We Are Both

If you watch the show Once Upon A Time, you probably recognize the title of this blog post. And you're probably thinking - well, that's old!

You would be right. The phrase is from a ket scene in the October 7 episode. Through the magic of DVR, some friends and I just watched it for the first time a few days ago. And in it - in this scene - WE saw glimpses of the Creator's imprint on our lives.

Setting it up, the people of Storybrook, Maine are actually fairy tale characters who have been exiled to the real world through a curse. They have not been able to be everything they were intended to be because of the curse, but they have recently been liberated. Now they know who they are - but they are in danger of losing it if they cross a line. Enter Price Charming:



In this powerful scene, Charming helps the people see that they are the sum product of all their experiences, good and bad. To be everything they were meant to be, they had to be liberated from their blindness. But now that they have been, they don't need to forget their shackles. It's those shackles that taught them many lessons and helped them see themselves as they really were. To cross the line was to go back to to slavery...and to lose part of themselves.

Paul talks about our internal struggle in Romans 7. We have been set free through Jesus to live life as God intended. But indeed, we are both. We are the free citizens of God's kingdom that we were intended to be. But, in this life, we never completely lose the shadow of the weak, selfish people that needed to be rescued. It is through the struggle that God shapes us into the people we were created to be. Like Charming, Paul is exhorting us: Don't cross the line. Don't go back. Don't return to slavery. Embrace the new life of the kingdom even though there will be struggles.

People created to live in fellowship with our Creator; people who rebel against that and do things our own way. We are both.  Our friends are both. This world is both.

But it won't always be. As it says in 1 Corinthians 15:57, thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus the Messiah!