Monsters in the Closet

My son loves the movie Monsters Inc. He literally will watch it every evening before he goes to bed. He yells "MONSTERS, MONSTERS!". He isn't yelling in fear, but in anticipation for the movie. For those of you who do not know the movie, please crawl out from the rock you are hiding under and get with times! No, seriously it is about an alternate dimension that exists on the other side of children's bedroom closet doors. At night, the monsters come in through the closet door and scare kids to capture there screams in little bottles that supply power to the Monster world. Cute concept right? Well, they make it surprisingly cute and not scary. But for a two year old I think there are certain parts that scare them. Not enough for Little Andy to NOT want to watch it, because he constantly wants to watch it.

Lately though, Andy has been having night terrors. he will awake from a dead sleep and scream bloody murder. I started thinking of what could be scaring him that much. I asked him one night (Andy is 2, but he is surprisingly articulate and carries on conversations very well with adults), and he said he was scared of the monsters. I never taught him what a monster was, so he had to get this from the movie.

He loves the movie, yet at night he realizes the reality (or childhood reality) of what a monster really is. It is something ugly, scary, evil, and down right wrong! While he watches the movie he couldn't imagine doing anything else because it is soooo fun! But at afterward, at night, he realizes that he wished he never introduced this evil movie into his mind!

**Side Note: If you are thinking I am making a statement about Monsters Inc. being an evil movie, please try again. Stay tuned for my punchline.**

A lot like sin isn't it. During the act of sin we couldn't imagine doing anything else, but after we commit the sin, we wish we never strolled down that evil path of human nature. Regret is almost inevitable after sin. Just like the movie, it seems fun for a while, but is a scary reality afterwards. It is our sinful nature.

Listen to what Paul (One of the most influential writers of the New Testament) had to say about HIMSELF! Pay close attention to the final statement in verse 25!

Romans 7 : 14 -18 / We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

Romans 7 : 21 - 25a / So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

It is not a profound spiritual statement that I am making here, but it is the basis of what being a Christian really means. We are totally reliant on Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross, just as Paul was! It is simply nice to remind ourselves of that central truth from time to time. My son happened to remind me. :)