I went to see Avatar with some friends of mine the other night, and for those of you who haven't seen it yet, I thought it was amazing. It has been criticized for lacking a compelling plot or engaging dialog, but I really liked it. The special effects where amazing, although, I think the 3D experience made one of the people that came with us really sick. The general story behind the movie is that this corporation is working collaboratively with the military to mine a precious energy resource from a planet called Pandora. The difficulty is that this resource is most concentrated directly under the spiritual epicenter of the indigenous people of Pandora. As part of a plan to relocate the civilization the government has created living bodies of the Navi` race that can be controlled by a link system to a human mind that has a matching nervous system. That's where Jake Sully, a former marine whose been paralyzed from the waist down comes into play. Apparently an Avatar was made from his twin brothers DNA, but his brother was killed so the only person the Avatar could work for is Jake; something to do with the similarities in their nervous system... From that point forward Jake is given the opportunity to reinvent who he is in a new body and a new world. In the beginning he can barely walk, doesn't speak a word of the native language, and doesn't know anything about the environment of his new world, but over time he starts to get the hang of it. Ultimately he is faced with a lot of choices between going forward with his potential new life or continuing with his old life. Maybe it's cheesy, but this is where I saw a lot of parallels to my own life. For example I'm secretly 10' tall and blue...
The storyline really reminded me of a verse in Corinthians "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." In Christ I have the opportunity to be something better than what I was. I have the opportunity to be more than I could ever be by myself. In the movie Jake is paralyzed, but is that really very different from the way we are without Christ. I mean I could walk, but could I love (maybe this is too much, but I think I would rather know love than be able to walk)? The really interesting thing is that for Jake to have his new life he has to make choices that alienate people in his old life, he has to go against his own loyalties and convictions for something he is convinced is better. I think that's a lot of what walking with Christ looks like for me; I see something shiny that I want and have to make choices about what my deepest desire is. I think Peter sums it up pretty well when he says
"For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." ~ 2 Peter 1:5-8
The point is to make choices consistently that mold you into being more like Christ. A huge part of this is just being disciplined in doing things I don't necessarily want to do for long enough until they become habits I can't function without doing. I remember when I was a kid I used to hate brushing my teeth. I don't know why, I can't explain it, I just hated it, but now I can hardly make it from one meal to the next without doing it (I'm a little fanatical). I just really like how it feels and how it tastes and...the point being for a while I think I just brushed my teeth because its what you are supposed to do, but then it became part of what I want to do. I think spiritual things are like that.
Basically go see Avatar, James Cameron hits this one out of the park!
