The Epic Story of Humanity

So I watched Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring for the first time tonight, (isn't that ridiculous in itself), and I was absolutely blown away. The theology of that movie astonishes me. The Lord has really been teaching about the story of humanity lately and how insane it really is. I've recently been reading a book called Epic that talks about this very topic...

Why does every epic story in our culture (300, LOTR, Star Wars, Narnia, Gladiator) look exactly the same? Essentially, it is some good that has gone horribly wrong, and the good guys get pitted against the bad guys, and are usually severely outnumbered. Somehow though, the good guys always pull it out.. albeit not always right away.

They all look the same because this is the basic story of humanity itself, minus the flashy special effects. The world started out good, with Eden and of course Adam and Eve. But then Evil entered the world and intoxicated it. (the Sith, the Orcs, the Persians, etc.) And then some seemingly normal character is born into this great war between Good and Evil. Luke Skywalker doesnt choose to be born into the war, neither does Frodo Baggins or the Pevinsy's of Narnia. But they are. That is inevitable. None of them felt like they had the power to change the world, but they did. None of them were special by any means, they just had outstanding courage.

The Good guys are always outnumbered by the Bad guys to the point of hopelessness. This is true of our culture today. Those who truly follow Christ are severely outnumbered. We WILL obtain victory every time however because our God is always backing us up. None of us today chose to be born into a war of Good vs. Evil, but that's just what reality is. We were born right into the middle of this Epic story, and we can be a part of it. Most people go through life without ever realizing there is a constant battle going on right under their nose. The reason we so love these epic stories is because we are in one. It may not be flashy like it is in the movies, but stories are real. Satan is real. God is real. This spiritual war is extremely real. The quicker we realize this, the more we can be prepared.

One last thing to notice.. The main character may die, but that is NEVER the end of the story. Maximus is reunited with his family in Gladiator. In Star Wars, Obi Wan gives himself over to death, but does the story end? Absolutely not. Death has no power over us, and in fact is only the beginning of our story. Our life of 70 years is NOTHING in comparison to reality. The sooner we realize this fact, the sooner we can really start doing the Lord's work while we remain on the desolate planet.

Life is an epic story, and Reality tells us that we are in a battle of Good vs. Evil. It wont always be easy to stand for good. But guess what? Good will ALWAYS prevail. PTL!