Tag: sanctified

Comments on “The Good Place”

I find it really interesting when pop culture lines up with a Biblical worldview. I just started watching the show “The Good Place” on Netflix. I’ve only seen two episodes. (Because I decided that this show was going to be my exercise show that I would only watch when I go on my elliptical. So far I’ve seen two episodes. 🙂 But, I’m planning on being a lot more consistent now!) Ok, lots of spoiler alerts. I’m about to talk indepth about those two episodes… 

The premise of the show is that when people die they either go to the “good place” or the “bad place”. We don’t get any details about the bad place except that we hear a short sound bite of people screaming in agony. The good place on the other hand is a paradise with everyone getting a home that suits their personality and likes and dislikes, and everyone gets introduced to their soul mate so they can have harmonious romance for the rest of eternity. The way you get into the good place is to have all your good deeds and bad deeds measured. (This brings to mind all kinds of world religions.) If you’ve done enough good things and are a morally good person, then you get to be in the good place. Only problem is, due to some kind of clerical error, a bad person is accidentally allowed in. Someone who shares the same name as a morally good person, but they brought the wrong one. Her presence immediately causes things to start going wrong. She is desperate to stay and trys to get the help of her supposed soulmate to help her learn how to be a good person so she can stay. 

Up front, none of this lines up with a Biblical worldview. But you start digging a little deeper and suddenly it does. First of all, the people who are morally good, are actually not all that great. Some are very condescending, back biting, two faced. Romans 3 talks about how everyone is a sinner. Everyone. “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” Romans 3:23. 

Second, the bad person seems pretty helpless in her efforts to turn herself into a good person. Ephesians 2:1 says, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins…”  Dead means you do not have the power to fix the problem. The lady in the show tries to make better choices, but it is a very surface change. 

Now, I have no idea how the show is going to progress. I imagine they will have her go through a character change where she will eventually, by sheer willpower, turn herself into a morally good person. And maybe some people do manage to do that. Change their actions. But there are two problems with that. First, if you do morally good things, but your heart is still full of anger, bad motives, pride, etc, are you actually a good person? Second, what about all the things that you did in your past? Do they just slowly cancel out, one by one? Each good thing you do knocks one bad thing off your record? 

It sounds like a very stressful way to live. Every day wondering if you’ve done enough good things to make it. The truth is that every single one of us are sinners. Even the most holy people or morally good people you can think of. God is Holy and his standard is perfection. The show, without even realizing it,  gives a nod to God and his goodness. Where does morality come from? How do we determine what is good and what is bad? It’s pretty apparent that the show has decided to follow a Biblical definition of good as it defines good deeds in the terms of helping others and being self-sacrificing. The Bible actually spells out a much more detailed version of what Good is. God gave the law to Moses and it was a very detailed list of how to live. Follow the law, you are good. Don’t follow the law, you are bad. Romans 3:20 explains the purpose of the law.

“Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.”

Another words, the law didn’t really turn people into Good People. It just acted as a mirror to show people just how bad they were. 

It all sounds rather depressing. We’re all sinners. The law just shows us how badly we mess up. Even if we start acting perfect from here on out, we still have all our past sins to deal with. So what do we do? 

Enter Jesus. Jesus was perfect, never sinned. He was the Son of God. He came and paid the price for all our sins by dying on the cross. All those past sins we’ve committed, now covered, taken care of. When we repent of our sins and put our faith in Jesus, believe he is who says he is, believe he died on the cross for us, we become new people. Our sins are now forgiven and we are covered in Jesus’ goodness. He changes our heart and makes us like him. When we die, we go to heaven, the BEST place, where he has prepared a place for us, and we are there, not on the strength of our own goodness but because of God’s goodness. His forgiveness, his mercy, his grace. 

I imagine the tv show I’m watching will eventually get on my nerves as they try to solve their multitude of problems in their own strength. It seems like a great show to get hijacked by the Gospel. Can you see the story play out with all the crazy machinations of people trying to be good in their own strength, and then in the end, Jesus walks in and says, hey there’s a better way. Come to me, Rest. Let me change your heart, not just your actions. 

I’d love to see that on Netflix!

“Batter My Heart” by John Donne

After high school I attended Biola University for two years. During that time I took Composition 110A and Composition 110B from Dr. Pickett. I enjoyed his class. I learned a lot. I think what has stayed with me the most was his constant teaching that in order to write, you have to have something to say. If your thoughts aren’t in order and you don’t have a clear message, there’s not much point in writing. I have many times written an entire page and then erased the whole thing because I realized I had no idea what I was trying to say. No clear thought. I am very appreciative of the opportunity I had to take Dr. Pickett’s comp classes, and the lessons that have stuck over the years.  

 

I was organizing a giant pile of piano books and folders of music a couple weeks ago, and I found a folder that had some of the papers I wrote in college. I found a paper I had written for Dr. Pickett where we had been told to compare and contrast two poems, “Unholy Sonnet” by Mark Jarmon and “Batter My Heart” by John Donne. It was a good paper. I got a good grade, but what captured my attention was the poems. Especially the poem by Donne. Here it is.

Holy Sonnet 14

Batter my heart, three-personed God, for you

As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;

That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend

Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.

I, like an usurped town to another due,

Labor to admit you, but O, to no end;

Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,

But is captivated, and proves weak or untrue.

Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,

But am betrothed unto your enemy.

Divorce me, untie or break that knot again;

Take me to you, imprison me, for I,

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

As I was reading through my paper I was impressed with how much I had been able to get out of the poem. Really good analysis. But, what struck me was, I read this poem when I was eighteen years old. I wrote this paper when I was eighteen years old. At that age I did not understand the true angst that comes from failing again and again. I did not understand the desperation that leads you to call out to God, “That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me and bend Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new…”, “for I, Except you enthrall me, never shall be free…” 

 

I find myself in this place today. Insecurities that I thought I had conquered, haunting me again. Evidence of long term strongholds, staring me in the face, bending me down with discouragement. Old patterns I thought I had broken still tapping me on the shoulder. “Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain, But am betrothed unto your enemy…” 

 

And this evening, as I retreat from everyone, hide myself away, I read this poem again, and I am encouraged. “Divorce me, untie or break that knot again; Take me to you, imprison me…” I come again and say, Here I am God. Help. And his Word assures me. 

 

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. Psalm 40:2

 

I find myself standing on the firm foundation of the promises of God. Romans 8 pretty much says everything that needs to be said. If you have time, go ahead and read the whole chapter. Romans 8 

 

And I end with this prayer, “Batter my heart, three-personed God…” 

I hate you…Merry Christmas!

So, I’ve decided every holiday season needs at least one blog to point out the underbelly of Season’s Greetings. Today is the day of the Heneise Family Christmas Party. If you didn’t get an invitation, consider yourself invited and come on over. I love this tradition. One of my girls asked me, rather annoyed because she is having to do a lot of cleaning today…Why do we always have a Christmas Party??? I said it’s because Christmas is about family, and since we don’t have a lot of family living close by, our friends are our family. And this is an opportunity to get together with them at least once during the Christmas Season. 

 

She harrumphed. 

 

If you can’t tell, attitudes haven’t been the best today. My kids love having a party, but they hate getting ready for a party. It involves cleaning, and deep cleaning, and decluttering, and picking up things that we usually ignore. Wiping down surfaces we usually leave for later. Then there is also the maintenance of the Said Cleaning. I JUST VACUUMED THAT COUCH!! GET OFF IT!!! 

 

The kids, already feeling put upon for having to clean, are taking it out on each other. I hate you! You’re stupid! I wish you weren’t here! And other horrible things that I don’t allow my children to say to each other, have been said today. I have had some rather uncomplimentary thoughts about some of my children as well, though at least I managed to keep it to myself. 

 

My husband told me yesterday that he was going to devote the whole day today to helping me get ready. I envisioned him washing some dishes and running a vacuum. This morning he announced he was going to clean the basement (???) and fix the two holes in my floors that have needed repairing for months. 

 

Ok.

 

Not exactly what I had in mind. 

 

But, the holes did need fixing, and apparently cleaning the basement was tied into fixing holes in the floor.

 

Ok. Give me a minute to readjust my expectations. 

 

Now, in a couple hours, people will start showing up and we’ll forget about cleaning the house and we’ll settle in to just having fun with friends. MERRY CHRISTMAS! PEACE ON EARTH! 

 

So, are we all raging hypocrites? Hateful one minute, sweet and nice the next? Or maybe being hypocritical is just part of human nature.  A human nature that we all need to be saved from. A human nature that was completely lost in it’s sinfulness and yet Jesus decided to give us value to the point that he was willing to come to earth and make the ultimate sacrifice so that we could be saved from this sinful human nature. 

Christmas…Emmanuel…God with us. 

 

I have believed in Jesus, decided to follow him. My sins are forgiven. But I still have this sinful human nature. I will spend my whole life learning how to be more like Jesus. Sometimes I’ll do really well. Like today! The meanest thing I said was, YOU GUYS STINK AT CLEANING! Which is mild compared to some of the verbiage that was being slung around. But then, there are days where I completely step out of grace and wallow in my sinful nature. 

 

So, really, I hate you…Merry Christmas… is completely appropriate for this time of year.  I hate you: I’m not the best person. I say and do bad things. Merry Christmas: that’s why Jesus came! We can devote an entire month to celebrate that we have a Savior now who wants to rescue us from ourselves.