Analyzing Fantasizing

Everyone fantasizes. Everyone has a fantasy or fantasies. There are so many things we desire as people. I watched The Life of David Gale today. It has been years since I have watched this movie and I never noticed some of the things said in the movie, I just sat and mindlessly watched. I am not saying that it holds the keys to life or anything like that, but anything you watch you can most likely find something that points you to the Gospel. Just saying, try it. Anyway, one of my favorite quotes from this movie is, “Fantasies have to be unrealistic. Because the minute- the second – that you get what you want, you don’t- you can’t- want it anymore.” Uhhh, wow! That is an amazing way to describe sin.

When you think about a particular act of sin it sounds like a great idea. You think about it and let it soak in and you debate on it and it just rolls around in your head for a while. But the minute- the second- that you act on it, it wasn’t enough. There is something more. Something more to be wanted or something more to be gained, so you think on that act for a while and you debate on it and so on. It is like a drug. Once you start you are hooked and just can’t stop. Let’s use alcohol as an example. Say you hang out with someone on a regular basis who drinks quite a bit, maybe even gets drunk. You are of age and decide to start drinking with them. (Drinking is not the sin here, the act of getting drunk is). So you think about maybe drinking a little more than usual because your friend seems to have a good time and you want to be part of all that. So you weigh the options and try it once. Once you have done it you may want to do it again, even if you didn’t necessarily like it the first time. So you do it again, and again, and … you get the point. This becomes habitual. You couldn’t stop, you just wanted more because the initial act wasn’t enough when you started.

How about something that seems a little less harmless at the beginning, making money. Everyone likes to have money. You start working somewhere and work hard enough and begin climbing the ladder. You are married and have kids but you are still working just as hard as you were before and making even more money. You are never home and your kids barely know you. The only thing they know about you is mommy/daddy loves their job. The only reason you wanted to work so hard in the first place was to be able to give them a nice house and a nice life, but you forgot that your kids need both parents. Your kids begin to despise you because you are never home and they only see you as an ATM. Your spouse also has a hard time loving you because your lifestyle choices say you care more about your job than your spouse. You have lots of money and a nice house that you are never in, your “dream” or “fantasy” have become a reality you never thought possible. All of it ends miserably.

Sin starts small. Some times we see it coming and other times we are completely blind-sided. Once we get that small little taste of it, we want more. We can’t help it. We were made to crave something and when we do not feel satisfied with what we are trying to fill ourselves with, we try to get more and more and MORE. God created us to desire Him. He created us to crave the love of something so much bigger than ourselves, Him.  We see it even in the Garden of Eden in Genesis. God created us in His own image. All through scripture we see that God desires our fellowship and that He loves us far beyond our own comprehension. He desires that we are filled with Him. As I read through the Old Testament and I read the laws of the time, I see God’s heart and how He desires us to be holy as He is holy. He created us to be like Him and wants us to seek Him and be like Him. Even in today’s world we see little boys wanting to be like their daddy. Picture this, a grown man walking in the snow. His little boy is following behind him and trying to put his feet in his daddy’s footprints. The footprints are spread much further apart and are much larger than the little boys own footprints. It is precious to see this little boy trying to be like his daddy. Although he cannot keep pace like his daddy or even walk in as big of strides like his daddy, he tries anyway. God desires that very thing from us. He wants us to try. We are people and we are going to have thoughts about sin. He wants us to look to Him in those times and to choose Him. He did not create us to have a robotic reaction to things. He gave us a brain and He gave us the act of free will to do choose how we react to things. When those thoughts start rolling around in your head, how do you choose to react?

PS This is not the content of the movie, so don’t run out and buy it thinking it is going to make you holier or make your rethink everything you thought you knew about in life (it is rated R for language, sexual content, and nudity … hope you know where I am going with this, it had two good quotes lol). Here is a Christian Movie review if you are interested to know more: http://www.pluggedin.com/videos/2003/q1/lifeofdavidgale.aspx.