Take the red pill

"The matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes, to blind you from the truth."

~ Morpheus - The Matrix

One of my favorite movies of all time is the 1999 film The Matrix. It is your typical, yet sophisticated thriller that takes an unknowing hero and enlightens him to the importance of his role in saving the universe. Much like Luke Skywalker in the 1977 film Star Wars. Now many people have tried to connect both of these films to Christianity and draw connections between Skywalker or Neo to Christ, and even though there are similarities, neither of them die in the end and sacrifice their own lives for the sins of this world. None of them happen to be the son of God either. My purpose here is not to draw a connection to the trinity with these films, but rather show the connection between the matrix and western Christianity.

We are all stuck in the matrix, a system that bogs us down with everyday useless interactions with a system. We all fill our days with meaningless business. We wake up, we go to work, we come home watch some TV, and then we go to bed and do it all over again the next day - never making significant connections or even allowing God to make connections for us. We get so overwhelmed with paying our bills and working enough overtime to put food on the table and live the comfortable consumptive lifestyle that is the Western world that we never are able to unplug from the cycle that is the matrix. And to tell you the truth, some people are so busy that they have developed a pattern of complacency and are so used to the matrix that they don't want to unplug from it. As Morpheus says in the film:

"You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."

Tearing the Church away from it's complacency will not happen easily. Most are so used to it, so comfortable with it, that changing and seeing things differently is impossible, or at least terribly painful.

I did a lesson on the Miniature Earth statistics where the class and I calculated how much I spend each day. This included my mortgage, student loans, gas money, food bill, utilities, an average of how much I spend on clothes in a year, etc., etc. We figured out (and this was a conservative estimate) that I live on no less than $150.00 per day. Read that again. And I think that I am a relatively controlled spender. Comfortable and consumptive when compared to the fact that nearly 3 billion people in this world (half of the world's population) lives on $2.00 or less a day. And I feel like I'm unplugged from the matrix, once again, to quote Morpheus, "There's a difference between knowing the path, and walking the path." To be the Church, with a capital "C" that God intended, we must shed our complacency, we must unplug from the matrix, we must begin to "walk the path". Neo didn't fully become who he was to be until he unplugged, until he saw that the "world had been pulled over his eyes." We don't need one Neo, we need an army of Western Christians who see this as a reality and unplug from the matrix in order to be who Christ has called us to be.

Morpheus: “You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

As Americans, we are so busy, we are so consumed with ourselves, that we are happy and content to stay plugged in. And many of us want to take the blue pill.

I think the red letters of the Bible, the words of Jesus, have asked us to take the red pill, and I think the rabbit hole goes deeper than we could ever imagine.

He has risen!

The revolution has begun.


A revolution that asks the first to be last.
One that asks for me to love my enemies.
One that is fueled by love, not power.
One that trusts this message to a handful of fishermen.

A revolution that asks us to be small - not big.
One that is quiet, and subversive.
One that spreads like yeast through dough.
One that asks me to give up everything to receive everything I truly need.

A revolution that began with a man from nowhere.
One that was rooted in the line of Judah, who sold his brother into slavery.
One that eats with sinners and calls out the religious.
One that embraces the poor and rebukes the rich.

A revolution that touches the leper.
One that accepts the thief.
One that forgives the betrayer.
One that sees you and me as sons and daughters.

He has risen indeed!
And the revolution continues. . . . . .

Good Friday

I am a thief, I am a murderer

Walking up this lonely hill

What have I done? I don't remember

No one knows just how I feel

and I know that my time is coming soon.

It's been so long. Oh, such a long time

Since I've lived with peace and rest

Now I am here, my destination

guess things work for the best

and I know that my time is coming soon

Who is this man? This man beside me

They call the King of the Jews

They don't believe that He's the Messiah

But, somehow I know it's true.

And they laugh at Him in mockery,

and beat Him till he bleeds

They nail Him to the rugged cross,

and raise Him, they raise Him up next to me

My time has come, I'm slowly fading

I deserve what I receive

Jesus when You are in Your kingdom

Could You please remember me

and He looks at me still holding on

the tears fall from His eyes

He says I tell the truth

Today, you will live with Me in paradise

and I know that my time is coming soon

and I know paradise is coming soon.

by Third Day

We are all thieves

We are all sinners

We are all lilywhite

We are all blameless

One of my favorite quotes is from Brennan Manning in his book Ragamuffin Gospel, in it he sums up the life of the thief, and more importantly, the saving grace that was the death, burial, and resurrection of our Savior:

"We are all equally privileged but unentitled beggars at the door of God’s mercy."

The thief did NOTHING other than accept the mercy of Jesus.

Alligator

Oh my Little Alligator. She has quite the bite. She can be the sweetest thing in the world, she is compassionate, and like all of us, she loves to be loved. I delight in her. Nearly every evening she comes to me in her sweet little voice and asks "cawn we wesstle." How can I say no? She still calls "slobber" - "slobet," and she will point at your nipple and say "that's your nickle Daddy!" She will run around half the day with one sock on, and her shirt on backwards - and not care. She will ask for a napkin, and then wipe her mouth on her shirt.


Whoa, but watch out. If you don't slow down and look her in the eye when she needs you to, or lose your temper and not speak with kind words, her heart will break, her eyes will melt your heart, and then she will trample right over you with her strong will. She can be ferocious. I watched her once, after having her brother take a toy from her, walk up from behind, grab Avery by the hair and pull him over backwards - the best part was she was only around 22 months old. She is raw, but pure, compassionate, yet focused. I know, scary for a 3 year old. But I know that this combination gives her the personality that will fight for what is right, and chase God with every ounce of her being.


There is a part of me that wishes I could be like Ally. She has this little twinkle in her eye, she does everything with passion, total abandonment. She is who she is, and you know exactly what you're gonna get. This is what Jesus is referring to in Mark 10:13-16:

"People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.' And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them."

The children run to Jesus, without hesitation, without caution. They haven't been conditioned by the world to follow social norms, to do what their earthly fathers say is right, they just know Jesus is love and they want to be near Him.


I pray that Allyson Grace will run to Jesus with full abandonment, without hindrance, and with the passion that I see on her face each and every day. Thank you Lord for giving me such a little blessing, one that I can see you shining through, one that reminds me to run after you with abandonment, and with the faith of a child.

Palm Sunday

The REVOLUTION is stirring. . . . . . . .