The author
of Ephesians, the apostle Paul, wanted more for those in Christ. He knew the
limitations of our humanity since he wrote this book while in prison. In
Ephesians 1:15-19, he prays that we will have supernatural abilities to discern
God’s will for our lives and understand the extravagance of God’s love for us. This text is the origin of those “clear and
focused” spiritual eyes that we discussed in chapter one. God gives us eyes to
see our expansive new identity in Christ. You can compare those eyes to the
vampire ones in Twilight. With
increased vision, one has a heightened sense of awareness to the world around
you. With God-given spiritual eyes, we are able to know what’s real and discern
how to deal with every situation in life. Paul prays that we know what we have
in Christ. This is important because we need a center – a place to find balance
– in our lives.
Where is Bella’s center in Twilight? If we are honest, it is really
herself. Think about how Bella handles the baseball game scene. Another clan of
vampires appears, and the most deadly one, James, wants to kill Bella. She
doesn’t rely on conventional wisdom, which would say that she should stay away
from this vampire world from now on. She doesn’t rely on the experiential
wisdom of her father, who could attempt to protect her. Bella doesn’t even rely
on the vampire wisdom of how to handle the situation with James. She goes out
on her own to the ballet studio and tries to solve the problem by herself.
While it works in Twilight, we know
that this operating mode doesn’t always work in real life. The wisdom we find
in God doesn’t lead us into treachery and evil but into wholeness and peace in
our relationships.