Learning to Pay Attention
In our previous sessions we found that God hides, He tells us that He hides, and He does it on purpose. But even though He hides, He does leave His tracks all over our world. We do not get to see Him standing in His tracks, but there is no doubt that we can discern that He is present. Last time we took a look at why He hides, why He does not come right out and reveal Himself in a way that all doubt of His existence is erased in the minds of everyone, even the most hardcore atheist.
During this session we want to make this practical. Remember I said that God leaves His tracks all over our world. The problem with discerning His presence is that we’re not paying attention. So I’ve asked each of you to watch a movie or read a book and see if you can find His tracks in these media. Remember that we did not choose a Christian movie or book because we would certainly expect to see His tracks there. So hopefully each of you has completed this homework assignment. The choice was either of the following: “Pride and Prejudice”, or “The Lord of the Rings.”
The purpose of this assignment was to find attributes of God in the plot or the characters in the story, to see if we can discern His interaction with our world in the story lines or the characters. So let’s see what we’ve discovered.
Let’s start with “Pride and Prejudice.” This story is a romance, so we might be looking for some parallels between Christ and the Church, His bride. Let’s look at the characters and then the plot.
Pride and Prejudice
Mr. Darcy
Elizabeth
Mr. Collins
Lady Catherine
Rev. 12:10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.
The Plot
Do you see any parallel between the plot in Pride and Prejudice and the story of redemption and God’s quest for a bride for His Son?
We see that God sent His Son from the glory of the heavenlies to the lowly fallen world that we live in. Truly we are not worthy of Him just like the Bennets were not worthy of Mr. Darcy. But there was a beauty in Elizabeth that transcended her position, so that Mr. Darcy was willing to cross the social lines and sacrifice personal resources in order to gain his bride. In fact you find that many of the great love stories incorporate this theme of a prince falling in love and wooing the attentions of a “common” woman. Some examples are Song of Solomon and Cinderella.
What about Mr. Darcy’s pursuit of Elizabeth? Does this look anything like God’s pursuit of us? We see that Elizabeth was at first a bit interested in him, but then was put off by his apparent aloofness. Later she discovers that he was responsible for the break-up between her sister, Jane, and Mr. Darcy’s friend, Mr. Bingley. Elizabeth is so angered by her perceptions of what happened, that she sharply rebukes him when he proposes to her. Later she learns what really happened and sees that her observations about Mr. Darcy have been completely wrong. Doesn’t this remind you of our interactions with God sometimes? We accuse him of all kinds of bad things, only to discover later that He was working out everything for our good.
The Lord of the Rings
This story has so many plots running simultaneously, and so many of the characters show Christ-like attributes. There is no one single character that represents Jesus. In which ones do you see him portrayed and how?
Frodo Baggins
Like Christ, he alone was tasked with bearing the burden of the ring. In this case the ring represents the sin of the world that must be borne by Christ Himself. It is clear from the beginning that Frodo will give his life to accomplish the task of bearing the ring to its destruction. Along the way we see multiple scenes that remind us of Jesus’ life and ministry. When he comes to the end of his physical resources because of bearing the ring, he seems ready to give up. Lady Galadiel of the elves appears in a vision and sustains him so that he is able to continue. This looks amazingly similar to the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus has been sweating great drops of blood. An angel appears and ministers to Him and gives Him added physical strength.
Luke 22:39-42 Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.
When Frodo is near the end of the journey, his trek looks similar to the path to Golgotha taken by Jesus as He carries the cross. Completely spent, Frodo can go no further. His companion, Sam, exclaims, “I can’t carry the ring, but I can carry you.” This is uncanny when we read in Scripture how Simon the Cyrene carried the cross for Jesus. Only Jesus could carry the sin of the world on His shoulders, but Simon could help him with the cross.
Note also that Frodo was not immune to the temptations of the ring. Jesus too was tempted in all the same ways that we are. The many temptations to possess the ring rather than bear it reminds me of Satan’s many attempts to get Jesus to bow down to him in order to possess the goal – world power.
Frodo is a suffering servant in much the same way that Jesus was. He was a man of sorrows.
The Ring of Power
What is the ring? What does it represent?
In a word, it is mammon. Mammon can be succinctly defined as money and power. These are depicted by the fact that it is made of gold (money) and provides the bearer with great power. In fact the ring will provide the bearer with the power to rule the world. Of course it also represents the sin of the world. All the characters in the story that get close to it are invariably tempted by its power. Some are ignorant of its end state. Others are wisely repulsed by it. Gandalf, the gray wizard, knows the terrible power it contains and, though tempted by it, refuses to even touch it. He is no fool about his own vulnerabilities. So too, those who have been wizened by many years in the faith know how vulnerable they are and refuse to even get close to mammon.
Gandalf
Gandalf himself, the good wizard, exemplifies the aspect of Jesus as the conqueror. He too gives his life for the others in the Mines of Moria where he encounters a creature that looks very much like “The Beast” in Revelation. Falling into a seemingly bottomless pit while battling the creature, Balrog, he slays it as he himself also perishes. But he rises again in a different more glorious form as Gandalf the White. While the suffering servant, Frodo, is bearing the ring to its destruction, Gandalf the White, as a conqueror, is helping to orchestrate the unification of various earthly kingdoms to defeat the army of Orcs.
Sauron
Sauron undoubtedly represents Satan himself. He is the one who created the Ring of Power and used it to gain power over Middle Earth. In the story, we never really see him, but his power and influence are wielded everywhere and in the lives of those who have lent their wills to him.
Saruman
Saruman is a great wizard who was once on the side of Middle Earth and was good, but is seduced by power of Sauron and the promise of obtaining the ring. He seems to be a type of Satan as well, for Satan was once an angel in the presence of God, but fell when he desired to be equal with God. He also reminds us of Judas Iscariot. Though once a member of the chosen twelve, he later succumbs to the enticements of money and power and betrays Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.
Gollum (Smeagol)
Gollum is a gaunt, skulking, and evil creature who was Smeagol before he found the ring. Completely and totally obsessed by the ring, his one purpose is to possess it. Frodo seems to have an ever optimistic empathy for Smeagol. Frodo knows the power of the ring and to what depths of depravity it can lead a person. So he pities Smeagol and enlists his help. Smeagol at one point seems to respond to Frodo’s sympathy and even finds brief freedom from his old self, Gollum. In fact we see a snapshot of one of our more well-known scriptures. While talking to himself, Smeagol tells Gollum to go away and never come back. To his amazement, Gollum leaves, and Smeagol dances with excitement at his new-found freedom. Sounds like this verse:
James 4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Aragorn
Aragorn is the heir of Isildur who had killed Sauron and cut the ring off his finger with a sword. Later, Isildur was killed by Orcs and the ring was lost in a river. Isildur’s sword was broken in the battle and it is said that if ever it was reforged, it would be a powerful weapon in the hand of the possessor, identifying such a person as the true king of Gondor. Aragorn too looks like a type of Christ as he traverses the Paths of the Dead and sets captives free in fulfillment of an old prophecy.
Eph. 4:7-10 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.” (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)
Aragorn and his relationship with the elf, Arwen, reminds us of the great purpose of God to find a bride for His Son. At the end, Aragorn is crowned king and marries Arwen, who must sacrifice life with her kind (the elves) to be with Aragorn. Note that Arwen resonates the theme of free will as she resists her father’s pleas, the self-sacrificing logic of fate propounded by Aragorn, and declares that it is her choice to make.
Theoden
King of Rohan, Theoden succumbs to the wicked influence of Grima Wormtongue and the spell of Saruman. Gandalf the White finds him in an aged stupor, unable to govern or defend his people. Gandalf breaks the spell and Theoden is transformed before their eyes into the king they all once knew.
I think Theoden reminds us of ourselves. Bound in sin and unable to even respond to God’s grace, we are set free by the power of God to become the person we were designed to be.
Plot
The plot is multi-threaded, but is basically the triumph of good over evil. It also contains the story of redemption whereby the sin of the world is borne by one innocent person in order to bring freedom to the world. Like all good stories, it also contains the story of romance whereby lovers desire each other by their own choice and suffer the trials of separation and then are united in marriage.
Listening to God One of our assignments last time was to spend some time listening to God. I encouraged you to use the 4 keys to hearing God speak.
Can you share with us some of the things that you wrote down in your journal as a result of listening to God?
The conclusion of all this is that we see that God reveals Himself in the very fabric of our minds and thoughts. The themes that make the best stories end up being the ones that are spawned by God Himself, because they reflect His nature and His purposes for us. The ones that resonate with us the most are stories of redemption. The characters that we like the most are the ones that mirror Christ and what He did for us. This is why Paul says in Romans that all men are without excuse because He has made Himself known to us through nature and the natural world in which we live. We just have to pay attention.
During this session we want to make this practical. Remember I said that God leaves His tracks all over our world. The problem with discerning His presence is that we’re not paying attention. So I’ve asked each of you to watch a movie or read a book and see if you can find His tracks in these media. Remember that we did not choose a Christian movie or book because we would certainly expect to see His tracks there. So hopefully each of you has completed this homework assignment. The choice was either of the following: “Pride and Prejudice”, or “The Lord of the Rings.”
The purpose of this assignment was to find attributes of God in the plot or the characters in the story, to see if we can discern His interaction with our world in the story lines or the characters. So let’s see what we’ve discovered.
Let’s start with “Pride and Prejudice.” This story is a romance, so we might be looking for some parallels between Christ and the Church, His bride. Let’s look at the characters and then the plot.
Pride and Prejudice
Mr. Darcy
- Who does he look like? How? Christ?
- He seems to have infinite resources, at least it looks that way from the viewpoint of Elizabeth Bennett.
- To court his bride-to-be, he comes to the more lowly world of the Bennets from his world of dukes and lords, in much the same way that Christ laid aside the glory He had with the Father to come and live in our world.
- He takes on the burdens and cares of the lowly Bennet family by saving them from the shame of Lydia running away with Mr. Wickam. He finds the couple, arranges for a proper wedding, and foots the bill for all of it.
- An image of God’s omnipresence, he seems to be absent, and yet suddenly appear at strategic times in the story. In fact, he also seems to demonstrate the hiddenness of God that we’ve been talking about. First you see him, then you don’t.
- He also illustrates God’s sovereignty by taking a disastrous event in the Bennet family – Lydia running off with Mr. Wickham – and using it to endear himself, albeit secretly, to Elizabeth.
- God’s love of choice is illustrated by him as well. Upon expressing his undying love for Elizabeth, he nevertheless leaves her free to choose, pledging to bow out of her life if she so chooses. All of this is after he has expended enormous resources on her family.
Elizabeth
- To whom would we liken her? The church? You and I individually?
- You see how she knows what kind of man she wants to marry. She is not driven by practicalities and rules. She is looking for real true undying love. So also, you and I know what a real God looks like. We can settle for the Mr. Collins of the world, the hollow religious perfunctory sort that promise austere security, but we know that there is someone out there that will love us for who we are, really love us, not just use us to achieve a career goal. You and I innately know what our God is like, and we, like Elizabeth, should never settle for less.
Mr. Collins
- What does he represent?
- He is a clergyman with limited resources attempting to establish his future by taking a wife. He first proposes to Elizabeth who, much to her mother’s dismay, flatly refuses him. He is beholden to the local society matron, Lady Catherine, for his livelihood.
- He represents hollow religion – one without God as the center. He lives a life based on rules and painful predictably. Shunned by Elizabeth, he easily switches his “romantic focus” on Charlotte, Elizabeth’s close friend.
Lady Catherine
- Who might this represent? Satan?
- Like Satan, she comes in with a full frontal assault on Elizabeth and her family. Her intention is to bully Elizabeth into cutting off her relationship with Mr. Darcy. She comes in like the accuser and reminds them of their lowly estate and in no uncertain terms reminds Elizabeth that she is not worthy to be his bride.
- I see in her the ugly specter of Satan as the accuser and usurper. Armed with riches and social power, she attempts to squelch the aspirations and drams of Elizabeth. She is there to remind Elizabeth that she is not worthy of someone like Mr. Darcy and that she already has plans for him. Isn’t that one of Satan’s most powerful weapons? He tells us that we’ll never amount to anything. He tells us that God could never love us. He is constantly attempting to put us in our place, encroaching on territory he has already lost by Christ’s sacrifice for us.
Rev. 12:10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.
The Plot
Do you see any parallel between the plot in Pride and Prejudice and the story of redemption and God’s quest for a bride for His Son?
We see that God sent His Son from the glory of the heavenlies to the lowly fallen world that we live in. Truly we are not worthy of Him just like the Bennets were not worthy of Mr. Darcy. But there was a beauty in Elizabeth that transcended her position, so that Mr. Darcy was willing to cross the social lines and sacrifice personal resources in order to gain his bride. In fact you find that many of the great love stories incorporate this theme of a prince falling in love and wooing the attentions of a “common” woman. Some examples are Song of Solomon and Cinderella.
What about Mr. Darcy’s pursuit of Elizabeth? Does this look anything like God’s pursuit of us? We see that Elizabeth was at first a bit interested in him, but then was put off by his apparent aloofness. Later she discovers that he was responsible for the break-up between her sister, Jane, and Mr. Darcy’s friend, Mr. Bingley. Elizabeth is so angered by her perceptions of what happened, that she sharply rebukes him when he proposes to her. Later she learns what really happened and sees that her observations about Mr. Darcy have been completely wrong. Doesn’t this remind you of our interactions with God sometimes? We accuse him of all kinds of bad things, only to discover later that He was working out everything for our good.
The Lord of the Rings
This story has so many plots running simultaneously, and so many of the characters show Christ-like attributes. There is no one single character that represents Jesus. In which ones do you see him portrayed and how?
Frodo Baggins
Like Christ, he alone was tasked with bearing the burden of the ring. In this case the ring represents the sin of the world that must be borne by Christ Himself. It is clear from the beginning that Frodo will give his life to accomplish the task of bearing the ring to its destruction. Along the way we see multiple scenes that remind us of Jesus’ life and ministry. When he comes to the end of his physical resources because of bearing the ring, he seems ready to give up. Lady Galadiel of the elves appears in a vision and sustains him so that he is able to continue. This looks amazingly similar to the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus has been sweating great drops of blood. An angel appears and ministers to Him and gives Him added physical strength.
Luke 22:39-42 Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.
When Frodo is near the end of the journey, his trek looks similar to the path to Golgotha taken by Jesus as He carries the cross. Completely spent, Frodo can go no further. His companion, Sam, exclaims, “I can’t carry the ring, but I can carry you.” This is uncanny when we read in Scripture how Simon the Cyrene carried the cross for Jesus. Only Jesus could carry the sin of the world on His shoulders, but Simon could help him with the cross.
Note also that Frodo was not immune to the temptations of the ring. Jesus too was tempted in all the same ways that we are. The many temptations to possess the ring rather than bear it reminds me of Satan’s many attempts to get Jesus to bow down to him in order to possess the goal – world power.
Frodo is a suffering servant in much the same way that Jesus was. He was a man of sorrows.
The Ring of Power
What is the ring? What does it represent?
In a word, it is mammon. Mammon can be succinctly defined as money and power. These are depicted by the fact that it is made of gold (money) and provides the bearer with great power. In fact the ring will provide the bearer with the power to rule the world. Of course it also represents the sin of the world. All the characters in the story that get close to it are invariably tempted by its power. Some are ignorant of its end state. Others are wisely repulsed by it. Gandalf, the gray wizard, knows the terrible power it contains and, though tempted by it, refuses to even touch it. He is no fool about his own vulnerabilities. So too, those who have been wizened by many years in the faith know how vulnerable they are and refuse to even get close to mammon.
Gandalf
Gandalf himself, the good wizard, exemplifies the aspect of Jesus as the conqueror. He too gives his life for the others in the Mines of Moria where he encounters a creature that looks very much like “The Beast” in Revelation. Falling into a seemingly bottomless pit while battling the creature, Balrog, he slays it as he himself also perishes. But he rises again in a different more glorious form as Gandalf the White. While the suffering servant, Frodo, is bearing the ring to its destruction, Gandalf the White, as a conqueror, is helping to orchestrate the unification of various earthly kingdoms to defeat the army of Orcs.
Sauron
Sauron undoubtedly represents Satan himself. He is the one who created the Ring of Power and used it to gain power over Middle Earth. In the story, we never really see him, but his power and influence are wielded everywhere and in the lives of those who have lent their wills to him.
Saruman
Saruman is a great wizard who was once on the side of Middle Earth and was good, but is seduced by power of Sauron and the promise of obtaining the ring. He seems to be a type of Satan as well, for Satan was once an angel in the presence of God, but fell when he desired to be equal with God. He also reminds us of Judas Iscariot. Though once a member of the chosen twelve, he later succumbs to the enticements of money and power and betrays Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.
Gollum (Smeagol)
Gollum is a gaunt, skulking, and evil creature who was Smeagol before he found the ring. Completely and totally obsessed by the ring, his one purpose is to possess it. Frodo seems to have an ever optimistic empathy for Smeagol. Frodo knows the power of the ring and to what depths of depravity it can lead a person. So he pities Smeagol and enlists his help. Smeagol at one point seems to respond to Frodo’s sympathy and even finds brief freedom from his old self, Gollum. In fact we see a snapshot of one of our more well-known scriptures. While talking to himself, Smeagol tells Gollum to go away and never come back. To his amazement, Gollum leaves, and Smeagol dances with excitement at his new-found freedom. Sounds like this verse:
James 4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Aragorn
Aragorn is the heir of Isildur who had killed Sauron and cut the ring off his finger with a sword. Later, Isildur was killed by Orcs and the ring was lost in a river. Isildur’s sword was broken in the battle and it is said that if ever it was reforged, it would be a powerful weapon in the hand of the possessor, identifying such a person as the true king of Gondor. Aragorn too looks like a type of Christ as he traverses the Paths of the Dead and sets captives free in fulfillment of an old prophecy.
Eph. 4:7-10 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.” (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)
Aragorn and his relationship with the elf, Arwen, reminds us of the great purpose of God to find a bride for His Son. At the end, Aragorn is crowned king and marries Arwen, who must sacrifice life with her kind (the elves) to be with Aragorn. Note that Arwen resonates the theme of free will as she resists her father’s pleas, the self-sacrificing logic of fate propounded by Aragorn, and declares that it is her choice to make.
Theoden
King of Rohan, Theoden succumbs to the wicked influence of Grima Wormtongue and the spell of Saruman. Gandalf the White finds him in an aged stupor, unable to govern or defend his people. Gandalf breaks the spell and Theoden is transformed before their eyes into the king they all once knew.
I think Theoden reminds us of ourselves. Bound in sin and unable to even respond to God’s grace, we are set free by the power of God to become the person we were designed to be.
Plot
The plot is multi-threaded, but is basically the triumph of good over evil. It also contains the story of redemption whereby the sin of the world is borne by one innocent person in order to bring freedom to the world. Like all good stories, it also contains the story of romance whereby lovers desire each other by their own choice and suffer the trials of separation and then are united in marriage.
Listening to God One of our assignments last time was to spend some time listening to God. I encouraged you to use the 4 keys to hearing God speak.
- Be Still
- Listen
- Recognize His Voice
- Journal
Can you share with us some of the things that you wrote down in your journal as a result of listening to God?
The conclusion of all this is that we see that God reveals Himself in the very fabric of our minds and thoughts. The themes that make the best stories end up being the ones that are spawned by God Himself, because they reflect His nature and His purposes for us. The ones that resonate with us the most are stories of redemption. The characters that we like the most are the ones that mirror Christ and what He did for us. This is why Paul says in Romans that all men are without excuse because He has made Himself known to us through nature and the natural world in which we live. We just have to pay attention.