the day the earth stood still...

Went to watch Keanu Reeves in action yesterday in the movie "The Day The Earth Stood Still". Other than the predictable plot of aliens coming over to exterminate the Earth, and how Earth was finally saved, 2 things struck me.

Firstly was the reaction of the nation when the "alien" first landed on Manhattan. Upon the alien's landing, the first reaction of the Secretary of Defense was to activate the army, the missiles and weapons and artillery to destroy the aliens. It just shows how prone humans are to resort to violence and force to solve problems and issues we face in life. I think about how I want to get all fit and muscular so that people won't dare to bully me. Force seems to be the way to go. Think all the way back 2008 years ago. The Jews were expecting a Messiah who would overthrow the Roman empire and set up a new age for themselves. But Jesus' appearance totally threw their ideologies out of the window. He came "as a Lamb to be slaughter". How radical it must have been for the Jews at that time! They wanted to be saved from their slavery, but God wanted to save them from their sin. Christianity is radical. It's radical because it challenges many of the pre-suppositions we have adopted in the culture and society we are in. But it is also amazing. Amazing that the Lord would choose to save us even after all the wrong we have done.

Secondly was how in the show, upon hearing that the cause of the annihilation was because the humans weren't taking care of the planet Earth, the humans believed that they can CHANGE. They believed that a crisis like this is needed in order to awaken the soul and that it will move the human race to do something about it. To a certain extent, I agree that often during a crisis, people change. It is at those moments we are brought to realization about what matters and we do something to change the situation. But how long do those moments actually last? I personally believe that to have a LASTING CHANGE, we need God. Pure human determination and situations cannot cause the LASTING CHANGE. Only by the power of God, then is lasting change possible. Unless I anchor my reasons for change with the Word of God, it won't be long before I fall back to the same sinful nature as I was before.