Star Wars Faith

I really should have named this first "real" entry "Star Wars Faith and Why You Should Chill Out" but I didn't because I hate when the archive section of the blog has names of entries that take up more than one line. haha. What a great way to start.

I'm going to add a photo before I write any more. I know it's blurry... I snapped it really quick while leaving a church service in California. Yes, you heard me right. That there is a photograph of a painting that is on the wall of a church. I wish I could fully explain why this almost made me keel over and die but it would take wayyy too long to explain the whole thing here. Lets just say that you can find that painting on the wall of a church called Ththemi in Redlands California. Everybody in the world should check out that church at least once in their lifetime. It may be easier to check out the free Tithemi pod-cast on iTunes. Just search "Tithemi" in the iTunes music store. Anyway...

During the last few weeks that I was living in Savannah, Georgia, this awesome young man named Tyler and I started meeting up once a week to talk about "faith". He was seeking the Lord and I guess chose me to help. It was seriously the coolest thing ever to be part of his initial journey to the Lord. Anyway, Tyler would often times bring up things he's heard about different forms of Christianity or ask about different rules and regulations. A lot of the things he asked about he did so because they didn't make sense to him. He knew that Christianity was based on LOVE but he just couldn't see how some of these issues fit into that mold. Whenever her asked one of these questions or brought up one of these topics I would point out that whatever the thing was... it boxed the Lord in and made an absolute. I'd say
"Only Siths deal in absolutes."

To which he'd laughingly reply "STAR WARS FAITH!". It became a running joke for us... for example- Tyler would point out that he observed someone telling someone that they were going to go to hell and he'd ask me what to say to that condemning person if it happened again. I would tell tyler to politely tell the man that "only Siths deal in absolutes" and he'd start laughing "STAR WARS FAITH!".

Real quick: for those of you who aren't nerds- a SITH is one of the bad guy characters in star wars. Siths are like a cult of warrior priests who are devoted to the dark side of the force. I got that from Wikipedia.. you can click on the word SITH above and the link will take you to the Wikipedia definition. In Star Wars Episode III, Bin Kenobi makes a statement to Anakin (who would soon become Darth Vader) on the volcano, "Only Siths deal in Absolutes." He was acknowledging, out loud, the change in Anakin's mind set. Remember, Obi Wan was not BASHING absolutes... he was talking about dealing in absolutes. Obi Wan Kenobi was a very very good guy. If you still have no idea what I'm talking about PLEASE go watch the movie and stop acting like you are too cool for Star Wars. puh-leeez. so..

"Star Wars Faith" became out way of saying "chill out". We recognized that there are many many differences between the hundreds of denominations of Christians and we recognized the fact that many take those differences as being absolute. The great thing about Tyler is that he understood from the get-go that Christianity was nothing without your own personal relationship with the Lord. When we spoke of a personal relationship, he understood that everybody's individual relationship with God needs to be personalized. To go even further, the cool thing about THAT is the fact that, in most cases, it takes a community of believers to help you personalize your faith in God. This is what many people call their "church". Now while developing your personal relationship with God inside of your church is definitely encouraged, Tyler and I recognized that this community of believers that help shape your personalized relationship with God should maybe start at the church that you may (or may not) be going to but, then, stretch right out the doors and onto the streets of the city that you live in. It should include not only Catholics but Baptists, Methodists, Nondenominational people- other Christians. This faith community that helps you shape your personalized relationship with God should include the young and old, black and white and hispanic and well.. everyone that you encounter in good faith and bad. If you only let God work on you and get to know him through studying, conversing, reading, whatever, through the handful of people that you feel comfortable with at your church... then chances are you are limiting the relationship that you could have with the Lord.

"For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves..."
-Colossians 1:13


It was a beautiful conclusion and a very needed reminder that we, as the kingdom of God, NEED each other. We need to get outside of the walls of our church and get together. He brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves so that we can explore our relationship with him and the other communities and believers out there that He also loves. Some of us Catholics need to start hanging out with more Baptists, more Evangelicals, even more atheists. Some of us churches need to start communicating with other churches, communities, people outside our "norm". We need to reach out and try to understand the similarities in our brotherhood instead encourage absolutes within our differences. Open up the doors, PLEASE, so we can avoid Star Wars faith because... only Siths deal in absolutes.

-Chelsea