Love Inspiration from the Movie "2012"

So, we rented the movie 2012 to play a clip for a youth study on Wednesday, so Ryan and I decided to watch it that night when we got home. (Not a great movie to start at 11:30 pm when you can't sleep in the next day! Didn't finish it until 2:30 am!! Talk about tired at the zoo the next day!) I personally thought it was a great movie (which could've been that much better without all the useless language involved)! Of course, it was completely predictable and you know it all works out, but it was still exhilirating to watch. Anyway, I was so wound up from watching it that I couldn't fall asleep. So, what else to think about except what it would be like if tomorrow a giant tsunami were to wipe out my city (let alone the world).

As Christians, we talk about how tomorrow is not promised because we are not guaranteed to live beyond the present, and we also talk about how we can look at the signs mentioned in the Bible as signs of Christ's return and know that He will be returning soon. But, what if that were really tomorrow? What if we woke up tomorrow morning, started to eat breakfast, and instantly found ourselves standing face to face with Jesus Christ? Life on earth as I have been living would be over in an instant! While I know that being in the presence of God for all eternity in a perfect and beautiful place that cannot be described by any words has to be incredible, I got to thinking about what kind of things I might regret. So, I basically wanted to share with you some thoughts I had while laying in bed so early in the morning, contemplating the shortness of life in light of love. And, for the sake of fun, I have four thoughts to share using each letter of the word LOVE.

L--Love God with Complete Abandon--This world is the stomping ground for Satan, whom Jesus refers to as a liar from the beginning and always lies because it is who Satan is. So, our nature, which is defined from this world, will be to lean towards trying to find ways to prove that we have no need for, not just God, but any god. We try to use science to show how the world created itself from nothing, found some way to make a few gases and land, then created simple organisms and found its way to more complex organisms. Now, I won't go into the argument for why this doesn't work, but if you're curious, feel free to ask me and I will share with you. We try to prove that the human nature can be good by going out and doing good things. Well, while it is true that we have the ability to do good things, there are few times when those people don't have a selfish reason for doing those "good" things. Any time we hear something that says how we can write God out of the picture, we latch on to it and say "See, this proves God doesn't exist" while really it just shows how dumb we are! If we spent less time trying to disprove God and spent more time living as God designed us to live, life would be better. I just think life and time is too short not to embrace the fact that the Creator of the universe loves us, made the perfect way to restore and keep a personal relationship with us, works things out in our lives (though not always how we'd like them and definitely not in our timeline!) and wants to bless us greatly! To embrace the guidelines He has given us allows us to see that God hasn't tried to set out a rules of do's and don'ts simply to try to tell us what to do but that He actually knows what things destroy us physically, mentally and spiritually so He has told us what those things are. His Words are the secret to a life of contentment and joy (there is no promise of easiness and happiness). It's time to abandon our desires to want to be able to do everything on our own and embrace completely that God empowers us to go beyond anything we thought we could ever do! Now that's powerful!

O--One Moment at a Time--I don't know about you, but I find that the more I focus on the future, the less time I spend focusing on the now. In the movie, the scientist who discovers the crazy heating of the earth's core is shown with his wife and daughter as a tsunami comes hurdling towards them to engulf them in just a matter of seconds. At that moment, the scientist grabs his daughters face and helps her to focus soley on him so that she doesn't worry about those last few moments in fear. What if this moment, right now, is the last moments I have with my family and friends? Do I want them to find me living in a future that won't look anything like I'm trying to map it out to be or do I want them to see me looking at them, giving them all my love and energy? All we really have is each blessed moment. Instead of focusing on all the flaws and mistakes of those around us, what if we just spent time enjoying them? What if we spent less time playing video games and playing on the internet and spent more time creating memories that will last for all eternity? This moment, right now, is truly all that matters. And whether or not our last moments come as a result of death or the return of Jesus, let it be a moment others will never forget! Be ready at all times, the Bible says, because we never know what the future will be!

V--Value Each Other--One of the big, emotional parts of the movie is when the main geologist is convincing the world's leaders that humanity is our ability to take a chance and help each other. I think sometimes, people worry so much about why people don't spend enough time for them or approve of certain things in their life, that they forget that people deserve to be valued. That means valuing their identity, their thoughts, their desires, etc. Sometimes, love can work very similar to respect--the more of it you give, the more you receive. It is hard to have someone pour love on you and not desire to return it back to them. If you want others to show more love to you, show more love to them. Don't wait for them to do it first. God is the perfect example of this. In Romans it tells us that God didn't wait to give us a way back to Him until we wanted it or were doing the right things; He did it when we least deserved it! What an example for us to follow. Life is simply to short to spend time destroying or devaluing others because in the end, the greatest thing we can leave as our legacy is love!

E--Encouragement--There are so many ways to encourage others. The biggest thing we can do is align our mouths with our actions. We need to stop saying we believe certain things to be true yet act out completely opposite of those beliefs! If we claim to be "Christ-like" which is what the word Christian means, then we need to live it. People already have plenty examples of messed up people and hypocrites. What they need is people who claim to live a life of higher standards than the world holds and can actually live up to their claim. They need to see that there is a hope of better things. What better hope can we have than the hope we find in Christ? I once heard it said that you can go through difficult times in one of two ways--with or without Christ. In this world we WILL have trials and tribulations. That's straight from the Bible. But we can walk it alone or we can walk it knowing the God of the universe is helping us through it. I don't know about you, but I can't make it through the hard times alone. It is in those darkest times that I can rest assured that God IS at work on my behalf and you can know that too!

Weekly Challenge--How can we put this into practical application? Well, this was pretty straightforward this week. Start loving with real love. Love your parents first by honoring their wishes and desires for your life. Start doing things just because for them. Stop spreading gossip about your peers. Live what you claim. Love God and trust Him with all that you are instead of trying to figure out how you can eliminate Him! Just love. And if you need to see what love in action looks like, pick up a Bible and read the Book of John. Jesus is love in action. Look at Him and see what love will do!