When a life dedicated to escaping greed is a failure.

It has been a good while since I blogged. This is partly because I was gone and living in the hills of Honduras on mission. A mission about connecting with the people we lived with and sharing the news of Jesus Christ. Another reason I have been on this hiatus is because I haven't had any revelations or thoughts worth blogging about; not even a pointless story to share. And to be honest, the last few weeks have been a time of rest and relaxation that was needed after being on the go for a year now; however, now my time of rest has concluded because it started to turn into laziness and idleness which is not the rest I seek. And now to the topic of my blog.

I watched a movie a few nights ago. This wasn't just any movie to watch in a mindless sense of having nothing else to do, the movie was based on a true story over the post-college life of a man named, Christopher McCandless. Christopher, who we come to know as "Alexander Supertramp", was a revolutionary thinker, a man who sought truth and wholeness in life, a man that we all can and should learn from. This wasn't and will not turn into a film review, but will simply consist of a few thoughts that I have been inspired with since watching Christopher's journey.

While many people choose not to live this way, it seems so popular and edgy these days to "become your own person", "do it your way", be "independent". A popular thing to do is "discover yourself" and people view it as noble to say "Screw you!" to society as we know it, drop what we have, abandon material wealth, and discover truth. Christopher tried to do this, he could have gone to Harvard Law and graduate debt free, but he left all he knew, his family, his money, anything he couldn't fit in a backpack. Most shocking of all, he left his identity and birthed a new person set to do thing his way and to discover truth in a journey dubbed, "Into the Wild".

My thoughts:

With all Christopher did and as noble as it was to leave behind wealth and a bright future by worldly standards, I believe Christopher became the person in society he was trying to avoid. At the root of materialism and greed is "self", and as Christopher abandoned his family and tried to become one with nature and make the road his home, he embraced the culture of "self". While noble and exciting, Christopher understood just before he died, "Happiness is only real when shared".

As a Christian, I also need to base the success and failure of a life on whether or not a person served Christ, and not on whether or not they became fiercely independent. While a post modern thinker could watch this movie and be in awe of this person who discovered great truth and became their own person, living and embodying adventure and passionately seeking truth; the fact remains that unless I missed something major or a person has a skewed opinion of what is to be a Christian, Christopher never engaged in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That is to say, his soul now exists with that of any other greedy member of society that sought only to live in the largest house, drive the best of flagship cars, and have the most "stuff" - devoid of Christ and His marvelous grace. It's not nice to say and we dance around saying a soul is in Hell because it seems all too harsh; however, it's true - and isn't that what we seek. I hate to say it, but while we may learn a lot from Christopher and while he may have lived the adventure of adventures, I believe his life was a failure.

So what life lesson can these insights teach us and what positives can we take from Christopher's view on life? I believe we must live a life that is different from what society says, we need to embrace the blessings the Lord has given, but at the same time understand how unfulfilling and futile chasing materialism really is. Whether a person is living for materialism can really only be determined by that individual, but it is everywhere and is part of culture, every culture, just in different ways. We must live our lives to first honor Christ and second help others reach the same point. We must also believe and obey the greatest commandments as stated by Jesus in Matthew 22:37-39. First to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." And second to "Love your neighbor as yourself."

If we do this, we cannot fail to fulfill our purpose on earth and bear fruit for the Kingdom at the same time we discover that true happiness must be shared with others.