Before I go to sleep, I like to watch an episode of something or other to wind down. But recently, I've completely exhaused my options on 4OD, iPlayer and the likes, and even old favourites like Peep Show and One Tree Hill have been overdone. I tried watching Lost, but after 4 nights of really intense, weird dreams I figured that it wasn't the best idea in the world. So I decided to watch preaches instead, but the soothing voices of PJ Smythe and Terry Virgo just made me drop off midway....
I needed something short, lighthearted, *that's Driscoll out of the picture*....and Bible based....and then I hit the jackpot...
......VEGGIETALES!!!!!
For those of you who are not familiar, Veggietales is basically a kids program consisting of half hour episodes where Bible stories are told by vegetables. Singing vegetables. With no hands. It's mental. And now my equivalent to a bedtime story.
So there I was a couple of nights ago watching one of my personal favourites-'Josh and the Big Wall'. (that's Joshua and the Walls of Jericho if you're over the age of 10). Basically, the Israelites have been rescued from Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, wandered around the desert for 40 years, and finally, they reach the Promised Land. With Joshua in charge, they head to the city of Jericho, only to discover that it is surrounded by a huge wall and some rather nasty french petit pois for guards (you figure which bit was added for the kids...)
At this point in the episode, Joshua tells his people to go back to their camp so that they can decide what to do next. And at this point, there was a rather interesting interchange between a couple of Josh's vegetable followers, which went something like this:
----
Narrator: Well, things weren't going as smoothly as Joshua hoped, so the Israelites decided to pull back, and talk things over
----
Bean: 'That's a really big wall'
Pea: 'This time, I really mean it: we should go back to Egypt! Don't you remember? Snorkling in the Nile, three square meals a day, plenty of excercise, oh-it was paradise!'
*bemused pause*
Bean: '....BUT WE WERE IN SLAVERY!'
*another pause*
Pea: ...nothing is perfect!
----
It made me giggle a lot. "What a silly old pea", I thought, "Who on earth would want to go back to THAT when you're in the PROMISED LAND?" Silly pea....
But on second thoughts, I was struck by actually how familiar this kind of conversation is in my everyday life. I mean, obviously, with talking vegetables aside, and instead, both sides of the dialogue being a debate inside my head-this is genuinely a pretty common occurance. And I'm gonna take a guess-to preserve my own santity at least-that I'm not alone.
The truth is this: when we get to a place in our lives where we give everything up to God, our lives change. Our hearts, our minds, our souls, all get a complete reworking, and where we were once defined by striving, grace takes care of everything. The outward results of these intimate inner transformations are more often than not, obvious. Don't get me wrong-it's won't necessarily happen overnight. In fact, it probably won't. Transformation takes time. But it's totally worth the hard graft, the gritted teeth, the pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, and throwing yourself completely into a life of faith and trusting God and letting Him take control. And after a while , there is a point where you begin to see how much you have grown, and how different you are now, and how God has transformed your life for the better.
But after a while, we will hit a wall. In the case of Mr Pea, he hit a literal wall-and his reaction? Run back to the life he had before and go back to building walls instead of knocking them down. And as much as it's easy to laugh at him and think 'Oh but I wouldn't give up so easily', we all do at some point, to some extent. We are ALL prone to slipping back into our sinful natures. And a lot of the time we don't see it as a big deal-if indeed we see it at all- 'O I'll just do ______ one more time, and then never again', 'It's only a little thing, it's not a big deal', 'O ok I'll do_______ for old time's sake'...
...Just because we don't completely spin 180, cross the desert and sea back to Egypt, rip our shirts off and get straight back to hauling rocks doesn't mean that we've never glanced over our shoulders and wished when things get hard...in fact, I believe that a lot of people live like that. But the truth is, no matter how long we glance back for, as soon as we take our eyes off God, if even for a second, we are prone to forget that the ground we are standing on is, in fact, the Promised Land.
Romans 6 says:
"...We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. ...So you should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus"
Like our good old friend Mr Pea, we have been freed from our past slavery. And also like our vegetable friend, we have been led out of captivity by a God who is faithful, dependable and merciful, and through Jesus Christ, we enter into new life in the Promised Land. So next time you find your life hits a wall and feel that fleeting panic or worry and you want to go back-remember, you are NO LONGER A SLAVE, AND ARE ALIVE BY THE POWER OF GOD, THROUGH JESUS CHRIST.
I know that this is something I'm gonna have to remind myself of daily.
Talking Vegetable... Sounds like my cup of tea!
ReplyDelete