There comes a time when we all have to call our dragons.

Watching the movie Eragon made me think about how just about every story ever told ultimately creates a perfect parallel of the human condition: a battle between good and evil, right and wrong, hot and cold.

When it comes to movies, the viewer almost always knows exactly who the bad guys are and just what needs to be done in order to "get" them, and the hero usually does too. The question that's left unresolved is rarely the nature of the evil or the duty of the task, instead the question is almost always about the hero. More specifically, does the hero have what it takes to win. The movie Eragon is no exception.

When Eragon finds a polished blue stone in the forest, he thinks it's just a lucky charm, but then the stone starts to move...

Eragon had heard his soon-to-be-mentor Brom telling the townspeople stories about a time when Dragons and Dragon Riders ruled and protected their world from the evil that lurks beyond. In fact Brom was beaten by the evil kings' soliders when he suggested that such a time might just come again.

When Eragon's blue wonder finally hatches a dragon he initially views it as a fun pet, but when the Dragon starts to fly Eragon realizes that his Dragon, Saphira, was the fulfillment of Brom's prophesy; but who would ride her? Eragon, thinking he had found the stone merely by chance must have thought it was his job to find a worthy rider for the beast, but when Saphira starts to speak she explains that Eragon's finding her wasn't the result of chance, but choice. Saphira had chosen him from the beginning, "I am your dragon, and you are my rider." And all the stories that were told about a time when Dragons and Dragon Riders might just rule again; the stories he had heard were about him.

This is how the story is told on the Eragon movie website:

Before your grandfathers' fathers were born, and even before their fathers, the Dragon Riders were formed. To protect and guard was their mission, and for thousands of years they succeeded. Their prowess in battle was unmatched, for each had the strength of ten men. They were immortal unless blade or poison took them. For good only were their powers used, and under their tutelage tall cities and towers were built out of the living stone. Wealth flowed into the cities of Alagaesia, and men prospered.

Though no enemy could destroy them, they could not guard against themselves. And it came to pass at the height of their power that a boy, Galbatorix, was born. At ten he was tested and it was found that a great power resided in him. The Riders accepted him as their own, and he exceeded all others in skill. Gifted with a sharp mind and strong body, he quickly rose among the Riders' ranks. [But] during a reckless trip Galbatorix and two friends were ambushed...and his dragon slayed...When the Riders refused to grant him another dragon, Galbatorix grew mad with rage...In the last bloody battle, Galbatorix gained dominance over all, and anointed himself king over all Alagaesia. And from that day on, he has ruled.

Now here comes the question:

Can Eragon take up the mantle of the legendary Dragon Riders?

In other words, does the hero have what it takes to win?

Winning, according to the film, requires that Eragon become "one" with his Dragon. At first Eragon struggles with the challenges of keeping his balance on the back of a thousand pound beast as she twirls and dives through the air. He struggles learning what it means to know his Dragon so well that he actually sees the world through her eyes. He also struggles with the whole idea that Saphira can read his mind and he can hear her thoughts. At first, he doubts that he's really hearing her, but when she answers his silent call Eragon realizes that the two of them really are communicating. His Dragon really does hear his voice.

As Eragon learns what it means to ride his Dragon, he begins to understand the words of the seer who said "A great battle awaits you. You have powers you don't acknowledge."

Unity with his Dragon proved itself to be a force so powerful that evil could barely reckon with it, and when Eragon's mentor Brom instructs him on the significance of "the word", Eragon becomes even more effective at "getting" the bad guys; for Eragon realizes that the kingdom he is fighting for has it's own language and that those words actually have power to control destiny. His mentor Brom explained: "The thing IS the word, know the word and you control the thing."

The moving lights from the screen in front of me danced on my face with the tears that rolled down my cheeks as I watched Saphira land in front of Eragon and announce that "I am your dragon, and you are rider." You see, like Eragon, I also came to realize that this story was about me.

I, too, was chosen "before [my] grandfathers' fathers were born, and even before their fathers." As was the case with Jeremiah, one of the greatest Dragon Riders in all of scripture. God said "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations" (Jeremiah 1:5). And victory over the forces of darkness demands that I am one with my creator: that I learn how to keep my balance as I ride through life on his promises, that I learn to see my battles through His eyes, and that, despite my occasional doubts, I realize that I really can hear his voice. Jesus confirmed this when he said "His sheep follow him because they know his voice” (John 10:4).

Finally, I must realize the significance of God's word to impact my own destiny and the destinies’ of other people because "The thing IS the word, know the word and you control the thing," or as scripture puts it "By your words you will be acquitted and by your words you will be condemned" (Matt. 12:37).

Coming to the terms with the fact that Eragon’s story is about me too was a significant milestone in my life, and I suspect that it would be for many others as well. I think it's because the sooner we realize that we the are the hero from the legends we’ve been told and the stories that we've read, the sooner we can decide if we have what it takes to "get" the bad guys. When Eragon first discovered the power he'd been given he said "Why me? I'm just a farm boy..." The soon-to-be-King David could have said the same thing when he realized that God had chosen him, a mere teenager, to slay the giant Goliath, but he didn't. The boy-David understood what it meant to be one with his creator, and when he called his Dragon, his Dragon came.

There comes a time when we all must learn what it means to call our Dragon. To become one with our creator through obedience, unity, and trust; to believe that we really do hear him when he speaks to us; and to fully believe and live according to promises found in His Word so that we experience the fullness of the life that God has pre-destined us for.

I don’t want to spoil the movie for those of you who haven’t seen it, so I’m not going to tell you if Eragon ultimately wins the battle to save Alagaesia from Galbatorix, but since real-life doesn’t need a “spoiler alert” I am going to give away the answer to my own story, it’s found in 2 Peter 1:3

"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by His own glory and goodness.”

In other words: Galbatorix doesn’t stand a chance. 

I apologize for the ridiculous gap since my last entry. My speaking schedule has been pretty crazy, and those of you who get my monthly E-mail Newsletter have been kept up to speed. I spoke at the annual HIV/AIDS conference at Saddleback Church in December, and also heard an amazing band called Sun From Shadow play live in Orange County. I then rang in the New Year by speaking at InterVarsity’s Urbana conference. Having no idea there would be over 2,000 college students attending my talk I only brought about 100 copies of my book and sold out within just seconds. It was encouraging and frustrating at the same time, there were hundreds of students who wanted books but couldn’t get them.

Incidentally, for those of you who were not at Urbana this year, the talk that I gave can be Streamed Online, or if you have an iPod check out the PodCast!

More recently, I spoke at UC Santa Barbara to about 400 students, including a lively group of picketers outside the door who held a rainbow flag, passed out flyers with my photo and the word “HOMOPHOBE” on the front, and taped banners on the sidewalk which said that I suffered from “internalized homophobia.” There are a few pictures from the event on my new Pictures Page.

My upcoming speaking engagements include Asheville, North Carolina; Ankeny, Iowa; River Falls, Wisconsin; Cedarville, Ohio; McPherson, Kansas; Fullerton, California; and Seattle, Washington. I’ll also be at the Exodus International conference this year. For more details on my schedule visit LovingHomosexuals.com.

I love you guys!

The Gospel According To Finding Nemo

If you visit my website you'll see that I have two articles posted on the front page of my website and they both use movies to illustrate some aspect of truth regarding the struggle to submit my sexuality to God. One of them is based on Brokeback Mountain, the other is based on X-Men 3.

Sy Rogers wrote:

“Why wouldn’t God speak through (some) film? He owns everything. As a Christian leader once said ‘There isn’t a secular molecule in the universe.’ Besides, we are no longer an agrarian civilization. Why would a smart God speak through the stars as he once did, at a time when the sky was our ‘global point of reference’. It’s not that season anymore. Now in the urban age, if the Star of Bethlehem appeared in the sky, we wouldn’t get it. We would simply see it as an astronomical event on the news. But having rebuilt our Tower of Babel through telecommunication and transportation, our global constellation of cities now share in a largely unified culture which drinks daily from the well of media-driven pop culture. It would be absurd to think God would not exploit this!”

There are many great web sites and books out there that do exploit this, such as HollywoodJesus.com, ChristianCinema.com, and ChristianCritic.com. There's even a book out there called How Movies Helped Save My Soul: Finding Spiritual Fingerprints in Culturally Significant Films. In fact there are numerous books that present the gospel according to different facets of pop culture. (See the end of this entry for more of these resources.)

Along those lines, my friend Steve recently wrote to me about the spiritual significance of the Disney movie Finding Nemo:

One of the things I saw in "Finding Nemo" was that, just like that little clown fish, we often have misperceptions about our Father that lead us to do foolish things. Because Nemo didn't understand how much his Dad really cared for Him, it led him to put himself in danger and he ended up in a lot of trouble. But then his Dad went on an amazing journey to save Nemo. Once Nemo saw what his Father was really like, and how much he cared for him, it changed everything! Nemo had a whole new appreciation of who his father really was and their relationship became brand new.

That's how it is with our Heavenly Father as well. Because we don't really see the true character of God, we go our own way and end up in some pretty messed-up situations. But instead of leaving us alone to face the hurt and pain of our lives, God came after us in the form of His Son, Jesus Christ. And it's in that act of amazing, selfless love that we begin to see His true nature, the essence of His being. Once we realize how powerful His love is, we want to pursue it with the same reckless abandon that He demonstrated in coming after us. And that changes EVERYTHING!

I talk to a lot of people who feel frustrated because they aren't experiencing the kind of transformation they want. Some have been struggling for years or even decades without seeing significant change. I think when we analyze our lives and realize that we aren't where we need to be, our first response is to think that it's up to US to get our lives back on track, but in fact, it's actually up to God.

Finding Nemo illustrates the profound truth that God comes after us. He "finds" his people, and the reason he does this is because, just like Nemo in the HUGE and scary sea, we really don't know how to get back to our heavenly father on our own. The world is too big and scary and we find ourselves confused about even the simple things sometimes. We don't always know how to get to our Father, so he comes to us.

God already has a plan to set us free from the monsters that keep us in bondage, and to transform our hearts from the inside out. That is already taken care of. Our only job in all this is to respond to our father when he calls.

If you'll allow me just one more fish analogy: Phillip Yancey tells the story in The Jesus I Never Knew about a master and some fish. Every day the master sticks his hand in the tank to feed the fish, but each time he does the fish frantically swim around the tank as though the master has come to kill them. He wonders why the fish never figure out that he is not there to hurt them, he is feeding them. But the fish never get it. The master realizes that he is just too big and mysterious for the fish to ever understand him. The only way he could ever actually communicate to them how much he cares would be to actually become a fish so he could relate to them on similar terms.

Becoming flesh was God's ultimate plan to "find" his creation, but he finds us in different and sometimes smaller ways each day. He finds us through the application of his grace, the love of his people, and the promises of his word.

This doesn't mean that we shouldn't still look for God. Just remember that during those times when it seems like, no matter what you do you just can't seem to find God. He is finding you.

Finding God in Pop Culture Resources:

Taming A Liger: Unexpected Spiritual Lessons From Napoleon Dynamite

Everyday Apocalypse: The Sacred Revealed in Radiohead, The Simpsons, and Other Pop Culture Icons

The Gospel Reloaded: Exploring Spirituality and Faith in The Matrix

Following Gandalf: Epic Battles and Moral Victory in The Lord of the Rings

Eyes Wide Open: Looking for God in Popular Culture

Reading Is Believing: The Christian Faith through Literature and Film

Finding God in the Movies: 33 Reel Films of Faith

The Hollywood Project

More Book Titles...

On a related note: Disneyland is getting ready to open a new ride called the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. You get on an underwater submarine and begin the journey to find Nemo in a sea with mystery, danger, intrigue, and an underwater volcano! The Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage will open in Disneyland Summer of 2007.

My Thoughts on the New X-Men Movie

Hey Guys!

The last time I blogged I promised you all that I would give you my thoughts on X-Men 3.  I realize that was over a month ago, but I finally saw the movie and I wrote an article for Relevant Magazine about the many ways in which the movie parallels societies struggle to integrate with gay and lesbian people. Naturally, the role that ex-gay ministries play in all this comes to mind as well. To read the article Click Here.

In other news, I attended Des Moines' gay pride parade last month with a group of friends. The Des Moines Register Estimated that about 6,000 people participated in some aspect of Des Moines' gay pride celebration this year, (that's twice as many as last year). My friends and I passed out cold water on a hot day. It was great just getting to bless the people at the parade and make conversation, I even ran into a few people that I know. Tim Lucas from Liquid Church in New Jersey Did the Same Thing Last Year after reading about it in my book Loving Homosexuals as Jesus Would. Tim had a much bigger task than I did though, as gay pride events in New Jersey are much larger then they are in Des Moines. Liquid Church took about 200 volunteers (I took five) and they passed out over 10,000 bottles of water!

Here is short Video Clip that I took at the parade. If you look carefully you can see a beautiful view of Downtown Des Moines' skyscrapers in the background. At the end of the video you get to see our gold-plated Capitol Building! The parade was beautiful this year, as you can see they spare no expense on decorations, and there was very little overt sexuality in the parade itself. At least not like the type of stuff that happens in San Fransisco.

The Exodus International Conference was AMAZING this year, as always. If you weren’t able to make it to the conference you can buy the DVDs Here. Other random pieces of news, Derek Webb plans to make his music available for FREE starting in September. Haagen-Dazs has a New Flavor of ice cream that they claim was the original recipe for chocolate. Was it really? I don’t know but it sure is delicious. Jars of Clay has new CD coming out on Sept. 5^th. The CD is titled Good Monsters and you can actually listen to audio clips Here on Christianbook.com. Also, new music from Dashboard and Sufjan released this month.

As a final note, I'm back in San Luis Obispo, California working on my next book and there are black widow spiders everywhere over here. I took pictures of a few of them which you can view on my Pictures Page, along with a few other pics.

Enjoy!