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"This is the story, of tossed by the wind. Who was cursed for his thirst for the wisdom of man!"-- Jimmy Needham
"Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools!"--The Bible, Romans 1:22
"In the end, you and I are POINTLESS, POINTLESS, POINTLESS!" --Arakune, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
I have what's known as "Book ADHD"! You see, every time I find a book that i feel is worth reading, the interest is short lived. Not because the book loses its appeal, but rather because I always tend to find another book that interests me. For this reason, I always end up reading 2 or three books at a time. All this is to say that I have been reading 2 very good books recently. The first is "Prayer: Finding the Hearts True Home" by Robert Forster, which talks about prayer from many different standpoints. The second is called "Passion and Purity", and talks about romantic relationships from a strictly Christian point of view! Both books speak on very different subjects, but, oddly enough, in the second chapter of each, there is a strong emphasis on an age old Christian Doctrine: The idea that we, as human beings, are fallen beings, once living in much higher glory, until sin entered into the picture. Sin consumed out very being, our nature, and we, who were made in the image of God, to love God and be loved by him, became broken and tarnished, and separated from Him! These books then remind their readers that it is for this very reason that God came to this earth, in the form of the man, Jesus Christ; so that he could die on The Cross as a sacrifice for the past, present and future sin of man kind, and rise 3 days later (as Christians believe), thereby becoming the bridge between Man and God. I was taught that unless I allowed myself to be covered in the saving blood of The Lamb, by believing that Jesus is indeed who The Gospels say he is, that when I stood before God, he would see nothing more than a filthy, grimy Sin Nature, something He, in his perfect and holy nature, would be unable to commune with, and it is that Sin Nature, that Fallen Nature, that causes me to desire the useless things of this world: vain, momentary pleasure, and the foolishness of Man, which we dare call "wisdom". They urged me to come to grips with my Sin Nature, to admit that it indeed exists, and than deal with it, less I never full be able to accept the Saving Power of The Cross.
I had been thinking on this whole idea of Sin Nature for that entire week, and as I thought, it had accrued to me that while I have been a Christian for quite some time now, I had yet to fully understand the extent of my brokenness. And so I began to pray, and as God to show me! I asked him, "What would my Sin Nature look like in the sight of God. Take away my flesh and my bone, and leave only that which is eternal, my nature, and what would it look like outside of the Saving Blood of Christ". One day, as I was mulling over these questions, I got a call from my boy William Turpin, aka BJ! He wanted to play some fighting games. Being the gamer that I am, how could I refuse, and so I took a drive to his house, where we ended up playing what I believe to be the best 2D fighter out on the market at the moment, and that would be Blazblue: Calamity Trigger! (He would argue it to be Guilty Gear: Accent Core, and he would be mistaken, but I digress!)
After totally mopping the floor with BJ in this game (because he always refuses to pick the character he is best with, and give me a REAL Challenge), his brother took the controller, and chose this Charcter:
The characters name is Arakune, aside from being one of the highest ranked characters in the game, he is also God's unorthodox yet effective way of answering my prayer, meeting me where I am, and showing me my brokenness. Allow me to give you a bit of back story on Arakune:
Arakune was indeed once a man. He was an extremely smart scientist, who desired worldly wisdom and knowledge above all things. In fact, it was his thirst for wisdom and knowledge that caused him to be in the grotesque state he is currently in. While doing extensive research on the mystic environment in which he lived, he decided to push the limits, and despite extensive warning from his lover, Litchi,and his best friend, Tager, decided to research The Land of the Dead, also known as The Boundary! During his research, he learned many great and deep secrets, but not without a price. While wisdom and knowledge were gained, the prolonged exposure to The Boundary (Litchi said he got to close to its gates) cost him his humanity, and slowly changed him into what he is now. To this day, Arakune thirsts for wisdom and knowledge, and is willing to obtain it at all costs.
Watching BJ's brother play with this character got me thinking about his appearance alot, and it made me want to learn more about him. So I did my research. Let em share with you some points I found to be interesting:
1) He is driven by an all consuming desire for knowledge, despite the fact that it was that desire that got him where he is in the first place.
2) Despite his condition, he seems totally unaware that there is anything wrong with him.
3) He has developed a thirst for the souls of others.
4) His speech has been reduced to gibberish, insane laughter and tortured screaming.
5) That face, is not his face, but rather, a mask he made by him in an attempt to have people better understand him.
6) He is the host of many insects, and what seem to be bones. In essence, he seems to be rotting. Wasting away!
Many of us struggle with desires. I could go down the list of things that we want, and place in high importance, but I can also list the countless times throughout history in which people's desires, be it for money, pleasure, to know or to be known, has gotten the best of them, and drove them to the point of no return. Arakune was no different from this. Any desire, even when its good, can turn ugly when it becomes excessive, or the everything which runs our lives. The church refers to this state as idolatry (an infringement of the first commandment), and it is why the church has also taught temperance (a healthy balance of things). The Church teaches that everyone desires to put something as the drive of their lives, because God made us to put HIM as that drive. When we put something else in that place, the place only reserved for God, we commit Idolatry. It can be anything from materials, to sex, to drinking, to our job, to our social circles, our hobbies, and even knowledge and wisdom. These are things people use to fill voids, empty places in our hearts, and half the time, we have no idea of this void. We simply go about thirsting for everything, only to be satisfied by nothing. Arakune only gave into his nature, and his nature got the best of him.
I see Arakune as not the definitive answer, but a really good example of what what our sin nature looks like. what happens if we give in to our desires, and let them control us, instead of being led by Gods love and perfect wisdom. If we give in to that nature, we, like Arakune, become driven only by what WE want, even if it is at the cost of others. Those things become our God,, whether we admit it or not. We become unaware of our issues, hang ups, and problems, and we wonder why everyone but us sees them. And most importantly, we become faceless, formless beings, who lack identity, because TRUE identity lies only in God! In the end, we come up from the water, all knowing, yet unsatisfied, lacking purpose and meaning, and, like Arakune and King Solomon, in ALL their knowledge and wisdom, screaming in the very depths of our spirits: In the end, you and I are POINTLESS, POINTLESS, POINTLESS! Vanity, Vanity, ALL IS VANITY! I believe that without Christ, and his Sacrifice, We, upon standing in front of the Most Holy God, as I believe all men and women will one day do, would look a lot like Arakune! (see numbered bullet points about Arakune above)
But I also believe that, if we do look like this in our true nature, that was not what God originally intended, seeing as we he created us to love him and be loved by him. It was only after Mankind sinned and created the gap between him and God that we have developed this rot in our nature. And I also believe, very strongly, that it is only by through a relationship with God, through Christ, that we can truly overcome that nature.
