The other evening I watched the new Tim Burton movie Alice in Wonderland with my cousin and her two children and it wasn’t the first time I’d seen it. It was for them mind you, but I’d already seen when it came out in theaters and I actually fell in love with it then. So much so, I forked out the money and bought the DVD. (What can I say? I am a sucker for fantasy stories, always have been). But I loved Burton’s take on it, what I’d call a sequel to the original Alice and while watching it I couldn’t help but notice an interesting similarity in theme to a very familiar Bible story, and not one of those secondary bible stories mind you, but what I’ll refer to as “THE MOTHER OF ALL BIBLE STORIES,” the one most of us tend to forget, the one that pretty much encapsulates them all. You know? The one about good vs. evil/God vs. the Devil/ and somehow, somewhere in the middle of this “MOTHER OF ALL STORIES” we have a role to play, and for me, Alice couldn’t have brought this element of God’s story home more clearly.
Now, if you haven’t seen the movie I’d highly recommend it, especially going into it with this mentality. Imagine, you’ve just been thrust into a “Underland” (otherwise known as Earth) when somewhere along the way, as a Child of God, you’re suddenly made aware that you have a calling, and trust me, every Christian has a calling.
“A calling?” you ask, “and what’s that?” When, much to your surprise, you find that two rotund twins, named Tweedledee and Tweedledum have the answer, “Oh, you just have to slay a dragon,” they say, “called the Jabberwocky.”
You cough, blinking twice, “a what?” you ask.
“A dragon,” they say, “and when you do, then Underland can once again be ruled by the White Queen.” And it’s here they clap emphatically.
Hah! and how many times have we heard this story? Does Moses ring a bell anyone? Yeah, when God calls, like many of the Bible characters in those secondary stories we tell God, “hey, look, you’ve got the wrong Alice. Call somebody else!” and it’s classic. When we find what we’re up against so often our first reaction is to retreat into cowardice, “send somebody else!” we say and unfortunately, for many of us, we’d rather settle for the more complacent stories, stories that require of us nothing because there’s no risk that way, but much like Underland, life is full of risk, and we can either run from it or face it, and from this character I know called God, He wants us to face it, is actually the one who calls us into the middle of the fight to begin with, because it’s here, He changes us, He trains us. Yes, trains us.
Have you ever wondered what it’s all about and for what? I have, and I do a lot, actually, where half the time I think I’m asking God, “why am I here in the middle of this story?” And true, God wants relationship with us, but that doesn’t seem, at least to me, that that’s all there is, that that’s all He wants. Yes, God wanted relationship but then His Enemy sabotaged it, and His Enemy, Satan, is now our enemy and does everything within his power to come between us and God and our true calling. I think because the enemy knows if we discover it, then we’d be quite a force to reckon with. Case in point: another theme in Alice I’d like to touch on that I found to be quite enlightening actually, spoken, like some gem of wisdom within just one line.
Alice, still contemplating whether or not she actually has the gumption to face the dragon is told by Absolem, the catepillar, that all she needs to do to defeat the dragon is hang onto the Vorpal sword. “Really?” You mean, she doesn’t have to do anything, except muster up the courage to go out there and face the enemy, the dragon, but it’s not by her power that she’ll defeat him, but it’s by the power of the sword? Again, “really?” Anybody else seeing a similarity here? Dragon (Satan)? Sword (God’s Word)? Huh. Now, if there’s anything we as Christians tend to forget then I’d have to say it’s this: we forget what we’re up against, and we forget what our ultimate weapon of choice is: God’s Word. We forget that there’s an entire battle being waged around us in the spirit realm and we forget how to fight it. God says, “open your eyes, Child! If you’re up against something then this is what it is!” It’s not your boss, your spouse, your children, it’s not even yourself, it’s that age old Adversary doing what he does best: wreaking havoc, and hoping you won’t notice, hoping you’ll fall back into complacency and won’t recognize that there’s a sword you can grab hold of to fight him back with. If you did, you might actually overcome some of those hurdles/obstacles that have been holding you back. Back from becoming a better employee, father, mother, spouse, or even overcoming some of those things in your own life that keep you from becoming the best you can be, which ultimately, is Christ reflecting.
Instead, like Alice, so many of us cry, “send somebody else!” But God says, “no, I want you to do it! I want you to slay the dragons in your life until you reach your potential IN ME,” which brings me back to my title, and for that, you’ll have to see the movie if you haven’t already because it’s about overcoming six impossible things.
You see, just a few days ago I was sitting out on the back deck of my cousin’s house looking at a mountain when God brought to mind His words about casting mountains into seas (see Matthew 21:21) and I was like, “you’ve got to be kidding, God. Why would you tell us such an impossible thing?” and the words He laid on my heart were, “because I expect my Children to do such things,” or in other words, “I want you to have this mentality.” “Really?” “Yes, really.”
Can you imagine? And it’s mind blowing honestly, but with God all things are possible and so it inspired me. It inspired me to make a list, and I am not a list maker by any means, but I wanted to make a list, a prayer list, of six impossible things in my life that God and I could turn around together and make a possibility, and I’ve decided I want to make this a habit, my prayer habit, to do this every morning before breakfast. Because as with all things, it has to be a daily thing.
