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

Words & Worship

To those wondering,

If you think worship is the songs you sing before your pastor comes up on stage YOUR WRONG.

It’s sad but when it comes to American perceptions of worship I often feel like the last thing thought of is God. Instead of turning to Him, we turn to our friends or our phones. Instead of focusing on the Man who saved and redeemed us, we focus on our voices or if we should be lifting or hands or not based upon the actions of the person standing next to us. Instead of singing with our hearts we sing with heavy eyes and half-hearted voices.

Now I’m not attacking anyone who does this for I feel that the Church is equally to blame for this pseudo-worship experience, nor am I saying that every single person has been lulled into thinking that this is worship. 

All I am saying is that Worship is more than words.

Robert Foster says, “Singing, praying, praising all may lead to worship, but worship is (far) more than any of them.” Worship is the essence of our souls. Worship is when our flesh dies and God rises. Worship is when we give ourselves wholeheartedly to Jesus. Worship is when our actions, our thoughts, our minds all focus on Him. True worship isn’t for 30 minutes every Sunday. True worship is our acknowledgment of God and His goodness every single moment of our lives. True worship doesn’t harden our hearts but melts the hardest of stone and brings us closer in intimacy with our Father.

True worship isn’t standing at the front of your church with your arms held high because that’s what you feel like you should do. True worship doesn’t even have to deal with song.

True worship is entering the activity/mindset, which takes your focus off of you and allows God out of his box.

Whether dancing, writing, drawing, coloring, singing, rapping, painting, or just laying face down on your floor, I encourage you to let God move through you instead of you trying to move God

 

Worship is inviting God to move

Worship is Freedom

Merely,

Chris Gerac

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:23-24, NIV

Music & Melodies

Three things happened to me yesterday that are the direct reasons for the conclusion that is to come. 

1)I noted that people with accents lose their accents when singing. 

2)I watched the movie August Rush yesterday and got swept away by the World’s rhythmic melodies. 

3)I went to my friends apartment and played guitar for the first time in months (the reason its been months is because I admit that I have never been able to play)

It seems to me that there are only two things in life that can cross all cultures, all languages, all genders, all social stratospheres, and all continents: music and Jesus. Whether you agree with me or not it’s hard to refute that these two things seem to have a deeply rooted sense to life in general. What other name has reached as many ears as the name of the man who died and rose again for the sake of sinners? What other thing besides music conducts beautiful symphonies of sound that can be heard all around at all times?

I have always felt an attachment to music but have never been able to see the reasons as to why. It’s an unexplainable attachment almost like a gentle tug encouraging me to come back home. I know not how it came to be nor the moment I first became conscious of this connection, but I do know the purpose behind it: music universally exist so that we may universally connect to the universe and its maker.

Psalm 47:6-7 says, “Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise.”

Music and Christ are two things that cannot be separated from each other nor can they be pried apart by this world.  God gave music to us as a gift to understand his heart and his desires for us and for this world.

Deeply engrained, they will forever remain apart of our lives, whether we chose to listen though is our own decisions

Merely,

Chris Gerac

“Sing to the LORD a new song,

   his praise from the ends of the earth,

you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,

   you islands, and all who live in them.

11 Let the wilderness and its towns raise their voices;

   let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice.

Let the people of Sela sing for joy;

   let them shout from the mountaintops.”

Isaiah 42:10-11, NIV