Months ago I decided what I wanted to do for my birthday, when I saw a preview for a movie that was opening the day before the celebration of the day of my birth.
The movie, “God’s Not Dead”, told the story of college student, Josh Wheaton (can’t go wrong with a name like that!), who had to choose to either write
God is Dead
on a piece of paper and hand it in to his Philosophy prof, or debate the message of those three words with his professor. He chose the later, despite much pressure.
After seeing it this weekend, with my family, I highly recommend this film … even though there was no theater on my side of the 49th parallel showing it (and that is another blog post topic right there).
About a year and a half ago I wrote this post. And, though it does not deal with this movie, specifically, it does focus on the title, that
God’s Not Dead
“Garbage in, garbage out … so the saying goes.
Lately I have had the experience of the opposite.
A number of months ago a new song was released by the group Newsboys, and it is so freaking catchy. Whenever I hear it on the radio, I am left with it playing in my head for hours after. I have found that it has a profound effect on my day.
After hearing this song, and as it is playing in my brain, my mood changes, my thoughts change. I find that I live my day differently, not defeated, but victorious.
Life is hard (like you needed a reminder of that reality), and the daily grind can leave us feeling like we have been ground to a fine, dust blowing haphazardly in the wind. But, today is not the final verdict of our lives. Because of God wi
thin us, He has control of how the story of our lives will end, and he roars like a lion (“they will follow the LORD; he will roar like a lion” Hosea 11:10).
It takes me to the scene in the C. S. Lewis story, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, where Aslan (the lion) has been killed by the White Witch on the stone table, so that Edmond can live. Lucy and Susan are sobbing for their lost friend, their lost leader, and the brutality with which he was slaughtered. Then, he comes alive, and roars with the powerful, victorious roar of the king of beasts. He is alive, and no one, not even death, can keep him from his purposes.
Sound familiar? Another was killed so that others might live, about two thousand years ago. Jesus was wrongly convicted and killed in a brutal slaughtering. And those who loved him most wept with the sorrow that was overflowing from their hearts. But, he too came alive, and through his resurrection, he overcame, and continues to overcome this world … so that we might live in the freedom that his blood was shed for.
The song constantly reminds me of a poster in the classroom of a Bible teacher at the school I work, below.
Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher argued that “God is dead.” But, in all of our lives, we do not have the final word. And we need the daily input into our brains and lives of who does have the last word.
My “God’s not dead, he’s living on the inside, roaring like a lion.””
I believe in free choice, and free choice is what believing in God is all about. Make your own choice … and do it intellectually!
itsawonderfilledlife 