Ok. Major insight into Jacob’s childhood time. I loved adventure-filled fantasy
fiction. Drawing from my imagination, my heart, and epics that I grew up with such
as Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, and The Chronicles of Narnia, my boyhood
gave a lot of time and thought to fantasy. It inspired me.. I remember yearning
to be a ‘knight in shining armor’, adventuring in the hope of saving some ‘damsel
in distress’, and gallivanting in the ideals of chivalry. I have old journals filled
with detailed maps of made-up lands, sketches, and stick-figure cartoons
depicting a knight (me) standing up against the bad guys while some cone-headed
princess stood besieged upon the ramparts, watching. There was even a point
when I tried to write my own fantasy story… and my favorite pastime was definitely
running through the woods, brandishing a stick-sword, decapitating the growing
heads off blackberry bushes with my best friend.
As I grew older, however, I remember analyzing this love for fantasy with a troubled heart. I ultimately lost passion for writing my story because I felt it was vain and that God was not pleased with me wasting my life in ‘make-believe’ and in dreaming up literally nothing of consequence. Part of this probably came with my maturing spirituality in founding my life on things eternal as opposed to things temporal, and may have been in itself an immature outlook on what it really means to live for the eternal. As an adult, I have given a ponder to the allure of fantasy-fiction/stories in general on multiple occasions, always with the thoughts of my past in mind. Here are some unrequested thoughts on the potency of stories!
There is just something about good stories that are alluring. They draw you in with plot, entertain you with unlived adventures, inspire you with a utopian reality, or launch your heart in a longing for something.. more. As I form a ‘take-away’ for these thoughts now, I am not convinced that the allure of stories is entirely a bad thing. In fact, it seems to be a natural part of most stories, and I cannot fully explain why they inspire men so. From the perspective of a man, there is something naturally appealing about adventure, valor, and romantic pursuit. Hence, we get the ‘knight in shining armor’ and ‘damsel in distress’ hype. There are aspects of these traits that are naturally appealing to women also, with slight differences; the point is that both men and women uniquely reflect the image of God, and they do so by filling distinct images. There is something beautiful about a man’s desire to fight for someone. There is also something beautiful about a woman’s desire to be fought for. Call me a complementarian if you wish, but that isn’t the issue at hand. Speaking as a man, I can concur with authors such as John Eldredge who states in Wild at Heart that “In the heart of every man is a desperate desire for a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue.” For both men and women, there is something about stories that draw out our souls to long for something more, something beyond ourselves, that hits a chord within us of something we are called to be. #marriageandthefamily (yay for book reports I never had to do)
Second, when the
immaturity of doctrine yields passage to the seasoned practice of doctrine to
life, there can be great benefit when the potency of stories is harnessed for
eternal use. The recent end of The Hobbit trilogy brought to light a good
article currently going around facebook reviewing usefulness of Tolkien’s life
work. Was that work truly nothing of eternal consequence? No one can see the
full work of man’s hand but God, but few can deny the helpfulness of writers
such as Tolkien and Lewis who by their writings directed men to a sense of ‘good’
that dwelt outside themselves. Said article indicated this ‘good’ to be a gleam
of the gospel that is given light uniquely through the window of a fictional story.
Now, I desire to be a minister of the gospel, and I am one of the quickest
people I know to give careful guard to such thoughts that claim to reveal new gospel
truth by means other than the Word of God itself. That’s not what this is. God
has provided us with direct revelation. AND I am not so naïve as to say that
the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ is limited only within the pages of a
New Testament. In truth, the glory and fingerprints of the gospel is revealed
in the life of one carrying out the ministry of reconciliation, in the life of
the ambassador of Christ, in the words of grace that come out of a Christian’s
mouth, and in the works of grace that are made by a Christian’s hand. The
relativity of art is almost yet another debate, but I choose to believe that
art will reflect meaning as the skillful artist intends it to. Thus, a
Christian can create stories that not only reflect the gospel, but that do so
well. This would be the point of the blog where I would exhort Christian
artists to unabashedly create with nods to the gospel, for from such creations only
will lasting worth be contrived. Are we not made in the image of God? Then let
us create.
Finally, there is a distinguishable
potency to stories that I fear will drag a man empty-handed to judgment day
quicker than anything else. It might be unique to our era because of the
comparably dull nature of normal life to fictional adventures- but for many of
the great epics there seem to follow those groups of extremist fans who are so
blindly inspired by an ideal that they wish they could be in another reality.
They would wish to live in Middle-Earth for example, or in some other
God-forsaken place. Truly God-forsaken, because Eru is a Deist, and Aslan is a
lion, let’s be real. Or what about those people so in love with Star Wars that
they walk around and believe themselves to be Jedi-Knights? For as good as the
intentions of authors or fans might be, there is no eternal epic in anything
other than the story that God has written, and there will be no peace for the man
inspired by fantasy unless he can contentedly base his existence within the
greater epic of God’s story. Indeed, for Christians to be so swept off their
feet by the ideology of stories is an insult to God and a sure play of Satan’s
hand. In addition to bringing us near God, the things we create can also be
used to dilute or defile the nature of God, and so deter us from Him by erosion
and deceit.
So stories are potent.
They can lead a man a good merry way and then plop him back within a
disillusioned reality, or they can lead a man to find true, enduring joy in a
broken reality because of the epic that is yet unfolding. Don’t be swept off
your feet by something that isn’t real, and don’t fail to arm yourself with
those things that gird you better for your long trek home. By all means, life
in Christ is an adventure! Living by faith requires valor. Both men and women should
be driven to joyfully fill the roles that their heart calls them to. Just don’t
lose sight of Jesus in the excitement and story of life, because (thank you
SC Chapman) there will be a glorious unfolding!