We have been discussing the movie The Natural for the last five newsletters. It is hard to believe it has been that long, I have enjoyed it so much. I hope you had a chance to read my piece on this movie, which is a chapter from an unpublished manuscript. I also hope our discussion has prompted you to see the movie, even if you have seen it before. It just may be the highlight of your week, and that could be true even if you had a very good week.

You see, it will never cease to amaze me just how much stories want to help us, to reveal to us why this life is so hard -- to finally accept our diagnosis (that we were made for perfect love, but have become addicted to other lovers, all the things of this world), but then to convict us and strengthen us, so we can live out our treatment plan (that through confession and repentance and the power of the Holy Spirit we can forsake our other lovers and turn back to God the Father and our Bridegroom).

The movie The Natural tells our whole story, our diagnosis and our treatment plan, but it focuses primarily on just how much God’s love is a romantic love, and how much we broke His heart when we turned away from Him. Nevertheless, His love is perfect. It is patient and forbearing. He longs for the day we will remember Him and come running back.

Years ago, I found another movie that also tells our whole story, but mostly focuses on what it will take to find our way back. If we can be honest, we will admit we have wandered far, that we find ourselves in a wilderness. A simple and easy path back does not exist.

And if we can be radically honest, there is a part of our heart that does not want to return. This is the very reason returning is so hard. The fallen, broken part of ourselves, our false self, as Thomas Merton called it, still believes it will be happier pursuing the things of this world, not God. The greatest challenge of your life will be to face this belief, to be willing to see it as a delusion and a lie; and to offer this back to God -- for only the power of the Holy Spirit can put it to death.

If you have gone this journey, you know exactly what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, you may think I’m an alarmist, or misguided, or just . . . an idiot. That’s okay. But I hope you will continue to listen, just in case.

Once again, I want to ask if you would be willing to do some additional reading. You can subscribe below to receive another piece I wrote, another chapter from the same unpublished manuscript, entitled The Real War Is Inside My Heart, And Yours. It is an in-depth discussion of the movie . . . The Matrix.

We will begin with it next time. I can’t wait.

Sam