Preservatives

This past weekend while recuperating from a grueling week of work and traveling and teaching and rehearsing and . . . I watched one of my favorite movies again: “Bulletproof Monk” starring one of my favorite Asian actors Chow Yun-Fat. Of course he doesn’t know he’s one of my favorites, neither does ignorance of that fact prevent him from getting paid for doing what he does – act. As a matter of fact he’s banking on (pun intended) folk like me to continue making sure he gets paid. Hmmm, we seem to be going right in the direction I want to go and I didn’t know it. He’s keeping me happy and I’m keeping him happy and we’ve never ever met. Imagine that.

In the movie he is the next monk to protect the sacred scroll from evil people for the scroll has special powers. The monk before him protected it for 60 years but never aged a day over 25. When he passed on the scroll to Chow (I don’t think he minds me calling him by his first name) he said “I’m now going to do something I’ve not done in over 60 years. Take a vacation.” But he was killed instead by foreign enemies who wanted the scroll. As Chow fought and then “died” in the first 15 minutes of the movie, he took with him the sacred scroll which no one could find. Many years later he appeared in the United States where we learned (yes, I was there too.) that he had hidden the scroll on his body. He too did not look a day over 25 years old, even though he died.

As the story continues we learn from Chow that the power of the scroll is preservation. The person who preserves and protects the scroll is also preserved and protected by the scroll. The scroll made him bulletproof so he healed quickly and always survived a bullet wound, or a death fall, like in the first 15 minutes. This one particular line that he shared with fellow actor Seann William Scott, let me paraphrase it as I recall it, “he who protects the scroll is protected by the scroll” is the one that excited me. I was like “wow” yeah!!! Who wouldn’t want to protect and preserve something that’s going to reciprocate in kind like that? Then immediately another person came to my mind.

I thought about a man who lived a very long time ago on another continent and who died at a very young age, but he accomplished so much – more in three years than most of us do in a lifetime. The deeds He did and the Words He spoke changed the world forever, and continues to do so. His Words were so powerful and are powerful that people would be (and are) healed even though he didn’t touch them, even if he was in a different city! People suffering from violent multiple personality disorders which caused them to isolate themselves from society would be relieved of their mental and emotional torment with just one sentence from His scroll, I mean His mouth.

Even before that, before He was born His Father started it all just by speaking His thoughts and His Words became reality. Light, sunshine, moon, stars, water, etc. If you can name it, it’s because He said it first. But what I recall reading about Him, from His autobiography if you will, is that He said His Words are “life”. Then He said, well one of his followers, John by name, said it about Him for us: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Humph. Imagine that. Then He spoke His Word into the earth to accomplish certain things, which means He spoke Himself into the earth so He could DO certain things. Hmmmm. Inside His Words are power – power to GIVE life and power to SUSTAIN life. Power to PRESERVE life and power to RESURRECT life. Power to RESTORE life and power to ENERGIZE life. Power to START life and power to END life. Now that’s some power. In words. That’s what was on the monk’s torso in the movie that sustained and preserved his life for over 60 years – words. What’s tattooed on my torso – my heart? What words are preserving me?

I guess you know by now, or maybe you don’t, but just in case, for those who don’t know, I am talking about God Almighty, the Creator of the Universe, and His Son Jesus the Christ, the One Who said “I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life”. Hmmmm. Four m’s that time, again. He also said “If you abide in (live in) ME (talking about Himself) and My Words abide in (remain in) you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.” John 15:8. Now He means more than just writing His Words on our bodies. He means for His Word to become such an important part of our lives, our very beings, who we are and what we do, how we believe and what we say, where we go and with whom, etc. that the things we ask for from Him would be the things He would also desire and would ask for from His Father, for us and if He were in our shoes. Again.

If we follow closely in His footsteps we see and hear that most of the time He requested “life” for everyone with whom He came in contact. Life for their bodies if they died (remember he raised Lazarus, and two other un-named teenagers from the dead, male and female.); life for their health when they were sick – the Centurion’s servant and the Syrophenician woman’s daughter, and both of them from a distance. He never made it to their houses. Just to name a few. Everything Jesus asked for from His Father He received, except one thing, because everything He asked for was what the Father wanted to do in the first place. Jesus carried not just ON His body, but inside Himself – He WAS and is the scroll on which God wrote His love letter to the world.

Those very Words preserved Him because He preserved those Words. He didn’t add to them neither did He take away from them. Read the promise and the warning in Revelation 22: 18-19. The promise He gives us is we will be kept by the very words we keep. We are what we say because what we say is usually what we believe, or what we will eventually believe if we continue saying it long enough. Another scripture says we are “snared by the words of our mouths.” Proverbs 6:2. On the positive side then we are Preserved and reserved, sustained and constrained, and restrained and . . . by the words of our mouths.

“Thy Word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against Thee”. So I won’t miss You, the mark and plans you’ve set for me, my life, my destiny. But one of my mostest (I just love this incorrect word) favorite scriptures is the one where the writer says to God “Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written (words) before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them.” Psalm 139:16. This means God said something about us, me before I was ever born. He wrote it down so He wouldn't forget it. (gheesh, I'm truly my Father's daughter.) The Old Testament also tells us that the priests were instructed to wear the names of each of the tribes of Israel on their clothing every time they went into the Holy Place to burn incense in the presence of God. Why? To keep their names and His promises to them ever before Him. He made a promise to Abraham in Genesis about the children of Israel before they were ever born, before he ever had one son and long after Abraham died, the priests continued to remind God of what He said about his offspring. God’s Words to Abraham about his offspring preserved them as they also in turn struggled to preserve God’s Word within themselves.

Around France, and maybe even other parts of Europe there are these machines on walls in different places much like soda machines, snack machines, newspaper machines, but they’re called “Preservatives”. When I first saw one I of course was confused because I thought of chemicals we put into foods and other things with shelf lives to prolong their lives on the shelf. So of course I had to have a closer look and of course I learned something new that day. As a woman, I could be offended because to me it implied that having unprotected sex with a woman is dangerous and a man needs to “preserve” himself while using her to satisfy himself. But of course, it is supposed to work both ways, when it is working properly. An equal opportunity product. Preservative is the French word for condom. It’s designed of course to protect both partners, thus prolonging their shelf lives. J No offense taken.

When you read the ingredients on some food products you will see the phrase “no preservatives added” which means the shelf life is normal, and shorter than those with preservatives, and they’re supposed to be all natural too, like fresh fruit and veggies. You must consume them very soon. Frankly, I don’t think we could live very well without preservatives because living in today's society is fast and expensive. We need all the help we can get to prolong the life of everything we acquire.

Jesus is the Great Preservative – Preserver of Life. When we receive Him into our lives and in turn give our lives to Him, He enters our hearts and souls and the preserving or preservation begins. The more we honor Him and allow His Words, which represent Who He is, to transform our thoughts, desires, emotions, will, intentions, intellect, deeds, actions, and words the more we are preserved in every part of our lives. And yes we can live longer because His Words are health to our bones too, not just our spirits and minds. “Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.” Proverbs 16:24. Words that preserve I’m convinced must be pleasant and sweet. So the next time you get on an all-natural health food kick, and you find yourself scrutinizing all the ingredients on every label of every product you buy, and you see the words “preservatives added”, remember to ask yourself, what would life be like without them? Especially without the Great Preservative.

Peace.