Tuesday, April 18, 2006

To-Do List That Made Me Laugh

Even though it was sunny this morning, and the flowers were blooming, and the trees finally have leaves, I was a little depressed. I got on the Red Line to go to work and found a little piece of paper that made me laugh out loud and instantly brightened my day. It was a to-do list and went as follows:

- Let tv/movie ideas about supernatural go.
Eph 6:10-17

Ideas:
- devil NOT invincible
- You can't fight him w/wits, willpower, or human strength

Difference between "power" and "authority"?
- God has power, He gave man authority.
- devil's goals more worldly and "everyday" than you may think.


Okay, so let's analyze this note.
1. The first to-do item states: Let tv/movie ideas about supernatural go. Yet the very next item on the to-do list is an idea about the supernatural and the ways to fight, or how not to fight, the devil.

2. The devil is not invicible but you can not fight him with the mind or with human strength. So can we beat him with nuclear warfare? Maybe human strength can't hurt the devil but if we trained a tiger to attack him would that work? I once saw a movie where the devil was killed by shining strong headlamps from a 4x4 pickup truck on him, maybe that would work. That was an awesome B-movie, if anyone that reads this knows what the name of it was please comment on this post.

3. Eph 6:10-17 reads: 10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

So, basically, that section of Ephesians 6 says: This world and heavenly realms are full of evil rulers and authorities and as people we should stand up against these evil powers. The best way to stand up to evil is to first of all protect yourself from it with the armor of virtues: truth (the belt that holds the armor together), righteousness (breastplate, the bulk of armor), salvation (helmet), readiness of peace (shoes). And to fight back we have the word of God(sword). Except for the word of God and the shield of faith none of that really has to do with supernatural phenomenon, so maybe the author of the to-do list was infact giving up on supernatural ideas. Who are we kidding? The author is obsessed with the supernatural, he/she will never give it up.

4. What is the difference between power and authority? Authority: The power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience. Power: The capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or course of events. Not much difference there really. So God had the supreme power to give man authority? Authority over what, and with authority comes power, so did God relinquish His power to man? Really makes you wonder huh? What a deep and far reaching to-do list this has turned out to be.

5. The "devil's goals are more 'worldly' than you may think". Worldly meaning not heavenly or hellishly, but "worldly' goals could mean anything from wanting to lose weight by next fall to desiring to conquer the Earth and commit genocide in order to form a pure race of people. Let’s assume when this person wrote “worldly” they meant ideas such as love, happiness, wealth, or power. If we assume those as typical “everyday” “worldly” goals then that still leaves us with such a far range of goals that the devil might pursue that it is basically not worth writing.

Conclusion:
This to-do list, or what started out as a to-do list, was specifically written for the sake of making someone, namely me, on the train laugh. I am glad someone left it there so that I could waste some more time at work writing this blog and it definitely made my day a little more fun.