What Eliza Dushku Has to Teach the Church

It’s hard saying goodbye to a friend, especially if it’s another one of Joss Whedon’s creations that passed before its time.

Dollhhouse is not Whedon’s best work, but it may be his deepest. It lacks the punchiness that made Buffy so much fun, and the creativity which made Firefly soar beyond science fiction. It did, however, use a sexy model with sad puppy dog eyes to raise questions about the dangers of man’s relationship with technology and the nature of the soul.

After the Firefly debacle nothing was going to keep Whedon from telling his story. After season one, he released “Epitath Part One” straight to the internet, telling the story of a post-apocalyptic future directly resulting from the technology used to run the Dollhouse harems.  Season Two seemed hurried, trying to accomplish the plot and character development needed to reach the end of civilization. Although rushed, the last few episodes were exhilarating, with heroes becoming anti-heroes and villains becoming pastoral leaders.

Dollhouse raises a number of important questions, but perhaps the most important is about the societal and spiritual implications of our growing dependence on technology.  Christians, except perhaps the Mennonites, seem to ignore this.

Could projected preachers create a dangerous celebrity culture? Does social networking increase or impede our ability to function as the body of Christ? Could driving 30 minutes to worship cripple our ability to love our neighbors?

I’ll miss Whedon’s latest, but the questions it raised will stick with me.

Tags: body of Christ, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Eliza Dushku, Faith, Firefly, Joss Whedon, mennonites, social networking, soul, Summer Glau, technology

Do You Believe?

For most of my life, if I believed in something, it meant that I bought into a series of rational propositions.  In other words, I agreed with some ideas.  Therefore “believing in Jesus” meant that I had thought about it, and had come to agree with assertions, such as “There is a creator,” “He’s there even though you can’t see him,” and “he did make an appearance once, about 2000 years ago, and got killed for it.”

What I called belief was really just coming to the conclusion that Jesus seemed like a pretty good idea.

The problem is, life gets difficult and good ideas give little comfort.  You have two choices: risk your life on the chance that your ideas will prove true, or try to figure out how to fix your problems, and think up a set of new ideas to explain the universe.

Belief is what happens when you take a risk on what you say is true.  Believing that God will provide means putting yourself in a situation where only he can. 

Most of the time, we live by ideas more that beliefs.  God doesn’t provide because we don’t need him to.  But when you get to the point that all you have left is God, you can’t help but believe he will get you through.  Then you realize, that it has really been that way all along.  Then you believe.

Tags: Belief, Faith, God, Trusting God

Leaning Into God

Right now I’m learning to not just lean on, and lean into God. Leaning on God is like using him as a proof that you are right. Leaning into is much scarier.

I’m not exactly sure where God is taking me, but what’s becoming abundantly clear is my need to fully rely on him. I heard Dallas Willard say that the problem with our theology is that we trust God for our salvation but not for our next sandwich.

Leaning into God is like standing on a cliff during a windstorm, and leaning forward, trusting that you won’t fall. What I’m learning is that if we believe God is God, we must expect and rely on him for everything. We must lean off the cliff, and trust that he loves us too much to let us fall.

Tags: Faith, Lean, Trust, Wind