Daily Fight

For a couple of years I refused to watch the Harry Potter series for personal reasons. As an assignment for work, my boss asked me to be part of a 10 day long summer camp for international high school students. In my agreement to do so I was asked to take 33 students to see the latest Harry Potter movie. So I decided to catch up on the ones I had not seen. Please know I am not suggesting everyone watch these movies. Please deal with God before making any movie choice, especially one with things such as witch craft and violence (the entire series is based off of these two things). However, I must say after watching movies 1-4 there is a huge theme of good vs. evil. Within this battle it becomes very obvious that those on the side of evil have chosen to do so for some form of false promise. These promises include fame, fortune, and power. All of the people that are on the "dark side" have been told by Voldermort (the dark lord) they would receive such things.

Think about todays society. Satanists choose to be satanists because they believe they will get something from it (i.e. fame, fortune, power, etc.). All of which are sorely disappointed in the end. In the movies Voldermort does not die (well, I haven't finished the series but up to this point). Evil is still lurking in the world but believes to be put far enough away that people can go about their lives and live freely. Just like in our world evil never really goes away. We may not look at something and think that it is particularly evil but we also do not realize what those very things are costing us. For example, workaholics do not start out thinking "muahahaha, I am evil and plan to destroy my entire family by completely ignoring them." No, it often begins as a good intention. There is a saying that goes something like this, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." Think about that for a second. Realize that although your intentions may be good to work late every day and be the first person to work and be the bread winner for your family. Realize that your family is missing out on something great, you! You have robbed them of your role in the family (mother, father). See it easily starts out with good intentions and goes sour very quickly. Unlike the movie, where things are very black and white, good and bad, in our world we choose to see things as shades of grey and pushing limits.

Harry on many occasions throws himself in front of others and acts as a savior to those around him. His very life was proof (in the movie) that love conquers all, even death. Harry portrayed a hero but was fairly common to those around him. There is no true spiritual content in the movie, yet I didn't have to dig deep for what I saw either. How you view this movie is up to your own conviction. I will tell you that I do not plan on going to buy these movies, going to the theater dressed in my closest resembling Hogwarts gear or even rehearsing spells that were said in the movie. I do however, understand that this shows a neat picture of spiritual warfare. Evil is something that we have to daily fight off. As Christ followers we are not in bondage to sin, but we sometimes build imaginary prisons for ourselves and tell ourselves that we cannot escape. Until we realize that we have been sitting inside some imaginary fence wearing an imaginary shock collar and whenever we leave that little bondage bubble we are imaginarily shocked. Here is the thing, that is a lie that Satan tells us to get us to believe we cannot be more like Christ. We can be more like Him. We can actively choose everyday to put on the new self and follow Him into battle. Or we can choose to put on the old self and choose to be on the other team.

You only have two options here, follow Christ or don't. Within that same realm of thinking your actions can do one of two things. They can either push people closer to Christ or they can push people away from Him. So what are your actions doing? What are you choosing to do everyday?