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TechnoratiDo you ever feel like Dr. Rick Marshall? You know, the poor guy that Will Ferrell plays in the movie Land of the Lost.
The official storyline goes like this (don’t worry, no plot spoilers here):
Will Ferrell stars as has-been scientist Dr. Rick Marshall, sucked into a space-time vortex and spat back through time. Way back. Now, Marshall has no weapons, few skills and questionable smarts to survive in an alternate universe full of marauding dinosaurs and fantastic creatures from beyond our world - a place of spectacular sights and super-scaled comedy known as the Land of the Lost…Escape from this routine expedition gone awry and they're heroes. Get stuck, and they'll be permanent refugees in the Land of the Lost. (Source: About.com.)
To sum up: space/time vortexes suck…
I remember watching reruns of the television version of Land of the Lost (yes, I basically had no life…what was I supposed to do before Al Gore invented the internet?) - and I fer sure had many intense nightmares involving the Sleestaks. Even though I knew they were just Hollywood extras in green pajamas, they still freaked me out.
So back to my original question: do you ever feel like Dr. Marshall? Not in a “I’m a scientist who went back in time” sorta way. Rather in a “sometimes I get the feeling that I really don’t belong here” sensation - and you’re not really sure why.
Would you like to know why? I know that for me personally, it was very helpful to put the puzzle pieces together and form a clear picture that explained my odd sense of detachment from the world around me. See if these words are helpful:
Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to keep away from fleshly desires that do battle against the soul, and maintain good conduct among the non-Christians, so that though they now malign you as wrongdoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God when he appears (1 Peter 2:11-12 NET Bible).
When you trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation and became His follower, something radical changed in the location of your “home.” In a sense, you went through a spiritual vortex that made you a “foreigner” and “exile” on this planet. Your permanent residence now is in heaven, which makes this present world a “land of the lost.”
This is why you feel like you’re in a daily battle - obviously not with a T-Rex and Sleestaks, rather with your old way of thinking and looking at the world. You turn on the radio, or watch the MTV awards, or even listen to the conversations in the hallway, and you realize that there is something seriously wrong with this world, and you need to fight the temptation to give up the fight.
The Message translation of 1 Peter 2:11-12 puts it like this:
Friends, this world is not your home, so don't make yourselves cozy in it. Don't indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then they'll be won over to God's side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives.
So what’s the best way to escape from the “land of the lost”? Obviously we can’t physically escape until Jesus returns or we die, but there is a spiritual escape that will really help you in the daily battle to survive as a Christian in a world of deadly worldviews and lethal temptations: Continue »
John Flanagan »
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