LOTR & Looney Tunes

To those following,

One of my favorite series of all time is undoubtedly the Lord of the Rings series written by J.R.R Tolkien. Released over 50 years ago, the series still dominates all forms of western media, including my Mass Communications class. Being a former Biology major and a current Religion major, I have grown accustomed to long lectures over the smallest of microbial details and the art of Christian history lessons. Needless to say it came as a complete and utter (although pleasant) surprise when on the first day of class my professor for Mass Comm informed us that not only were videos to be included on a daily basis in our class, but also that on that first day alone we were to watch a clip from Lord of the Rings and Looney Tunes. I must have looked like a kid about to open Christmas presents. I mean how often do you get to watch your childhood cartoons and your favorite series of all times in one class? However, I have found out that I am not the kind of person who can just be content with watching videos. For almost immediately after both videos were done playing I began to try and see the seemingly non visible connections between a cartoon duck and a fictional hobbit.   

I mean obviously both characters were the creations of imaginative people, but beyond this was something buried much deeper.

The Lord of the Rings series and Looney Tunes each deal with issues of being in control.

The whole Premise of the LOTR trilogy is to destroy a ring that possesses the ability to bewitch and corrupt all who wear it. In this case it is the ring which controls the characters movements. It is the ring which causes the epic story to begin. It is the ring in which many fall victims to. The Looney Tunes classic cartoons are the same way. Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny are nothing more than marionettes forced to dance across the page when the writer says, “dance”. They have no control. Their story lines are not up to them, they are up to the author.

Some of the very last words of Jesus recorded in the book of Matthew give insight into this same idea. Matthew 28:18 says, “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.’” Jesus Christ makes it clear He, the creator of everything that has ever been, is, and will be, is the One and only one who is in control.

We can spend our lives fighting Him. We can spend our lives giving up our control to the people and the world around us. We can spend our lives like puppets on a string. Or we can spend our lives giving all authority to the only One who possesses it and watch as we discover what it means to truly live.

We can spend our lives as slaves of this World or we can spend our lives as slaves to the loving and just Father.

We can spend our lives how we please

Just remember who really is in control of our lives anyways.

Life is a privilege… don’t waste it 

Merely,

Chris Gerac

“He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it” Matthew 10:39, NASB