(Star Wars Episode 4 Spoilers)

Across the different cultures there are many overlapping themes: struggle, heroic acts, spirituality, justice, mercy and even sacrifice. Some use this fact to suggest that God is not the sole author of life. Yet we know it is precisely because there is but one God that we see commonality between the different peoples despite their varying beliefs.

Indeed, to those doubters one only needs to point out the fact that we all poo..

Nonetheless, many worldly successful people are driven by their discovery of shared struggle to say such things as “I believe there is a God, but I do not know who he is”. Or, “I believe God is everywhere, in everything, but not one known to us through religion.” You will also hear people say that life is all about the ‘journey’, the ‘grind’ – an ultimately useless gesture against the backdrop of eternity.

One example is George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars. George was raised in a Methodist home but eventually rejected the exclusivity of Christ. Armed with his Anthropological study, he created within Star Wars a very broad but contextualised spirituality that borrowed from all sorts of myths and religions. We could spend hours dissecting these, but the one thing I want to extract for today is this:

The Hero’s Journey.

Luke Skywalker's arc (in ep 4) is almost as Monomyth as it gets. A young farmer living a boring life, encounters a mission, parents killed, goes on adventure. Then with new friends, he faces and overcomes issues to ultimately win a decisive victory.

It is not without reason that the Monomyth is so successful. As rest would not be rest without work, victory would not be victory without struggle. I hold that God has ordained trial for humanity, and not even due to sin. I am inclined to think that the pre-fall Adam had to work hard:

Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

In fact I would go so far as to say that the allure of quickly obtaining the knowledge of good and evil, is at least in some way akin to us falling for the classic ‘Get rich quick!’ scams.

It is common struggle for us all, especially those of us who battle PMO: the resistance of instant gratification.

Though unlike Luke Skywalker, we have been told we already have the victory. Through Jesus Christ we are told we may nail the misdeeds of the flesh to the cross and be free from sin. Yet many of us still fall into the same temptations over and over again. Being told we are ‘more than conquerors’ only to ‘rub another one out’ may lead us to doubt this ‘victory’.

So where is the victory?

Our situation is very similar to David’s. He was told, in fact he was ANOINTED as the king of Israel, yet he faced incredible hardship before eventually attaining this. Bloody battles, devastating betrayal and having to act raving mad so that he could hide in a foreign town. He lived on the move and even had to eat consecrated bread to survive. David’s sole enemy was delivered into his hands twice, and he let him live – holding the act of killing Gods previously anointed king to be wrong.

God allowed David to go through these trials to refine him (you can read about this process in the Psalms). If God had simply struck Saul down with lightning to allow a young David to ascend the throne, he would not have had the fortitude for events to come later.

This is not God's will for us.

u/Praexology put it this way:

“If you've ever had someone spot you who wasn't a good spotter, something they'll do is the second you start struggling they just lift as hard as they can to help you rerack, instead of slowly helping you move the bar up to help you grow stronger. God doesn't immediately take away the full weight, he gives us just enough to handle with the help of the Holy Spirit.

God glorifies himself through us choosing to follow him despite our sinful flesh.”

We know that God has already won, and though it can be hard to believe it when we stumble repeatedly – faith would not be faith without perseverance through doubt and sin. Our faith is a muscle that must be worked on in order to see gains.

It’s: "Pick up your cross and follow me."

Not: "I'll pick up your cross and you can hop on my shoulders."

​

(Cross-posted from r/TrueChristian)