Vanity Affair

There's an Old Lie that floats around in everybody's head. It says that you're worthless, incompetent; it robs you of the hope and future that God promised. Satan starts by simply whispering it into our ears, but if permitted, he'll scream at you until the Lie is beating against the walls of our heads.

I watched the new The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader last week - I strongly recommend that you head run to your nearest theatre with all of your friends in tow and see it. The plot dealt with the presence and consequences of temptation in our lives. All of the characters had at least one obvious sin that they struggled with, ranging from laziness to lust.

I usually watch movies impersonally; I don't connect with characters or get emotional, but in this film, I definitely identified with Lucy. Typically, she's the image of child-like faith, appropriately appointed for her young age; she's usually the first of the siblings to remind the group to remember Aslan and press on in their search for Him. The setting intercepts with Lucy's coming of age, providing a shift from the child content with herself to the young woman insecure with her appearance and abilities (dynamic character!). For the first time, we see her interested in males and making obvious gestures that insult both her intelligence and physical attributes. Lucy makes it clear to the audience, and eventually to her friends, that she feels inferior to her successful and gorgeous sister, Susan.

Lucy, like me, is an explorer and a bit naive. After being abducted by some odd creatures who desperately want to be cured from a curse, she agrees to help them reverse the spell by entering a strange mansion in the middle of nowhere. She finds the Book of Incantations, and begins flipping through it, attempting to find the rhyme that will cure the creatures of their disorder. She decides to test the waters, and makes the library snow. Delighted, she decides to further push her boundaries with danger (oh, how we're never satisfied). It begins innocently enough, but all the while, green fog representing sin is sneaking into the room as she is completely distracted with her new delight.

I like the use of green fog to symbolize sin for several reasons. One, the fog sneaks into the settings unknown by the characters. Satan never comes in through our front doors; Peter compares him to a lion, sneaking around in the shadows (1 Peter 5:8). Secondly, I like that Lewis used fog. We can see through fog like we can see through sin. No matter how hard we try, our sin will always eventually become evident to others, and no matter how awful we are, Jesus will always see the true You. I also love the fact that the color green was used; green is typically associated with goodness, happiness, and acceptance or permission to continue. It shows the illusion that sin presents to us during temptation. Like sin, fog is also short lived; all it takes is a little heat, a little perseverance and a little Jesus, to melt away the clouds.

While the fog is seeping into the library, Lucy stumbles across a page of incantations that promises to make her the most beautiful woman in all the land. She begins to recite the spell, and watches her face morph into the shape of her darling sister's. The room shakes; she knows she's done wrong, and becomes fearful - but the pleasure is too great. She decides to rip out the page and save it for later, continuing to search for the appropriate spell to help her new friends outside.

Later comes a scene that really hit me - it's one of maybe three that have ever made my eyes well up out of all the movies I've ever seen. Lucy lies in bed, wrestling with her demons alone in the dark; next to her is a little girl, completely unaware of the struggle Lucy is facing. Lucy pulls the paper from the spell book out of her night gown and climbs out of bed, tip-toeing in the dark so that nobody will catch her. She's obviously aware that her actions are inappropriate and would be disapproved of; she doesn't care though, and will go to extents to hide her intentions. She arrives to the mirror and whispers the incantation to herself, then waits as her body again morphs into the figure of her sister. I think at this point she felt some anxiety; the green fog enters through the cracks in the walls, the setting is spooky, but I think the potential benefits of this spell outweighed any risks she was assessing at the time.

Suddenly, in a whirlwind, she is whisked away into another time. She is elegantly dressed as her sister at a party; the crowd moves for her, complimenting her appearance. A photographer asks to take her picture; she's absolutely delighted and pleased with herself. Her brothers arrive, excited to take a picture of the "three children" for their mother. One of them refers to her as Susan; she laughs at them and says her name is Lucy. The brothers laugh back and say she's crazy - they don't know a Lucy, her name is Susan. She suddenly becomes aware that she no longer exists. Panicking, she cries out to be returned to the ship, to become Lucy again. The real Lucy is gone. She has been given exactly what she wanted, to become her sister. She's beautiful now, but at the expense of her life and her character.

Lucy returns to real time and finds Aslan staring back at her in the mirror. The two people she can't hide from are staring her back in the face simultaneously - God and herself. This is the most crucial moment of the scene. For me, this would be the point where my emotions would have shifted from panic to shame. Here Jesus is, standing next to me, facing me and my sin. Essentially, Lucy inadvertently said to God "You and Your Creation is not enough for me," and now she has either two choices - to say it to His face, or to admit her fault and address it accordingly. I can't and don't want to count the number of times I've communicated this to God. I, like Lucy, realized that my actions were wrong. The Holy Spirit yelled at me, but it felt like the Old Lie was screaming louder; at the time, the benefits outweighed the costs. When we give in to temptation, everything is upside down; nothing is sound.

Sobbing, Lucy cries out to Aslan, pleading for Him to make everything alright. Innocently, she claims she never wanted things to end up that way - she simply wanted to be beautiful. How often do we find ourselves in this position - desperate to be freed, finding the only way out to be in the hands of God. Aslan tells her that in order to be something she's not, Lucy must sell herself; essentially, she has to die for her sin. He gently admonishes her, saying "Don't doubt your value; don't run from who you are." Through this, He reminds Lucy that she is everything He ever wanted her to be. The Old Lie is just that - a lie. He never saw her as inadequate. He never saw her as ugly. He saw her as "wonderfully and fearfully made," a creation from His hands (Psalm 139:14). She's valuable - He has a purpose for her, perfectly complimentary to her design. He soothes her, as any good Father would, and sends her to bed, though she is unable to sleep. Whenever we are faced with our sin though, we are still faced with some guilt and shame for a short time; we have to deal with our emotions and work through forgiveness of the most difficult person - ourselves. Lucy gave up a few moments of her life to become what she thought was perfection. I gave up a lot more.

I like how this scene deals with multiple sins at once, and then concludes with love and forgiveness (but that's another blog for another day). God tells us very specifically that we are not to dabble in witchcraft of any kind (Galatians 5:19-21). Secondly, vanity leads to a whole slew of sins. It leads to pride and self worship, self condemnation and self deception. God addresses the concept of beauty several times in the Bible; I'm not sure that Jesus ever felt that He wasn't skinny enough or His boobs were too small, but He does know that it's a hot topic among His daughters and I'm sure there had to be a point where He felt some sort of inadequacy.

God tells us that appearance doesn't matter - it's short lived. Rather, fearing God is worthy of admiration (Proverbs 31:30).

He says that those who bring peace, the Gospel, and goodness are beautiful (Isaiah 52:7).

He tells us exactly how we are to dress - modestly and adorning ourself with good deeds, worshiping God, not our bodies (1 Timothy 2:9-10).

It didn't take long for Lucy to recognize her sin and respond to the Holy Spirit. For the first portion of the movie, she let Satan whisper the Old Lie into her ears. She didn't catch it immediately, and soon, it penetrated her heart. She allowed Satan to scream louder than God - possibly the most dangerous action any of us can make. Thankfully, we all have an Aslan to look us in the eye and speak truth into our lives.