MWR : Articles : Carmen Andres

Articles : Carmen Andres

Finding true reality

In The Matrix, Neo discovers he’s living inside a simulated reality created by a computer program used to control and suppress the human population. Morpheus gradually awakens Neo to that truth and the much vaster reality in which he really lives. Eventually, Neo must decide whether he will trust Morpheus and accept reality as it is — and all the costs that go with it — or go back to living within the constraints of a false existence.

Listen to him

Jesus has confirmed the disciples’ hopes: He is the Messiah! Then, a few days later, he surprises them again. On a high mountain, Peter, James and John watch Jesus transform before their eyes, glowing from the inside out. Then Elijah and Moses come into view “in deep conversation with Jesus” (Mark 9:4, The Message). Then a bright cloud covers them, and a voice says: “This is my Son… . Listen to him.”

Let Jesus lead

“One thing is sure,” writes Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy. “You are somebody’s disciple. You learned how to live from somebody else. There are no exceptions to this rule, for human beings are just the kind of creatures that have to learn and keep learning from others how to live.”

New state of mind

In A Grief Observed, C.S. Lewis likens harboring false ideas about God to building a house of cards — a structure God will knock down as often as necessary. “My idea of God,” writes Lewis, “is not a divine idea. It has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it himself.”

Pay it forward

In Pay It Forward, a boy gets an assignment to help three people by doing something for them they cannot do for themselves, with one caveat: the recipients are encouraged to do the same. I’m always moved by this story because it gets at how we respond to and how lives are changed by grace, love and mercy — even at great cost or in the midst of loss and suffering.

Sinners mended

In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Edmund makes some bad choices and eventually becomes a traitor to Narnia and a prisoner of the White Witch. There is no reason for him to hope for rescue — but, just as he’s about to be killed, Edmund is not only saved but forgiven and eventually knighted by Aslan for his bravery in the subsequent battle against the White Witch. “Even a traitor may mend,” Edmund later reflects in A Horse and His Boy. “I have known one who did.”

Turn and be saved

Sometimes, in the midst of turmoil or fear, God seems absent or hidden. At times, we start to wonder if there isn’t a solution to our circumstances elsewhere. But, ultimately, only God can truly help or save us. And Isaiah reminds us why.

One who restores

In times of darkness or wilderness wandering, our lives can feel like they lie in ruins about us. It seems impossible for anything good to ever come from that rubble. But Isaiah reminds us that God is in the business of redemption and renovation. That is who he is and what he does.

Evidence of love

Near the end of the film Nim’s Island, Nim’s father is missing at sea and the 11-year-old is sobbing, scared he has died. Alexandria, a writer who’s traveled around the world through much hazard to get to Nim, enfolds the girl in her arms and tells her: “Listen to me. No matter what happens, whether it’s here or anywhere, I’ll take care of it. You will not be alone.”