The Christian life is an enigma. We are well-aware that the Holy one who chose us is full of power, life, forgiveness, and love; but we are not. We are tempted to blame the world, ourselves, and even God himself, but ultimately the enigma is intended! We groan, along with all of creation, at the present situation. We are saved but crushed, rich yet poor, believing yet filled with doubt. Day by day, moment by moment, our present life is often lackluster and mediocre at best—and catastrophic at life’s worst. American Christians flock to action movies with a plethora of gifted but imperfect superheroes, soldiers, and even bumbling but loveable elves, dwarves, wizards, and humans–all fighting evil for truth and justice. We flock to these movies, because they depict a fallen world populated by people just like us visited by superhumans we secretly imagine we might really become.
The reality is that God intends that very thing. He has left us with a vision of what can be in Christ as we get better acquainted with the depth of our fallenness in sin. The adventurous Christian life God intended for us is about listening for God’s voice in good times and bad, in war and peace, in prosperity and poverty, and about doing what He asks us to do in His timing and His strength. The monsters, dragons, and evil are out there, and more real than even the best-produced movie. God has a plan for us to defeat them, but we are still in the production phase of the movie. Salvation is already but not yet.