Monday, August 25, 2003

Remember the Titans

I watched the movie, “Remember The Titans” the other day. This is an inspiring movie about two races of people learning to live together, the story of black and white athletes, families, people and townspeople uniting behind the town’s football team. True to Hollywood tradition, the film portrays the problems very simplistically with the traditional bullies and heroes. People are stereotyped in the predictable roles and you know way before the movie ends, how the film will end. But still it is a good, inspiring movie to watch.
It would be so nice it people would just lay down their differences and “just get along” but it just isnt’ true.
One scene in the movie the coach takes the players to a graveyard at Gettysburg (I wondered during the film how they got onto the battle ground by running through the woods onto the park) and points out how people died there for their freedom today. On the other hand, the battle for racial equality still goes on, and will go on for now and forever (sounds pessimistic doesn’t it?).
Only by one way will people truly be free. “ There cannot be Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is no male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. “ Galtians 3:28
And how can we be free? “Therefore if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.
Only through Christ can we be free and only by giving up your “freedom” can you be free. This isn’t double speak but it is how it works. By allowing Christ to be “your boss” can you be truly free. Free from worries, cares and free from the fear of what life holds for you when it is over.
Unity with your fellow Christians where there is no black, white, yellow, or red.
Have you ever noticed the color of your blood when you have cut yourself? The blood Christ shed for you is the same color, and so it is also in the person beside you. In Christ, we all the same.

Live In The Moment

I live in a generation that lives for the moment. But this is not a new thing to know. I suspect that my parent’s generation lived for the moment and that their parent’s generation also lived for the here and now. I mean, it is highly likely that every generation past, present and future has or will live just for the moment.
Live for the moment, the here and now, with little preparation for the distant future, no thought for the morrow. Remember the moral of the ant and the grasshopper? The ant worked and worked to prepare for the harsh winter that would be coming, while the grasshopper played in the summer sun with no thought of the winter to be. And what happened, the ant survived the winter and the grasshopper suffered when the snows came.
“ And the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, and the people gathered themselves to Aaron. And they said to him, Up! Make us gods who shall go before us. For this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. “(Exodus 32:1)
Moses goes up Mt. Sinai to get the law from God and the people left down below get impatient and decide to make their own gods. Isn’t strange that they have already forgotten the God that had brought them out of the land of slavery, saved them from the Egyptians and look what happens.
The people had actually seen God and heard Him speak to them, in Exodus 20:19-21 we read “And they said to Moses, You speak with us, and we will hear. But let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said to the people, Do not fear, for God has come to test you, and so that His fear may be before your faces, so that you may not sin. And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. “
The people had heard God and had trembled so much in His presence that they asked Moses to be their intercede for them with God. And then, just a short time later, as Moses listens to God on the mountain, they live for the moment and not for the future and produce the golden calf to worship. A false god born of false hope or false fears.
Humans have this trait. We cannot help but live for the moment. We cannot see the future, we cannot know what tomorrow brings, we can only see the past, and we often do not heed the lessons learned from history.
If we truly could see the lung cancer that we could have, we would not take up smoking.
If we could see the heartbreak and loneliness of old age, we would not commit adultery and stay faithful to our husband or wife.
The wasted life won’t happen to me, so we take up drinking or drugs and lose that life we could have lived.
We cannot see with the eye of faith so we will not “be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev 2:10)
Being short sighted is not at any time a good policy, and living for today is not a good idea either. The Lord gives us a wonderful “insurance policy” to follow and He guarantees it! Through Christ, all things a possible. Through Christ, salvation is to be had. A future is guaranteed.
I would rather live for tomorrow and all its promise that God has provided than to live for today and all its problems.