holy fandom

[prismaticbleed]

crownedbythelord:

Reading the Bible was always meant to lead you into a conversation with God. Never just read it and leave, it will not change you. Prayer changes us, because God changes us. We need to talk to Him in order to have intimacy with Him, not just reading about Him.

I always emphasize that our religion is a relationship.

Here’s a key observation I’ve had lately, being on this website: Fandom is flourishing in our culture. Whether it’s focused on video games, books, television, musicians, celebrities, sports… ultimately, people invest their time, talent, and treasure in supporting and praising their personal fandoms to an honestly shocking extent. People will write fanfics that are thousands of pages long. People will spend entire paychecks buying merchandise of their favorite characters, or media with their favorite celebrity. People will weep and rage and laugh and love so strongly and sincerely from how these fandoms have affected their lives– maybe their life has even been ‘saved’ by one, having given them a reason to keep going, a joy to cling to, a dream to pursue.

Why are we not so wholeheartedly invested in our religion?

Because we read the Bible like a textbook, not as the story of someone we love. We miss the entire point.

Harry Potter gets more love than Jesus on this website because people feel like they know Harry, and why? Because they read those books and learn who he is as a person, however fictional; they learn about his life, about his hopes and fears, his friends and enemies, his history and culture and world. People begin to read those books with the mindset of starting an adventure. They expect to be swept up in a grand story, full of wonder and terror and possibility, and they are hooked– invested in it for life– because their heart has been touched with compassion, with care, with camaraderie.

Is that how we view our Bibles?

It may be argued that the Bible is not written like a novel, and its often dry language is harder to soak ourselves in. But it’s a poor objection. There are many poorly written books and movies and games that people fawn over, many celebrities that offer sparse personal details and have equally paltry screen time, but none of this hampers the love of their fans. So why this great discrepancy between fandom and faith?

I argue that it is because we faithful typically and tragically forget to utilize a great gift of God’s, one that can make or break our relationship with Scripture… we don’t use our imagination.

THAT is WHY fandoms thrive. You love the concept but it’s written badly? Imagine. There are holes in the plot? Imagine. Mysterious celebrity? Imagine. No updates for years? Imagine. Your favorite character is abandoned by canon? Imagine. THAT is why we have libraries worth of fanfics, museums worth of fanart, countless contributions of creativity and support and wonder– because of imagination blooming wildly in that fertile soil.

But you don’t bother to imagine anything unless your heart is in it, first. And once it is, you can’t help but imagine– because imagination is how our soul steps into another’s story, into another life, and forms a relationship with it– and you can’t have a true relationship without love.

So if we love Jesus, why are we not imagining ourselves there with Him? Why are we not seeking that relationship? Why are we not dreaming about walking the dusty roads of Galilee with Him, about sailing and fishing with Him and the Apostles, about standing and weeping beneath His Cross, about running to the empty tomb on Easter morning? Are you afraid of how much you will feel from it, once it becomes so personal, so real? Are you afraid of how powerful a force the Bible will become in your life once your life is part of it?

Are you afraid of experiencing such actual, everyday iintimacy with God?

Maybe your imagination is rusty, though. Maybe you’ve never really learned how to use it. That’s okay, in this case, as long as you still have the desire to think about Jesus, and ponder His life in your own way, after reading His story, His Word. That still counts. That’s still building a good foundation for your relationship with Him. But as for building an active, living relationship with our Lord– one not based on mere wondering– we Christians have something utterly profound that no fandom has or can have– prayer. We can TALK TO JESUS. He HEARS us, because He LIVES, and He LOVES us. He isn’t just a character in the Bible! He is our friend, our brother– our Savior and our God!! He is literally the Creator of everything we love and cherish, and He became a mere human like us so He could share it all with us firsthand, so we would never be alone in our joys or sorrows. God became man so we could know Him directly– to see, hear, and touch Him, to be with Him intimately and personally and truly. In this, Jesus is closer to us than any character, even than any celebrity. There is, in Christ, no distance between us and God. He isn’t separate from us by a screen or a page or a crowd of paparazzi. He is as close to us as our own heart– closer, even.

Consider the Mass. Do you realize, now, why that’s so momentous? Through the Mass, every single Mass, we ARE present, outside of linear time and space, at BOTH the Cross of the past AND the heavenly Kingdom of the future– both absolutely THERE in our immediate present. And because of this transcendent unity, CHRIST IS THERE, LITERALLY. He is working through the Priest, He is speaking through the Scriptures, He is present IN US as His mystical Body AND He IS IN THE EUCHARIST. He literally feeds us with His Heart, with Life and Love entire, so we can live in Him and He can live in us. We don’t have to imagine it. He is THERE. If you loved Him in the Good Book, and you yearned to meet Him through your dreams, then this fact should turn your world upside down with unbearable joy. You should run to church, just to be with Him. If you would wait in line for hours or days for your favorite movie or game or book, because you love it, how much more should a PERSONAL relationship with God Himself move you to do anything to be there with Him? Do you realize how much He wants to see you, too?

Go to Adoration, even just for ten minutes. Just be with Christ. Be with the God who loves you ardently enough TO be there, simply yet totally, just because He loves you. Think of it this way… God literally just wants to sit next to you in the church and embrace you. He doesn’t need you to entertain Him, or look all fancy, or be “worthy.” He just loves you and wants to love you… and like any lover, He yearns for you to love Him, too. And so even if you just pop into a church for five minutes on the way to work, and sit before the Tabernacle with a burning heart, knowing He is there and has been waiting lovingly for you– that will console Him, and delight Him, and give Him joy. YOU can warm the Heart of Jesus with YOUR love, too. When you really realize that, it will change you. It will illuminate your entire life with the desire to love and be loved by Him– and the most beautiful thing is that you can love… and you ARE loved, forever.

We don’t need fanfics when it comes to our faith. The story isn’t separate from us. The life of Christ isn’t over, and never will be. We’re LIVING IT, WITH HIM, RIGHT NOW. And that is the most amazing thing I can imagine.

#i have a lot of feelings about this #also i am legitimately in love with a video game character okay #chaos 0 from sonic adventure to be specific #but he wouldn't exist without God and neither would I   #God created the world that inspired the people that made the games and designed the characters   #so ultimately God created this character that I love & a secret part of that was BECAUSE HE LOVES ME and KNEW i would cherish that character   #like it knocks me out of the park with gratitude and wonder and love to think about it   #so if you love your fandom consider that God's hand was inevitably present in the process of creating it   #and He Knows you love it   #so as long as you love God first and foremost   #and your love of fandom doesn't detract from that   #or even better if it brings you closer to Him   #then that's pretty awesome   #just make sure you make time to read your Bible every day too   #because that's the only fandom you are also a canon character in   #think about that   #god bless