Raise your hand if you grew up watching The Neverending Story and love it!
Now raise your hand if you didn’t, but were forced to watch it when you were older only to find that it was one of the weirdest and creepiest movies you’d ever seen.
“Call my name. Bastian, please! Save us!”
I feel like there are two kinds of people in this world and they either love The Neverending Story or they hate it. I’m the first kind of people. I grew up watching The Neverending Story and not once did I think anything about it was weird or creepy. If I met someone who hadn’t seen it I would rave about it’s story, it’s magic and it’s quotable nature. And I would also usually make them watch it. That’s when I discovered that there were two kinds of people in this world…
“They look like big, good, strong hands…”
The dislike of some doesn’t deter me though. I still love it – cheesiness and all!
But there is one scene that is not cheesy. For those of us who watched the movie as a kid we can all remember exactly how we felt the first time we watched Artax sink into the swamps of sadness.
And if you want a refresher (or you’ve never seen it) here you go.
In the past few years this scene has come to my mind as I’ve thought about sin. It started when a friend of mine was broken hearted over her boyfriend’s addiction to alcohol and the toll it was taking on him and their relationship. He had been doing so good to keep his consumption under control but as life got more difficult his drinking got out of hand. Finally, in desperation she had to break up with him because she couldn’t watch his addiction destroy him anymore. Not to mention she could no longer stand the emotional vertigo his drinking was causing her.
I recall sitting across from her as she was pouring her heart out and thinking about Atreyu and Artax in the swamp. How, just as Atreyu tried every trick in the book to get Artax to have hope and to fight the sadness, we do the same thing with those around us who are stuck in an addicting sin.
And it made me think of myself and my own sins and vices as well.
I struggle with over-eating and my weight. I put it that way because even when I’m exercising and eating right…my weight is still always there reminding me of the power and affects it has had over me. Oh sure, sometimes there’s less weight. Sometimes I’m winning the battle. But it’s always a battle, and I wish so much that I could externally show the world of the internal victories that have taken place.
I’ve come to a place now where I just went through my own little “swamp of sadness.” I was sinking. But unlike Artax, I couldn’t give up. I decided to fight the sadness. To have hope. And I’m still fighting.
My friend’s boyfriend did the same thing. He fought against the sadness. The two of them got back together and are now married. And he’s still fighting.
As I think about being in a relationship with my close friends and family, but especially in a possible marriage relationship (since I am single), I wouldn’t ever dismiss someone who was honest with me about having an addiction – but I would take issue with them if they were apathetic about it. It’s all too easy to give into the sadness in the swamps of this life, and I need people around me who are not only ready to fight against the sadness – whatever their fight may be – but yell at me when they see me sinking.
I would prefer it if they wouldn’t call me a stupid horse though.
lisahezzie
Fighting Complacency 