Avatar - Longing for a 'Utopia'

I have not yet seen the movie 'Avatar’ but this morning I read a sad, yet not so surprising, article about different reactions people have had after viewing the movie. According to the article I read, the movie could be on pace to become the highest grossing film of all time, which means a TON of people will see this movie. Apparently, the movie portrays a fictitious world called Pandora, which is a “beautiful, glowing utopia” compared to life on earth. One of the movie’s actors said, “Pandora is a pristine world and there is the synergy between all of the creatures of the planet and I think that strikes a deep chord within people that has a wishfulness and a wistfulness to it.”

Unfortunately, when moviegoers leave the theater many have been finding it difficult to deal with the reality of living in the world we live in here on planet earth. Here are just a few of the discussion topics on the fan site “Avatar Forums” that reveal how deeply the movie has impacted their lives: “Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible” (currently over 4,600 views); “Depression and thoughts of suicide;” “I feel lost and alone.”

One post read, “When I woke up this morning after watching Avatar for the first time yesterday, the world seemed…gray. It was like my hole life, everything I’ve done and worked for, lost its meaning. It just seems so…meaningless. I still don’t really see any reason to keep…doing things at all. I live in a dying world.”

Yet another post read, “Ever since I went to see 'Avatar' I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na'vi made me want to be one of them. I can't stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it. I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora and the everything is the same as in 'Avatar.'”

While there are a myriad of possible reactions to those posts, they show us that God has placed on the heart of mankind a realization that there is more to life than this world we live in. As Solomon reminds us, “He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (Ecc. 3:11) I am always amazed that even those who are not followers of Christ and know nothing of the Bible, still understand that we live in a dying world. We all have a deep longing to be a part of something more because sin has made us less than we were created to be. Unfortunately, without faith in Jesus Christ, there is no hope, which should spur us on to share the hope that we have with as many people as possible.

Here are a couple biblical truths that I was reminded of while reading the reactions to the movie:

(1) The world we live in is not as it was intended to be. Sin has so deeply scared everything in creation that the Apostle Paul said, “the whole creation has been groaning” as it awaits redemption from the curse of sin. It is this “hope” that we who have trusted in Jesus Christ alone for salvation can have. Paul also wrote in Romans 8 that he considered “our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” and it was “in this hope we were saved.” Do you daily remind yourself and everyone around you of this incredible hope?

(2) Our days in this world are very short as the Psalmist reminds us “as for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.” Yet, the choices we make in this world impact how we spend eternity, either with God in eternal paradise or without God in eternal punishment. Have you made the most important decision of your life to trust in Christ alone for salvation and is that decision evident in the way you live your life?

(3) We need to live life with an eternal perspective. The "utopia" that is portrayed by 'Avatar' is no better than the sinful, dying world we live in when compared to the place that Christ Jesus has prepared for those who trust in Him. And we don't even need to take a futuristic looking spaceship to get there! In fact, we need to do nothing but have faith in Christ and His work for us upon the cross. "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith - and this not from yourselves - it is the gift of God." (Eph 2:8)

What do we do with our short life God has given us on this earth? We focus on the things we cannot leave behind.….because as a Christ follower this is not our home…but we are all going home…so walk on…

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matt 6:19-21)