Matt W Cook

I just watched the Olympic torch run through Thorncliffe Park. Wild, eh? Not something you see every day. When you think about it, it’s actually pretty special that I saw it? How many times are the Olympics held in Canada? How many times has the route the torch takes been right in front of my house? Odds are I’ll never see the silly thing again.

But it isn’t a silly thing. I don’t know about you, but I love the Olympics.

But the funny thing is, I don’t really care about the games.

For me, the Olympics symbolizes something. I saw the crowds this morning, all smiling in the freezing morning air, clapping, waving flags and cheering a stranger on. I saw them hoping. I saw them rejoicing. In what? I don’t really know.

I was rejoicing in unity. I was rejoicing that we can, as diverse humans, put problems aside for a while and play a few games together. I was rejoicing that we don’t take life so seriously that political squabbles can get in the way of a good hockey game.

Rejoice with me.

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How would you describe Darth Vader’s evil?

Monolithic – Large, powerful and uniform.  Made of one thing.

Darth Vader is a monolithic evil character.  There’s nothing redeemable about him at all.  From the very first scene we know this, when he strolls onto the rebel space craft and glances down at the corpses, as a man would look at a bed of flowers.  Or look at the callous way he deals with the failings of his staff, choking them on whims.  Even captain Needa, who went to personally apologize for a failure that was hardly his fault was snuffed out.  And then Vader, with that dark, chuckling voice uttered that coldest of lines: “Apology accepted.”

Even in his transition from Anakin to Vader we see deep evil.  Without a single argument he obeyed the Emperor and slaughtered the children in the temple.  Darth Vader was the worst of terrorists, the most gruesome of psychopaths and the most merciless of despots.  Bad dude.

And yet, he was redeemed.

Vader claimed, with his dying breaths, that Luke was ‘right about him.’  Most of us assume that meant there was a little good left in Vader all along.  I doubt that.

Luke was right about the fact that there was a chance of redemption.  Somehow Luke brought it out.  Somehow it happened.

I’m always pleased when I see a monolithic evil character redeemed.  It makes me think of myself in happier terms.  I may not be monolithic, but I’m pretty evil.  Yay for redemption so wild that even Vader could partake.

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I’m reading A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. It’s epic fantasy and has a wonderfully unique voice. Give it a shot.

There is an execution scene near the beginning of the story. It stood out to me because the lord of that massive realm didn’t have a headsman. He did the deed himself. I wondered why.

Then the lord’s own son asked him why. And Lord Stark explained.

We hold to the belief that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die … A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is.

After reading that I asked myself, “What hard tasks do I have that I try to delegate to someone else? Do I ever hide behind paid executioners?”

Difficult choices are not actually all that difficult. It’s the carrying out of difficult choices that is tricky. Usually we know the right way. We know what needs to be done. But we don’t want to do it. Usually we try to get it done by proxy – to get someone else to take care of it.

Getting someone else to do something for you because you’re busy is efficient. Getting them to do it because it’s awkward is dishonest and, eventually, very bad for you.

Do the dirty work that needs to be done yourself. You’ll be better off for it, having learned what it means to do dirty work. You’ll be better respected for it. And it’s a much more honest way of living.

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Francis Dolarhyde, antagonist in Thomas Harris’s Red Dragon wanted to become.

From childhood Francis understood his weaknesses. He was born with a deformed face – unable to speak properly. He was raised by his vicious grandmother who constantly told him what a horrible child he was. Francis understood his weakness. And he wanted to rise above it. He wanted to ‘Become’.

He lusted after the persona of the Red Dragon. He sought to Become the Red Dragon. To do this, he killed.

In the end, the Dragon got out of control. He tried to fight it, but it was too late. He had Become it already. And then he died.

I think, if we are honest, we can all relate a little with Francis. We understand our weaknesses. If we really dig deep, we see that we are seriously screwed up. If we ever want to do better, we must Become. Indeed, all of us will Become.

But what shall we become?

C.S. Lewis said that each human has within him the possibility of Becoming either god or devil. Which one?

Francis became a devil. He gave in to lust and shadow. He Became devil and died, as all devils must.

I think Christ beckons us to Become. Through him, he beckons us to Become like him. To become little Christs. Little (I say it reverently) gods.

We all must Become something. We cannot stay in this frail form forever. Light or darkness? Gods or devils? Life or death?

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Adapted from a sermon last Sunday

You may be spiritually destitute if…
10) You sometimes find yourself hating something good.
9) You sometimes have a flashing desire to hurt people you love, especially with passive-agressive behaviour.
8) You fail to put up a decent fight against the imperfections you’ve found in your own life.
7) You feel a deep need to correct all the problems you notice in others.
6) When you try to do something spiritually, creatively or physically good, you feel a deep, nearly unconquerable feeling of resistance.
5) You have harsh flashes of anger toward the annoying.
4) You have a deep dislike for people who are not like you.
3) When faced with difficulty, your first reaction is not to solve, but to complain.
2) You cannot sympathize.
1) You have any desires, ideas or behaviours that are illogical and destructive.

It’s a good thing the kingdom of heaven is for the spiritually destitute, eh (Matt. 5:3)?

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I’ve always liked Morgan Freeman. So when I saw The Maiden Heist in Blockbuster, I grabbed it.

Three odd security guards each obsess over a different work of art in their gallery. They spend all their time examining, mimicking and re-creating the art. So when the museum announces that their exhibit is moving to Denmark, they don’t know how to handle it.

After deciding they can’t follow the exhibit to Denmark, they come to the only other logical choice: steal ’em.

Sounds pretty dumb, eh?

But, on reflection, isn’t that the smartest thing to do?

For these men the world revolved around this one thing. There was nothing else that mattered. Everything was sacrificed for this art. So how could they stand back and let someone take them away?

They were unreasonable, right? It wasn’t their painting. They didn’t own it. What right did they have to demand it? What right did they have to take it? None, I guess.

But they were driven by something. Something gripped them and turned them into unreasonable men. And we all know that the world is only ever changed by unreasonable men.

Myself, I can’t understand the devotion to their paintings, but I sometimes can taste a drive for something. An obsession for Something. And I begin to realize that my attitude for that Something needs to be the same as the men in the Maiden Heist. No letting go. I’ll hold on to what I have even if it means I have to break every convention out there. I’m going to steal the maiden.

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Scar is probably my favorite Disney villain.  Voiced by the amazing Jeremy Irons, he’s got everything a great villain needs.  He’s intelligent, motivated and ruthless.  He knows what he wants and he is willing to do anything to get it.  And, unlike many villains, he’s actually smart enough to pull it off.

But, like all villains, he has a fatal weakness: he doesn’t really want to be king.

How can that be?  That’s what he’s obessed with from the very first scene!  He talks and works for nothing else than becoming king.

But I really think that he doesn’t really want the job.  In fact, I think he doesn’t know what he wants.

To be king means to take responsibility for a kingdom.  It means having your citizens rely on you for their needs.  Scar definitely doesn’t want that; we can see it clearly by the way he runs the kingdom when he finally gets it.  It’s not that he’s unintelligent.  He was wiser than Mufasa, in a lot of ways, and I bet if he had put his mind to it he’d be able to run the kingdom admirably.  Shoot, I wouldn’t be surprised if he improved on Mufasa’s methods.  So why did the kingdom plunge into a depression when he took over?

Because he didn’t want to be king.  I think he wanted what most of us want: vague sense of power, authority and control.

And when he got it, it turned to ash in his mouth.

Scar at the end of the movie, clothed in all his glory, is no happier than Scar at the beginning.  He reached the top, took all the power and control he could, and it did nothing for him.

I wonder, sometimes, what I’m chasing.  Am I chasing a vague sense of control over my life like Scar did?  I hope not.  Because Scar not only lost that control in the end.  It turned on him and tore him apart.

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12
31
23
42
34
53
45
?

Which number comes next, and why?

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I’m going through Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. Check it out. It’s pretty short and full of neat, witty sayings.

Have you ever noticed how much spiritual life corresponds with warfare? Check out this quote from Sun Tzu:

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

Sun Tzu goes on to criticize the general who fights without stratagem. The general who simply charges and wanders around with his army. The general who engages in prolonged warfare instead of seeking a quick victory.

How serious do we take our spiritual wars?

The Shadow is our enemy. Do we understand it? Do we know its methods and goals? Or do we just have a vague picture of sin and Satan in our heads? Do we take steps in fighting against the Shadow?

Do we try to understand ourselves? Do we seek out places in our lives and personalities where the Shadow has taken hold? Do we identify attributes within ourselves that the Shadow can exploit?

If we know neither ourselves or the Enemy, we will make no progress in our spiritual lives. If we at least know ourselves, though, we will begin to have victory over the Shadow. But if, by the grace of God, we come to understand both ourselves and the Shadow, we can be confident of consistent victory.

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    “Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; tell of all His wondrous works!
Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!
Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His presence continually!
Remember the wondrous works that He has done, His miracles and the judgments He uttered.” Ps. 105:2-5

    What wonderful verses! They remind us of what we ought to do; but at times we find ourselves trapped into the worries and anxieties of this world and forget our focus. We don’t even realize how easily Satan uses these things to blind us so that we start doubting God and His wonderful promises! I have an exciting story to tell you all which I pray that God would use to encourage you, strengthen you and free you of whatever it is that is trapping you. So get ready!

    Even as a child, I remember having a love for God. My father was a great man of faith and trust in the Lord; he taught me a lot about my relationship with God. I remember the days when I was joyful and couldn’t stop talking about God and how He was working in my life. I went to a Bible college, KLBC, in Peterborough and God used those years to help me grow more. It was satisfying to be in His presence.
    But then something happened that totally changed it all. My dad died. It has been a bit over a year now. I found the year without my dad very depressing and difficult. My Peace was gone. I got rheumatoid arthritis right after his death. I started to realize that something is very wrong with my spiritual life. I had promised my dad that I’d have faith like his.  That no matter what happens I would continue to trust God BUT it all went backwards. Believe me it took me a whole year to realize what was wrong. I know it sounds like a long period of time to realize what is wrong but it happens sometimes. Sometimes we get so relaxed with our spiritual life and we don’t even realize how much Satan is taking advantage of it.
    Then about 2-3 weeks ago we were having a prayer meeting at a friend’s house. They prayed for me and God used that time to show me how my arthritis and not letting go of my dad are the things that are stopping me from growing. Because I’d get depressed seeing how my body is not working properly and I guess I never wanted my dad to die. You know what I mean? God answered prayers and freed me from my pain and depression. I felt so light. I never thought that I could go so crazy in that depth and once I did, I never thought I could ever get out of it and get back to my first love for God! But praise God He heard and freed me from these burdens on my back that were so heavy to bear. He took them and reminded me that He is a good shepherd who will nurture me and take care of me. It was wonderful! I came home and prayed with my wonderful husband and this is the picture that came to me head: A huge building. And you know how if someone throws himself off that roof, how fast he falls down. It was the other way around. As if Matt and I, as we jumped off the building, were weights and falling crazy speed – but upwards!! It was great!
    The next morning as I was praying this is the picture God gave: Pilgrim who has a huge and heavy burden on his shoulders but as soon as he gets to the Cross, it rolls off. I realized that this time I was that Pilgrim who seeing Christ is free of the things that were on my back for a year. I am rejoicing as I type this because I get to tell many people about the wondrous things God is doing in my life! How exciting!!
   The verses above are a good reminder to me: I am to praise Him, His works. Rejoice. Seek Him and remember His works NOT worry about or complain about the problems I have. This is not what I ought to do. Yes, my arthritis is quite bad this week I am having a hard time to walk but I could be worse, yes? I will continue to see HIM. This time Satan can’t have a chance to win. The victory is mine in and through Jesus!! YES!
   Just remember that there is no burden or sin HE can’t take away. He has the power over all and everything. Trust that He is able to do that which we can’t even imagine. Rejoice that HE has freed us all! Keep reminding yourselves. Keep exercising your gifts. Tell everyone what God is doing in your life. You never know who you may encourage.

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