ARK

(This entry was originally for the last Thanksgiving. Since I now have different blogs, it'd be more appropriate to move it here.)

“Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.” – Genesis 6:14 (ESV)

…

Since I have been reading books, mangas, and watching movies a lot these days, my worldview did increase and get changed dramatically. The annoying thing was: because of that, the Truth became confusing and my Faith came out to be faded a bit.

The more I thought about it, the more amazing it was- that I watched the movie “Evan Almighty”.

The movie was about a man named Evan Baxter. In the night he became a new congress man, he prayed to God, that He would help him to “change the world”. The surprising thing was that God did come to him, and told him to build “an ark”. To follow God’s Word, Evan had to give up his politic career and many things else…

It was just a funny movie, but there shouldn’t be a lot of Christian movies may surpass it. I was stunned with all the ideas conveyed in it.

I admire Evan so much. He decided to pray God in the first place, and he prayed sincerely. Immediately I felt the big shame of myself. Though I have been praying everyday, none of them could be that sincere, and were all covered with the cloud of selfishness. But that’s not all there is to it.

The man Evan, originally was a really clean person. (He shaves his nose-hair every day!). But since he followed God’s Word, he started giving up his manner, and became a hairy guy with shepherd’s outfit. Accept his work building the ark, everything else just messed up completely around him. Immediately I understood that was how “taking a cross” was! At the same time I realized though he sunk among all kinds of troubles and sufferings, it was Love that was given to him by Lord, and he was joyful.

The Faith was portrayed in a really simple but amazingly clear way. Whenever someone asked Evan: “What are you doing?”, he looked at them straightly and said: “I am building an ark.” Then people would ask him: “Why? What’d happen?” He would calmly reply: “The flood is coming.” Just look at his eyes at that time, we can see what the real Faith is, and how a faithful Christian is. Maybe he didn’t know, but his replies, just exactly as what God told him, were the most correct answers any human may get. It is the Wisdom that Lord gave his followers.

All the conflicts combined together at last, and caused the climax. Everything happened just as God’s Word. It is that how we receive or understand it. “The flood” did come, unpredictably through the collapsed dam, and though it wasn’t a real “flood”, it was huge enough to destroy anything. At that very moment, I thought that all the stupid people, who had been gathering around Evan just to mock and laugh at him, would be all gone with the water. But no, actually none of them died! They were all saved by the ark – all of them. It is Lord that forgave them, as well as us, the people who have been fighting and refusing Him at any single step. The answer of Evan, “He choose all of us.” was indeed true. And I was just an evil human, no thing to compare with His Grace.

How can we change the world? The answer was provided: “to build an Ark”, for ARK is any Act of Random Kindness.

The new Thanksgiving is coming. Thank you, O Lord, for all of your Giving and Forgiving also. Amen.