Ruin leads to Redemption

I recently wrote a blog to go on our college ministry's website and I thought I'd share it on here. Hope you enjoy it!

I’m not going to lie-I am a huge Julia Roberts fan. Runaway Bride, Steal Magnolias, the list goes on and on- she is the ultimate chick-flick actress. So of course I was excited to see she finally had a new movie coming out and it looked like a fun girly movie. I mean it was called Eat, Pray, Love; what more could you ask for in the title of a movie. It sounded like a winner and looked like one with all the previews involving pizza, pasta and lots of carbs. So I went with some of my favorite girlfriends to see it when it came out. I was shocked in the first five minutes by Roberts’ character wanting a divorce from her husband who seemed to love her well. He fights for her and their marriage, but she firmly rejects. I thought, “Seriously? This is the most depressing opening to a movie I’ve ever seen!” I was brought to tears at the thought of women finding a hero in this woman- a woman that chooses self-satisfaction and pleasure over anything or anyone else. After her divorce she decides to go on a journey to “find herself.” There were several moments where my heart just broke. There were so many lies being fed throughout the dialogue of this movie and all lies that tried to place the main character in a heroic light- far opposite of anything close to what she deserved. I found myself so frustrated and had to walk out halfway through.

As I walked out and sat in the lobby, my heart was so heavy. Tears came to my eyes as I thought about how broken our world is, how selfish we are, and how content we are with settling for whatever makes us feel good. How quick we are to settle for less than Jesus! One theme rang throughout the half of the movie that I saw- you can’t love until you love yourself. Brothers and sisters this is not truth. We have to hate our flesh, to the point of death before we can be made alive in Christ. Scripture is clear, over and over again, that love of self leads to sin. Wisdom is found in denying our fleshly desires.

Proverbs 3:75-8 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and He will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.”

In a world that is constantly throwing self-help books and programs to help you become a better you, it is so easy to chase after things that don’t matter. We begin looking for answers where they can’t be found. After a while of chasing something that can’t be caught, we get tired and realize there is nothing but ruins around us. There was one part in the movie that really made me think about the Gospel and made me so thankful for Jesus. Julia’s character said, “Ruin is a gift; ruin is the road to transformation.” I thought about that line for a long time. Ruin isn’t the gift. The gift is the redemption that leads to transformation. It is a gift of a really, really gracious God. It is a gift for us when He opens our eyes to see this ruin and that there is nothing in our own power that we can do about it. We have to see this ruin and cry out to the only One that can bring transformation amidst a pile of ashes. He breathes life into us through the death and resurrection of His son, Jesus. Ruin leads to redemption; redemption leads to transformation. Nothing of value can happen in our lives without first being redeemed.

Ephesians 4:17-24 says, “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!-assuming that you have heard about Him and were taught in Him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

We serve a gracious God that saves us, opens our eyes to the darkness around us and calls us to live. We have to acknowledge this ruin and allow His blood to redeem us and then His Word and Spirit to transform our hearts to look like His. Only in Jesus can ruin lead to transformation.