Despite the extraordinary cinematic advances of our time, fantasy will never achieve the status of reality, for the two are immiscible substances. But fantasy has its gifts and its genius. The power of fantasy lies in its ability to recast the truths of the Real in the veiled form of allegory and by that to tell a story already told a thousand times with sparkling freshness, to awaken deaf ears to the sounds of forgotten music, to remind the mind of its passion for fascination and the heart of its need for hope. Such is the birthright of the superhero and the singular cause of his fame. One need not even ask what it is about a man whose eyes are all-seeing, whose skin is soft yet impervious to bullets, whose ears hear the cries of a billion hurting souls, whose strong arms bind up the wounds of the broken, and whose kindness is boundless and freely given, that so captures our imagination. The cry of the human heart is to believe in such a man, to touch the hem of his cape, to immortalize his memory in a photograph and forever tell others of the time you stood by his side.

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Just before we ate Christmas dinner, my frail 85-year-old grandpa shared a few words before praying over the food. He said, “This will probably be the last time the entire family is together.” What? Is he planning on dying this year!? I thought as my wife and I stared at each other in disbelief. “The next time will be at John’s wedding,” he continued, which was a joke because my cousin John has no dating prospects at the moment. We laughed, prayed and began to eat.

What my grandpa said – or rather did – gave me pause. He made a profound confession concerning the finality of his life, but instead of letting us dwell upon that serious thought, he diminished its import with humor. As far as I know, no one addressed the subject with him again.

Humor is like anesthesia. It dulls the senses to what is actually happening to you. When a person has surgery, he receives anesthesia to limit his sense of pain caused by the surgical knife. Or when a person has a headache, he takes Tylenol, not to remove the cause of the pain but to cover it up. The ache is still there, but he is unaware of it.

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Over at Think Christian Andy posted about how the online gaming community might become a new mission field as Christians start to form their own guilds and clans within these communities. I agree that online communities are becoming very prevalent and almost as important to some people as real-life communities, but I would hate to see Christian sub-groups form and start to divide "us" from "them."

I am the the leader for a guild in the game Guild Wars called the Valiant Knights. Unfortunately most of the Christian guilds in this game are not very good and are generally laughed at by the rest of the Guild Wars community. It seems to me that the more effective ministry route is to join a guild that contains unsaved members and build relationships with them there. We don't need to create more separate sub-groups of Christians -- we need to infiltrate the unsaved communities.

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September 20 of this year the mainstream rock band, Disturbed, released their latest album, Ten Thousand Fists. I've been listening to it lately and just love the music. Their unique sound, as pioneered by their album, The Sickness, has achieved a great balance between metal and rapcore. Almost every track is jam-packed with adrenaline that automatically makes you want to at least bounce your head to their pretty solid beat. Some of the tracks, like Guarded, are definitely going on my Micro Zen's work-out playlist for 24-Hour Fitness.

Other tracks, however, I have a hard time listening to, and for good reason. Although most of the songs address issues of personal pain and disappointment with life and society, some include lyrics with negative spiritual overtones. One song, Deify, is even outright blasphemy!

Deify chorus:
You're no immortal
I won't let them
Deify you
They view you as the new messiah
Deify you
Renew belief in some demented man

I reserve no apologies for utilizing my "next track" button when songs like this start playing.

If you choose to listen to this album, be aware that the band's spiritual outlook on life attacks Christianity, offers no hope for struggles, and offers harmful advice for dealing with pain. Why anyone would choose to live like this is beyond me.

(Due to the graphical nature of their album cover, I have decided not to post it for public display. However, having said that I know most of you are curious now. Use this link if you need a visual of it: Ten Thousand Fists album cover)

I love it when God uses unsaved worldly people to unconsciously share His gospel to the world. All people are created by God and thus cannot help but unintentionally communicate His message, even when they are directly opposed to it. In the case of the successful mainstream band, Good Charlotte, it's hard to hear their new ablum released in late 2004 and not hear its dripping theological overtones.

The album, The Chronicles of Life and Death, clearly communicates that band is searching for something deeper and more meaningful in life, and by doing so they unintentionally point to God as the answer to their search. Check out some of these lyrics:

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Not long ago my wife and I had occasion to watch a vintage episode of Jim Henson’s The Muppets while babysitting our friends’ young children. As always, the show exemplified the artistic brilliance and quirky yet beloved humor of its late creator which, quite justifiably, turned The Muppets into an empire and one of television’s all-time favorite programs. In this particular episode, the guest on the set was the now-legendary entertainer, humanitarian and philanthropist Harry Belafonte who, in between cavorting and conversing with Kermit and company, serenaded the audience with songs from his recently released album “Turn the World Around.” (1977)

One of the numbers Mr. Belafonte performed was the title track, which he introduced with a brief anecdote about a visionary journey he had taken into the heart of Africa to visit a number of indigenous peoples and learn about their way of life. The song itself was quite engaging, a showcase of percussive rhythm spiced up by a combination of Mr. Belafonte’s calypso melody and a four-part Muppet harmony. The mesmerizing ensemble and Mr. Belafonte’s bedazzling smile, however, could not completely disguise the humanistic tint to the lyrics. In pertinent part, they are as follows:

We come from the fire / living in the fire /
Go back to the fire / turn the world around,

We come from the water / living in the water /
Go back to the water / turn the world around,

We come from the mountain / living in the mountain /
Go back to the mountain / turn the world around,

Do you know who I am? / Do I know who you are?
See we one another clearly? / Do we know who we are?

Water make the river / river wash the mountain /
Fire make the sunlight / turn the world around,

Heart is of the river / body is the mountain /
Spirit is the sunlight / turn the world around,

We are of the spirit / truly of the spirit /
Only can the spirit turn the world around.

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