommend it. My friend Ron Z. suggested I pick up “Abba’s Child” after we had a pretty deep conversation about a month or so ago and thus far it’s really speaking to me…about my struggle with shame and identity. Here’s an excerpt:
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“In my experience self hatred is the dominant malaise crippling Christians and stifling their growth in the Holy Spirit.
When we have come to believe in the voices that call us ‘worthless’ and ‘unlovable,’ then success popularity and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap however is self rejection. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone or abandoned I find myself thinking: ‘Well that proves once again that I am a nobody’. My dark side says ‘I am no good, I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected, and abandoned’.
Self rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us, ‘The beloved’…
Christ wants us to alter our attitude toward ourselves and take sides with Him against our own self evaluation. ” – Brennan Manning (Abba’s Child)
Read MoreHello blogosphere…
Hi. I’m back. I hope to be able to update this blog from time to time with thought provoking comments… or at the very least some random musings.
“Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” - Proverbs 29:20
I have been thinking about re-opening my blog for a long time. It’s been very difficult to keep my mouth shut these last couple of years. I like to write. I like to share opinions. Sometimes though, my words have been foolish. I think this verse in Proverbs speaks to that. A lot has changed since I once ran this blog. For one thing, I’ve dealt with a lot in my personal life that was once afflicting me. I had a lot of pent up self-condemnation that fueled much of the condemnation I lashed out with at the world and at our culture. I’m sorry for any judgmental, legalistic, prideful, and condemning tones of the past. I can’t quite explain all that I’ve been through in the last two years except to say that I have developed a new paradigm. A grace paradigm. I’d like to think my empathy has grown, that I’ve developed more humility and brokenness, and that I try to see things from other perspectives. I’ll let you be the judge of that as we move forward. Better yet, why don’t we let God be the judge. Humankind spends way too much time on the judgment seat in roles that we were never designed for in the first place. With that said, I’d like to invite you to listen to this challenging message called “The Picker” by James Wilder.
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