(Post by: Lilly Hobbs)
Wouldn’t you agree that we all long for something more than what this world has to offer, even if we don’t quite know what it is? We each have this yearning within our hearts for something we have yet to experience and obtain.
Some of us can’t exactly reconcile why we are here. As a Christian myself, though, I firmly believe that our very hearts and souls long for one thing: restoration.
I can prove that we all have this unified desire by pointing out the one resounding theme found in every story book, television show, and movie today… The theme is that every story has a monster.
Think of any fairytale you’ve ever read, such as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, or The Wizard of Oz. Remember Narnia and Lord of the Rings? Take into account Anne of Green Gables, Jane Austen’s Emma or Pride and Prejudice, or Jane Eyre. Each of these stories have a monster figure within their pages.
Humans tell a universal story whether they mean to or not; but why?
It all started in the Garden of Eden, with Adam and Eve, and the monster (or in their case the serpent who was Satan). The monster deceived Eve and led her to believe that if she ate the fruit from the tree God had commanded them not to eat from, that she would become like God, knowing all things.
Eve took the fruit and ate. She then offered some to her spiritually weak husband who also ate, and from the moment she took that first bite of fruit, every kind of chaos and disorder has plagued mankind. We are born into sin, and we find ourselves longing for redemption.
Heidi White has a quote that says, “Monsters are embodiments of The Fall. It’s not the darkness that bothers us, it’s that there is not a hero to meet that darkness.”
Our hearts are desperate for the restoration of our story, of this disconsolate world’s story.
A hero must defeat the monster. Even those who do not believe in our Lord Jesus continue to write and tell stories in which a hero defeats the monster and the darkness and disorder it has caused. Even stories such as Harry Potter and the Marvel series (which are very secular and I do not recommend Christians reading) have a monster(s) and a hero(s).
The Bible itself is full of the monster/hero storyline! Paul reveals this to the men of Athens in Acts 17:23 which says, “Then Paul stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.”
You see, they knew there was a god (an unknown god) that they could pray to for deliverance. They just didn’t know who the true God and hero was and still is today.
Ultimately, we tell a universal story because it’s been written into each one of us by our Creator, God.
As Christians, we need to know that the monster in our story exists and is savagely fierce, cruel, and violent. His name is Satan, and he is our enemy. However, we also need to know that the monster can be overcome.
When Jesus died on the cross for our sin and resurrected after being dead in the grave for three days, He rescued us from Satan, the monster of our story that seeks to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10).
Monsters never, ever triumph when a hero is willing to act courageously and sacrificially. For our sake, Jesus was willing to meet the darkness.
“I have found a desire within myself that no experience in this world can satisfy. The most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” (C. S. Lewis)
SO WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSE?
= Do you find within yourself a desire that this world cannot satisfy?
= Are you tempted to think that the monster of your story will win?
= What are you going to do differently?
(This post is part one of a three-part series. Be sure to check back next Thursday for part two regarding being the hero of your own story!)
The Few 