For those of you that haven’t guessed by now, I love analogies. I’m not really sure where it came from, but it’s given me all sorts of weird insights into life, allowing me to make connections between things that often blow my mind. It’s one of God’s most personal languages with which to speak to me. He knows I’m always strangely in tune with the allegorical aspects of everyday life, and so he plants little concepts of beauty in certain situations, fully knowing the Truth I’ll need to understand in that moment. It’s one of the most comforting and reassuring feelings to, while deeply wrestling with an issue, encounter a situation that speaks so directly to your doubt that you want to laugh and cry at the same time. You don’t see it coming, but the second it hits you, you know beyond doubt that God’s been waiting for you to hear it.
Tuesday was one of those moments.
I was watching an episode of the FOX TV show Fringe. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the show, but the basic premise is the story of a special division of the FBI (Fringe Division) that handles all of the paranormal, weird, sci-fi type cases. The lead agent, Olivia Dunham, works along with a small, eclectic team that operates loosely as a sort of family, including Walter Bishop – an unbelievably intelligent scientist type who is slightly off his rocker, but completely harmless. I won’t go into great depth of the show’s several seasons, but without any knowledge of the situation it’s good to have a few basics. But why do you care about Olivia, Walter, and Fringe, and what does it have to do with analogies and God?
Well, whether it’s right or wrong, I’ve been struggling lately with exactly how God feels about us and our tendencies to run back to our sinful comfort zones. We know full well that things aren’t right, but our insecurities push us toward something we’re used to – something we’ve grown accustomed to. Often times you hear people say things like, “You’ve just got to kill that sin!,” or, “Jesus is better, stop running to that to fulfill the need only He can meet!” But the thing is, that unless you’ve experienced first hand how and/or why Jesus is more satisfying than those things, then those types of statements seem don’t really make a whole lot of sense. Sure, it makes sense in theory, but it doesn’t deeply speak to the arthritis of your soul that you doubt will ever go away. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve been around “Christian positivists” for too long, and I’ve stopped listening to people who just throw out empty, pre-rehearsed phrases of encouragement that they may or may not even believe themselves. Not that these statements don’t actually hold truth, but I feel as though it can be like shooting a case of first-aid supplies into a primitive jungle village – yes there is great potential for healing there, but not a single person in the village has ever seen any of these medical supplies before, let alone know how to use them.
That all being said, Tuesday night I was watching an episode of Fringe, trying to get away from all of the stresses of life. Toward the end of the episode, at the culminating moment, a very direct exchange takes place between Walter Bishop and a little boy involved in their current case. At the point of that exchange I lost it. I realized how much the whole episode was a picture of the story of us and strong grips on our sin. I pictured God sitting in Heave, wracking his brain on how he could help us without having to kill us – having him begging us to let go of our sin, that we’re not alone and He cares about us.
Here’s the episode, go watch it:
