I’ve just finished watching the movie Inception … again. I love it
– for all of its complication and intrigue, its difficulties, its agonies, and
the way it wrestles with realities too difficult for us to grasp. As complex as the film is, though, it can be
simplified to revolve around a single hypothetical question – what would the
world be like if we could consciously share our dreams with others, or, with
more sinister intentions, invade the
dreams of others to plant ideas or steal them?
It sounds a bit heady, and I won’t lie - it is extremely sobering to
watch the life-altering possibilities play out on screen, to watch life-courses forever changed for the
better or for the worse – but it reminded me so much of our walk with God.
“Inception,” the word itself means, “an act, process, or
instance of beginning,” with synonyms like “genesis” and “creation.” In the film, “inception” is a complicated process
of invading another person’s dreams to plant an idea. For us as believers, true “inception” is
really the day of salvation, the day we begin to see ourselves as new creations
in Christ, the day we begin to know God personally, the day the Word begins to
define us more than our desire to sin.
To put it more in terms of the movie, true “inception” is the day we let
God into our dreams, into the secret places and secret hurts we have guarded for
so long, allowing Him to rewrite our understanding of the past and plant a
larger and brighter idea of who we can be with Him at the center of our lives. But, on a much smaller scale, inception
happens every day of our lives. It
happens anytime we receive an external message about who we are, about who God
is, about what is most real. You see, like the character Cobb says in the
movie, “There’s something you should know … about inception. An idea is like a virus, resilient, highly
contagious. The smallest seed of an idea
can grow. It can grow to define you or
destroy you.” Any thought, experience,
or word can plant an idea that will define us or destroy us, can spark a flame
that will inspire or consume us, can propel us to great new heights or cause us
to backslide via destructive habits.
I think this resonated so strongly with me tonight because I
have been studying and praying a lot about identity lately, noticing that many
of those who have walked away from their faith in recent years did so because
they believed lies about themselves or about God, about what was really true. They got confused about which was reality –
what they saw in the Word or what they saw in the mirror – and it destroyed
their faith, just like in the film, the main character’s wife was destroyed by
her confusion about which life was real (the dream state or her daily life). To be honest, I think it hit a chord because
I work with so many teenagers in tough situations, teenagers whose realities
have been negatively shaped by ideas about themselves, their abilities, their
world and the adults who should be protecting them. Where have the ideas come from? Inception.
These ideas have been planted, sometimes subconsciously, through the
media, their peers, their schools, and their own insecurities. The consequences of these ideas can be
catastrophic. It is the same way in our
walk with God. If we aren’t careful, if
we aren’t guarding our hearts and our minds, wrong beliefs about God, about
ourselves, about our calling can be planted in our minds, can destroy our zeal
for the Lord, can mutilate our faith, and hinder our impact for the
kingdom.
This confusion about what is true, what is real about
ourselves and God isn’t a new phenomenon, though. Look at the prayers Paul prays for the New
Testament churches. Ephesians 1:17-19,
in the Phillips translation, for example, says, “And this is my prayer. That God, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ
and the all-glorious Father, will give you spiritual wisdom and the insight to know more of him: that you may receive that inner illumination of the spirit which will make you realize how great is the hope to which he is calling you –
the magnificence and splendor of the inheritance promised to Christians – and how
tremendous is the power available to us who believe in God.” He was praying that the church would be
grounded in who God created them to be, in the future He created them to
inhabit, in the power of God’s love for them and in their knowledge of Him –
more than anything else. He didn’t want
them to be shaken by any false message they might encounter. And God’s heart for you and for me is the
same today, that we would get grounded in who He is, who we are in Him, and
what is real in Heaven – more than what is temporary on this earth.
With so many messages vying for our attention, trying to
root themselves in our hearts and take over our walk with God - what can we
do? It’s simple, really. We must develop a “totem,” like in the
film. According to one of the
characters, a “totem”” is “something you have on you all the time … [unique] …
That way when you look at your totem, you know beyond a doubt you’re not in
someone else’s dream.” In Scripture, God
often encouraged believers them to refer to a physical object to remind them of
what was true – that there was only one True God, one True Deliverer, and that
He had always come through for them in the past. This was accomplished by gathering stones
from the bed of the Jordan River, for example, when Joshua and the Israelites
passed through it on dry ground. Each
and every time they saw those stones – no matter what lies they had been tempted
to believe, no matter what ideas had been planted in their heads by unbelievers
and worshippers of other gods – they were reminded of what was true, that it
was their God who had brought them safely through, and they were warned not to be
sucked into another person’s “dream,” so to speak. For Abraham, God gave two specific images as
a “totem” so to speak, to remind him of the promise that he would be the father
of nations – the stars and the sand.
Each and every time Abraham saw the stars or the sand, he was reminded
that in God’s eyes, he was the father of many nations. He was reminded that it was coming to pass,
that God’s promise was real. When other
ideas were thrown at him – from jeering neighbors, from his wife who tried to
take matters into her own hands, from the servants who wanted to know who was
to inherit – all he had to do was look to the sand or the stars to be
refreshed, to be strengthened in his resolve and to have the truth clarified
for him. I have known people who
survived a tornado, who saw God’s deliverance in a tangible way, who carried
around a small piece of debris with them at all times – to remind themselves of
God’s protection. My “totem” or “stone
of remembrance” is much more like Abraham’s – it’s an image. It’s archery.
There is something about archery that draws me, that reminds me of who I
am in Christ, that reminds me of the fierceness and the battle I am to play a
part of in the spirit (in prayer, for example), and every time I see something
about archery then – on a movie, in a Bible verse, at a store – it captures my attention
and helps me refocus on what is absolutely true. It clarifies what lies I have been tempted to
believe and helps me avoid destruction and distraction.
So, dear friends, believers young and old – there is a point to this blog. I want to encourage
you, exhort you, implore you – be careful of the ideas you
are allowing to grow in your heart.
Examine where the ideas come from.
Do they line up with Scripture, or are they a lie? Proverbs 4:23 tells us that we must, “Guard
[our] hearts above all else, for it determines the course of [our] lives” (New
Living translation). You cannot afford to believe lies, to cater to confusion, to allow destructive patterns/beliefs to take root in your lives - and neither can the people around you, the hurting, the lost, the people who most need to see God shining and working through you. Ground yourself in
who God is and who He created you to be, so you will not be destroyed by the lies
and illusions of the Enemy. And find
yourself a “totem,” something tangible/visible that will help you refocus on God’s truth
about Himself, about who He created you to be, and what the future holds for
you.
*Quotes and thematic material
are from the 2010 movie, “Inception,” written and directed by Christopher
Nolan, and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
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