If you have ever watched a Tron Movie you will quickly identify with the life lessons it teaches almost at every turn. Not that the movie is “deep”, but the parallels with real life are remarkable. In Tron-Legacy, Flynn’s son gets caught up into the grid by revisiting his father’s old computer console. In getting caught up, I mean he is downloaded into a computer and put on “The Grid.” He wakes up as a player in a world full of dangerous games that could end his life at any time. He finds out there are two groups of people in this computer, users and programs. He, of course, is a user and starts his struggle to find his father in the world he is now living in, but father’s not there. He finds out that his father is living on a remote hill overlooking the grid. His father has removed himself from fighting the fight and left the grid in the hands of his look alike, who is a program copy of himself. Flynn’s son ends up in his father’s mountain home and questions why his father quit fighting. Flynn has reasoned that it is too dangerous to keep trying to fight the fight he was fighting and his existence is centered around collecting and reading old books about what is right, and how the world used to be. Young Flynn can’t believe his eyes as he sees the father he used to know as a radical, get in the fight for right kind of guy, turned into a distant, watch the fight from a safe place kind of guy, now. He shames his father as he takes up the banner Flynn first took and has now dropped. Flynn sees the fight in his son’s eyes and it stirs him back toward greatness once again. His legacy of doing what is right is realized through his son and he gets back into the fight again as he gets back on the grid.
But what does getting on the grid cause? He alerts those who are evil of his presence the moment he gets back on the grid and they pull out all stops to snuff him out. Flynn thinks all this attention is just a war on him, until he sees that his copy (clu) has amassed an army that he is going to unleash on the real world and take over the world. The sad part of this whole movie is that Tron, has been lured over to the evil side and his superior abilities are now being used by clu and his army. The movie ends with Flynn fighting clu and giving his life so his son and one of the good programs can get out of the virtual world and in doing so closes the connection, or gate, so that the attack is ended. Also, Tron wakes up to his original intent, or what he was made for, and that is to protect the users and helps defeat clu in the end. It’s a great story and there are many parrallels for Christians about the fight we fight every day in a lost world.
Sadly though, the parallels with Chiristianity are not good ones as we see that our “grid” is full of evil and we Christians are the users. While on the grid we are faced daily with decisions about what to speak where, and when, and how bold we should be in challenging the status quo. The fight about whether to fight seems to be bigger than the fighitng itself as we try to reason in our minds for ways to “not cause waves” while taking a stand for Christ. In our “grid” we have drifted so far from morality, that even when we take a stand it is so unexpected and unsupported it turns all attention to the squeaky wheel and we are quickly “found out.” Then we are thought of as judgmental and the evil on the grid is quickly drawn to us to snuff us out. What used to be a world that semi-honored our creator, is now a world that shakes a fist at Him and defies anyone who follows Him. Wow, our world has really gone down hill fast and the slippery slope is more like a cliff. If someone wants to fight they are quickly challenged by those who have bought into the evil intentions of the one who tries to be god in our world, satan. satan makes the evil look so good and appealing and he even makes it look honorable if he can, but it is still evil. So what has happened to the users? Many have faded, choosing to distance themselves from the grid at all and have made their cozy home overlooking the grid talking about what was, what could have been, and what will be. But where is the fight? Not on a distant hill, but on the grid. Those who live “above it all” have learned to fight, by not fighting at all, as they talk about the problems and the need to fight effectively. In reality though, it is ALL talk and no interaction on the grid, so the evil continues to grow in strength and number, taking over more and more territory as it goes. Even those believers who God chose to fight the fight in a special way like Tron, have drifted toward the evil and are now fighting for the copy of what is right. Sounds confusing? That’s because it is and shall continue to be until we decide to come out from our safe place on the hillside and get back on the grid and fight. What does it mean to get back on the grid? It means we stand for God’s Word once again and quit apologizing for the King of Kings. It means we use God’s Word as our basis for rewriting the program to fight evil at every turn. We need to learn from the living Word of God how to lift up the name of Jesus in the culture we live in, and that will be something powerful as God shows us the way to do it. It will be something new and it will cause change, but if God is leading the change it will be powerul. The only way to learn to ride a light cycle is to get on it and move forward, trusting that the cycle you are on will be able to carry you to victory. Jesus is our light cycle and he wants to put us back in the game at warp speed and He will take us through every turn as we fight the good fight Paul called Timothy and us to. You may not believe that God can defeat this ever-growing evil, but His plan is the best plan and He will show you what to do. In 2 Samuel 10 David fought against a very strong and large Ammonite Army that had acquired the Aramean’s help in fighting against the Israelites. Though the combined army was very strong David sent Joab out with the entire army of fighting men to meet them. Joab saw the huge army before him, but instead of fading he made a decision to split his army to fight the opposing army on all sides. His reasoning was, if the Ammonites are too strong for you I will come and help you fight, but if the Arameans are too strong for me you will come and rescue me. In verse 12 Joab said, “Be strong and let us fight bravely for our people and the ciites of our God. The Lord will do what is good in his sight.” So Joab advanced against the Arameans and they fled from Joab. When the Ammonites saw that the Arameans had fled, they fled too. It wasn’t over though. The Arameans regrouped for one more battle, but they were met face to face with David and his army. They fled from David’s army and David killed 700 of their chariot drivers and forty thousand of their foot soldiers, and struck down the commander of their army. All of sudden everyone wanted to make peace with Israel and they became subject to them and the Arameans were afraid to help the Ammonites anymore. The Israelite army was on the grid and they fought with wisdom and strength in God’s power. If we are to come off our mountain hideaway and get back on the grid we will need wisdom in how to fight just like Joab, and then even in the midst of terrible odds God will give us victory. Part of our wisdom will be seen in how we fight together as believers. When one group is being overun, we come and rescue them and then they do the same for us. Of course, that victory has already been won through Jesus, but we sometimes live like He was defeated!!! He was not!! Flynn had to give his life to free those he loved from the gravity of the grid and Jesus has already given His life for us to free us. Not only us, but all who wish to defeat death from the sinful gravity of the grid.
So, where are you? Are you on the grid continuing to fight the good fight for our Creator, or are you overlooking the whole battle from a secluded safe spot? We need to get in the fight and start taking back more and more territory for good. Time to come out of our caves and get on our light cycle and proceed to the lift zone, taking more and more people with us as we go. Are you a Tron? Are you someone God has gifted in an extraordinary way to fight this fight. Then come back to the good side and start helping the users. Are you a Joab? Then use the wisdom and wealth that God has given you to figure out how to fight the fight the most effectively. No more wire walking with a net. Time to walk on the faith side and come from the masses as a person who can make a difference through Christ. Then as you start to clip up through the portal to a better world when Jesus comes you can yell out, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 1 Timothy 4:7 As I write this I am overlooking the grid from my safe hideaway and that needs to change today. Pray for me on my pilgrimage of faith as well.
The Pilgrimage continues….
David Warren