Freedom

It's Mother's Day. I'm sitting here alone watching The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. I am a huge fan of both this movie and the first Chronicles of Narnia. The experience of watching the first one was quite profound. We took the family to see it at the drive-in because I thought it would make the intensity less frightening for the little ones. When we went and saw it I found myself sitting in my lawn chair, cuddled in my blanket and weeping as they were sacrificing Aslan. Even as I write it now, it stirs something in my spirit.

This movie, Prince Caspian is even more intense than the first. So much so in fact that I have decided not to let my little ones watch it all for now. The scene where the White Witch is in the ice trying to entice the Prince, to give her just "one drop" of Adam's blood. It caught my breath, and I love when Prince Edward comes from behind and stabs his sword through the ice to force her imagery, and her enticement to be broken. Prince Edward has learned his lesson, he won't even "play" with the enemy, he knows it must be destroyed. It's a powerful imagery.

But the scene that moves me the most is with little Lucy, who throughout the film has stopped and looked when she heard Aslan's voice calling out to her. She kept thinking she heard him, saw him, but the other's would grab hold of her and tell her she was mistaken, so she would "shake off" the thought and move along. Then now, the scene I've just watched, she is rushing through the forest seeking to find him at all costs, and when she finds herself in grave danger, suddenly Aslan appears. With a mighty roar he stops her, leaps over her and destroys her pursuer.

The next bit of dialogue moves me almost beyond words.

In joy and relief Lucy runs to Aslan and embraces him. She tells him, "I knew it was you, the whole time I knew it, but the other's didn't believe me."

Aslan responds to her and asks her, "And why would that stop you from coming to me?"

I remember hearing that line the first time I saw the movie, and how it stopped me, took hold of my heart. It made me think, how many times had I allowed other people and things stop me from coming to Jesus. Lucy's answer was simple, she was afraid to come alone. She wanted to know why Aslan hadn't done things the way he had before, come roaring in and saving them as he had before. Aslan assured her that things never happen the same way twice.

Lucy asks Aslan how things might have been different had she responded to his call rather than to her fear, and I think out of grace Aslan simply tells her that they can never know "what could have been," but can only move forward from that point to what will be.

It gives me so many things to think about in just that one simple scene.

Have you ever found yourself in that place? The place where fear and emotion stopped you from walking in obedience? You hear the call of the Lord, but you do not heed it because you cannot understand the reasoning, it doesn't fit your interpretation or thought process of the way you think things ought to be?

What was your response? Were you able to walk in the victory of obedience? Or did you have to look back at a wake of consequence and ask, like Lucy, what could have been. It's a terrible question to have to ask.

My pastor has been teaching a series about "Living in an Upside Down World." It's been all about how the world we live in, and the world we belong to, the Kingdom of God, have very opposing ways. Last week he spoke about our position in Christ, and what it is to be... the position of a slave.

We studied about the freedom that comes from being as a slave, obedience without question, to a Master who loves and cares for those belong to Him. If any of you reading this are doing so without a Christian world view, I apologize with the certainty that I have offended you, but what you must understand is that there is a security and strength that comes from knowing to Whom you belong. Having the heart of the slave, and the obedience that goes along with it means never having to look back and wonder, "what might have been."

The fact of the matter is, we are all slaves to something. Even if it be to our own will and desires, something drives us all. However there is hope in choosing Whom you will serve, and knowing His heart towards you and His plan for your life is good.

I am a servant of Christ. I long to move and to grow ino the place of truly being a slave to Christ. I long for the time where I will allow nothing and no one to keep me from following Him when He bids me come. I long for the day when my obedience is absolute, and my desire to serve and obey Him is overwhelmed by every other thought, emotion and fear. I am free, for the Son has set me free, but I long for the day that I walk in the fullness of that freedom.