The Reality about Myths
It’s one of those days where I’m doing my work when the “Heaven” moment comes. Beauty has a way of catching you unaware; when you’re least expecting to see it. I could be walking to my room window and the sunset upon the darkening world looks so poignantly beautiful and glorious; I would just stop for moment and look.
Today, it was one of my favorite youtube videos from Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. The final ending song called Into the West.
If you haven’t watched Lord of the Rings, you’re missing out. Lord of the Rings is one of the most epic movies that have ever been created, and one of the best stories ever written.
To give you some relevance of this song, in the story, the Undying Lands; the lands where only men who were heroes in Middle Earth would qualify to sail to. The Undying Lands laid to the west of Middle Earth, hence the song Into the West. No doubt, if you’ve watched the show and you’re a Christian, you’ll probably already have a good guess that J R Tolkien was writing about heaven.
Merry: “I din’t think it would end this way.”
Gandalf: “End? No, the journey doesn’t end here. The grey rain curtain of this world draws back, and all turns into silver glass. And then you see it…”
Merry: “What, Gandalf? See what?”
Gandalf:”White shores…and beyond… a far green country.. under a swift sunrise.”
Well, what really struck me was not just the song itself; it’s beautiful. But as I scrolled down to read the comments on this youtube video:
“If the Shire was a real place, i would live there forever… O the beauty and paradise”
“Just finished a back to back viewing of the trilogy. Feeling distraught at having to re-enter the real world.”
“you are not the only one, wish we could all live in peace in the shire, telling stories and singing songs all together as real humans. But unlikily it’s not real… or maybe yes?”
These were non Christians, and they were talking about a Paradise. They commented about how they cried at the end of the story, and how they want this played in their funerals. Through that song and the movie, the hearts of these non believers awakened to a deeper reality.
Whether we are Christian or not, God has set eternity in our hearts. The non Christians that speak so much of a Paradise, or another world that they wish to belong to, show their deep longing and desire to be in Heaven too. What we Christians hope to achieve through reaching out to our friends; Tolkien did it with a story. (and eventually a movie).
Pastor Kong calls it, the Cultural Mandate.
A Greater Revelation of Heaven
I feel that we have to move beyond an idea of Heaven that is an imagery of a nice place to go to AFTER we die. In fact, most people kinda think that Heaven is a dull place to be. I once even heard a Christian friend honestly tell me that he would be very sad if he died. And most of us believe we only have ‘one’ life to live. And secretly in our hearts, we’ll be pretty disappointed with the idea of death. (Yet Paul says, to live is Christ, to die is gain. How so?)
But yet, Heaven is so much more than what we think it is. After Aslan destroys the old Narnia, he brings the children and the Narnians into the new.The Unicorn in CS Lewis’ final book of the Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle says it so well:
” I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it until now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this.”
And the reason we love this Earth so much is because it sometimes looks a little like Heaven. The reason we love this life so much is because it sometimes resembles Eternal Life.
The world thirsts for the Eternal, and we have the answers with us. It’s a pity when it is us Christians that do not recognize our own soul’s deep thirst and longing for the Life to come. We think that as Christians, we’re supposed to show the world that we ‘have it all’, that we have all parts of our life figured out. Because the truth is, we don’t; we’re as thirsty as they are; it’s just that we’ve discovered the Fountain of Life.
Like Jesus in John 7:37, we should be telling the world, “Are you thirsty? then go to Jesus to drink!”.
Life is Epic, not mundane
Yeah, that’s what the show Lord of the Rings tell me. Having seen Frodo leaving the comforts of his Shire all the way to the gates of Mordor; his quest was no small task.
Such a movie reminds us that life is not just about our jobs to do, our bills to pay, and our money to make. There is a Great Battle against Good and Evil going on, and we have an essential part to play in this Great Battle.
Like Frodo and his fellowship, us in Christian fellowship have a purpose in the Great Battle against Good and Evil. There is an enemy; there is a quest. And there is a fellowship.
You might think I’m being too ‘spiritual’, or thinking too much to purport something like that. It only shows how much has been done to cloud our minds from the Great Battle that is already going on from the beginning of time. For most of us, we live a life of practical agnosticism. We live from day to day, constantly forgetting that we have a role to play in the bigger scheme of things. We make the unimportant important, vice versa.
Blaise Pascal says, Our imagination powerfully magnifies time, by continual reflections upon it, and so diminishes eternity… For want of reflection, that we make a nothing of eternity and an eternity of nothing.
A story like Lord of the Rings helps us remember. It helps our forgetful mind to remember that there is something Big is going on in our lives. Heaven against Hell, and Earth is the Battlefield. It tells us this:
1. We have a mission.
Like Frodo in the Lord of the Rings, we have a great mission we are called to fulfill in our lives. This mission will challenge us, change us, transform us. But there is purpose for which we are sent here, and it is an essential mission to fulfill in the Great Battle. This is something we forget so easily each day with our daily routines and mundane tasks overtaking our spiritual sense.
2. God is wild, but good.
LOTR shows us how unpredictable life can be. Are we able to pull through when all seems dark and uncertain? When Frodo falls into captivity time and time again, falls into trial after trials, faces betrayal by his friends. But ultimately, Good triumphs over Evil. Isn’t there any doubt that God is a wild God? In times like Frodo’s, where everything that gave him comfort and security was in shambles, the only thing he could lean on is that there is still good in this world.
“Frodo: I can’t do this, Sam.
Sam: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for. “
And the only thing we can lean on is the goodness of God. That God will be good to come through for you. That He will be our mighty deliverer. No matter how chaotic or uncertain our lives are sometimes, the thing we must hold on to is trust that God is good.
3. We need a fellowship.
Frodo may be the hero of the story, but he could have never done it without Sam, Aragorn, Legolas, Gandalf and Gimli. Although he was the ring bearer, but he needed the support of his fellowship to finish the mission. Without the main army distracting the armies of Mordor, Frodo might never make it to the volcano to destroy the ring.
We have used the word fellowship a lot, but I believe that till we are clear about our mission here on Earth, we will never see the true purpose and importance of a fellowship of intimate allies. They’re not just your cell group members, they’re intimate allies in your life to help you fulfill the mission God has called you to do. It can be a pity when we don’t recognize it, because then we choose to keep a safe distance from each one so that no one gets hurt; and in doing so deny ourselves opportunities for transformation, sharpening and growing together.
They’re not just your cell group members. They are your Sams, Legolases, Aragorns and Gandalfs, which are crucial in completing your earthly mission.
Every great story borrows from the Great Story.
When we see a great movie, isn’t it interesting to note that it usually borrows from the Gospels?
Tales of selfless sacrifice, of overcoming the odds, of David’s beating Goliaths, of faith and fear all borrow themselves from the Greatest Story of All. If you’ve ever seen a show that speaks so deeply into your soul, you’ll find that it often has gospel elements in it.
If Braveheart died for Scotland, the Jesus did far more; he died for all mankind.
If Gladiator fought and yet with his eyes on Heaven, even more did Jesus. (Hebrews 12:2)
If Frodo left the comforts of his Paradise in the Shire to fulfill a great mission, so did Jesus do far greater by leaving His throne to come to Earth.
These movies all moved millions, and spoke to many hearts. People can watch a youtube video and be true to their longing of Heaven, or believe in love again, or believe in sacrificing for the greater good. All while not hearing a single thing about the gospels.
I believe we have to do better to present the Gospel in this light. In our minds, the imagery of Jesus dying on the cross can be totally uninspiring. Yet a myth to retell the same story can become epic, breathtaking, awe-inspiring. Remember, that whatever that inspires us in this life; we find it in its entirety in the person of Jesus.
One little boy writes to CS Lewis, saying he feels really bad because he loves Aslan more than Jesus. But Lewis reassures him, telling him that all that he loved in Aslan was Jesus.
Our Forgetfulness
C S Lewis writes a book in the Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair to describe the our forgetfulness so well.
Prince Rilian is under a spell and he only ‘wakes up’ to who he is 1 hour a day. However during that time, he is bound to chains. When he is back under the spell, he believes that he needs to be under chains during that 1 hour because he becomes a beast.
When the spell is finally broken, the prince says:
“How long have I been under the power of the witch?” “It is more than ten years ..” “Ten years!” said the Prince, drawing his hand across his face as if to rub away the past. “Yes I believe you. For now that I am myself I can remember that enchanted life, though while I was enchanted I could not remember my true self.”
Movies, myths and stories are meant to break the spell on our agnostic condition; to remind us that there is a God, and there is a Devil. And there is a great mission we are called to fulfill in this world. There are things going on in our lives that are more than meets the eye.
We need to snap out of the condition that life isn’t just about jobs, money, blessings, being good. It’s not that it is not right to see life by this perspective; it is that we need to open up our hearts to see the greater, deeper things that are going on in our lives.The spiritual warfare, the struggles, the urgent timing we’re on.
And most of all, Who am I? Prince Rilian remembers that He is a prince of Narnia. Will we ‘remember’ who we are?
In the King James Version of the Bible, the word “Remember” is used 148 times. It just shows us how forgetful we are. “You shall REMEMBER the Lord your God!”
Conclusion
So 2500 words later, what am I exactly pointing at? I’m saying that the deepest reality of the human condition are often best expressed in myth. Because life is most mythical; magical and mysterious.
We have to allow these myths to capture our hearts and realize that all that have captured our hearts find its entirety in Jesus. That way, we become more understanding and equipped to understand the human desire and longing, and speak Jesus into people’s lives far more deeply and effectively.
And we are to remember, daily, that Life is Epic.
Raise my heart Heavenward.
