Written by guest author, Josh John.
I don’t really watch TV. I can’t. For some reason, I find it hard to make it through even one season of any show. I haven’t even finished my favorite shows, like Parks and Rec, because at some point I just trail off and forget about it entirely. However, there is one show I’ve watched in its entirety: Stranger Things. I absolutely loved the story line and the kid actors. Its short eight-episode length helped me get through it. So, when I heard that Stranger Things Two would come out on October 27th, I was extremely excited.
For those who aren’t familiar with Stranger Things, it is a show about a clique of four young boys from outside of Pittsburgh named Will, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas. Along for the ride are police Chief Hopper, Mike’s sister Nancy, her love-interest Steve, Will’s brother Jonathan, and a strange little girl with a bizarre history and telekinetic powers named Eleven who the four boys meet in the woods. In season one we meet all the characters and shortly after Will disappears. Throughout the first few episodes we learn that Will has been taken to the “upside-down”— a separate dimension which is a perfect mirror of our own world, except very dark, unsettling and filled with evil.
There are no humans in the upside-down aside from those who have been taken, but it is inhabited by a monster who can enter our world and take people to fuel its self-expansion. Season one consists of Hopper tracking down Will through confrontations with an unnerving corporation nearby that seems to be strangely connected to the disappearance of Will and the presence of Eleven. The three boys, along with Will’s brother, Jonathan, attempt to track down Will separately with the help of Eleven and her unique connection to the upside-down. Eventually, all the main characters become involved. Most enter the upside-down to search for Will, including his mom. Nancy’s best friend Barb also enters and is killed by the monster. Season one concludes with an epic battle between the kids and the monster where Eleven seemingly gives her life for the boys’ sake and is lost forever, winning the battle.
As I have started watching Stranger Things 2 (I’ve only gotten through two episodes, and don’t worry, there are no spoilers ahead!), I am constantly struck by the incredible impact the characters’ encounter with the upside-down has had on their everyday lives. The story picks up a year later in season two and right from the very beginning of episode one, all the main characters’ lives still seem to be heavily influenced by Eleven and the upside-down. Will’s experience in the upside-down dramatically changed the way he perceives the world every day, Mike’s interactions with Eleven causes him to try to find her every day for an entire year, and Dustin and Lucas are both constantly reminded of the things that happened to their forever-changed friends. Even outside the four boys, Hopper’s home and work-life are both structured around the abnormalities from the last year, Jonathan spends much of his time caring for Will because of his troubles, and Nancy and Steve have great relationship difficulties because of the stark contrast in realities they had experienced. As I took in the first two episodes, I could not stop marveling over how much the characters’ experiences shaped their current lives even with the upside-down being completely absent.
As I noticed how they responded, whether intentionally or unconsciously, to season one’s occurrences, I also found it incredibly realistic and logical. It made so much sense that they wouldn’t be able to go through one day without having the upside-down breach their consciousness and affect their life. If I had entered an alter dimension a year ago, I’m sure I would be writing about how incredible it was to have experienced a totally different side of life that radically changed my outlook forever!
Which brings me to the reason I’m writing. For I am writing because of something I’ve experienced, and in fact I encountered it over two years ago! I didn’t find another dimension or a portal into a mirror world, but I did experience a totally different side of life that radically changed my outlook forever.
In the summer of 2015, God grabbed my life and pulled me into a real, communicative relationship with Him, where He revealed to me His truth. We, His beloved creation, had grieved His heart with our sin so that He had every right to destroy us, but instead He gave up the life of His only Son for us. He did so to adopt those who would receive this gift, as children, safely bringing them into His Kingdom. Moreover, Jesus, being fully God, came to earth as a human and humbled Himself to death on a cross. By doing so, he took on all of God’s righteous wrath that we earned for ourselves, was buried but then was resurrected by God to rule over all things—all so that He could adopt me, a wretched sinner, into His family as His son.
Through this act of perfect sacrifice Jesus gave me new life. He gave me life when I didn’t even know I was dead and liberated me from the heavy weight of sin inviting me into His Kingdom. Now, I can live as His son and spread this glorious message, inviting others to join His family. How crazy is that??
How could the Almighty Creator of the Universe and Sovereign Lord over all reduce Himself to human form and allow us, His beloved creation, to mock, beat and crucify Him, SO THAT He could forgive us? He originally gave us everything we could ever want or need, and in response we sinned against Him, we broke His heart, and we rebelled. So, in response, He allowed us to kill Him so that He could satisfy the wrath our sin prompts with Himself. All this to bring us to Him, because we were too sinful to do anything ourselves.
Who would believe that?? It’s an absolutely ridiculous concept, something that can’t possibly belong to reality. Thankfully, it is the true reality we live in. This reality, when it was revealed to me, dramatically changed the way I perceive and interact with the world around me each day. Every thought I have relates to and revolves around Jesus’ sacrifice for us, every decision I make is for His purposes, the money I spend depends upon His reality, and the way I use my time is based off the existence of that truth—at least that is the goal.
Of course, I sometimes fail to do these things, and my failures remind me that I’m still a sinful man despite my radically altered worldview. Here I see the beauty of Christ’s payment for my sins, that I live under a constant waterfall of God’s perfect grace. When Jesus died and was resurrected to atone for my sins, He didn’t just cover all the sins in my past, but all my future sins. Even when I feel like I’ve failed Him, the bill has still been paid in full and any sin I’ve committed has already been wiped clean. So, I have the amazing privilege of living a life pleasing to God and for His purposes, along with the amazing peace of knowing that despite my failures I remain His beloved son. And this gives me the freedom to pursue the spreading of His Kingdom on earth with every step I take, rejecting the popular notions of how to spend our time, knowing that my true hope lies in spending eternity with my Lord.
Sounds a little crazy, doesn’t it? And yet, in the same way that the characters’ responses to the upside-down in Stranger Things make a lot of sense considering the alter dimension they experienced, doesn’t this seem reasonable? In fact, this is the only possible reaction I could have! If I really believe everything that I typed above, how could I live my life in any other way? The realization that reality is starkly different from what we originally thought tends to rock our worlds, just like it rocked the world in Stranger Things.
We see a great example of this true and sensible reaction to God’s glory in the book of Acts. In Acts 2, Peter addresses a large crowd and delivers a sermon about the resurrection of Christ, and it changes their life. I’d suggest you read the whole chapter—but especially in Acts 2:36–47 we can see the proper reaction to the coming of God’s Kingdom. Peter tells the people that Jesus has risen, and they believe. At once, they all repent, turn from their previous lifestyles and live differently. In fact, Acts tells us that they “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship,” “awe came upon every soul,” and “they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.”
I don’t know about you, but I would need to be convinced of a pretty drastic truth in order to be moved to sell my possessions and belongings so that I could give money to others. But that’s the response they had to the reality of their risen King. Interestingly, we see the same thing in Acts 5:32–37. Here, where thousands of believers lived as a huge family, we see again they were “of one heart and one soul” and sold their land and houses to provide for those with less income.
To some this radical life change may seem insane and surely many at the time thought the same, but it’s the only reasonable thing to do. In Stranger Things, the characters are still affected daily a full year after season one because of what happened. But wouldn’t you think they were crazy if they weren’t? Nancy calls out Steve for this, fighting with him because he tried to live life normally and pretend it all didn’t happen. In the same way, I think it’s far crazier when someone claims to believe that Jesus died and was resurrected as the payment for our sins and yet live their life as if nothing ever happened. When was the last time you heard of someone resurrecting? The only possible response to the coming of His Kingdom is to relentlessly pursue Him with our lives.
In John 13:31–35, Jesus tells us:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
In Matthew 28:18–20, He commands us:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Just before being crucified, our professed risen King told us that people will know we follow Him based on our love for each other. Just after He rose, He told us to go out and tell every person about the Good News of the coming of His Kingdom. I encourage you, reader, if you don’t know Jesus, to consider the beautiful truths of the Scriptures and to read more about this King yourselves. I encourage you, brothers and sisters, if you profess belief in our King, to dive deep into His Word and His presence and allow this reality to shake your worldview into a position of glorifying Him through your every day and every action. When our very own Creator dies for us and makes us His children, we are to lose our life for His sake—a lifestyle that seems ridiculous to the rest of the world, but is really the only appropriate way to respond.
Word Loose 