I've lost count how many times I've rewatched my favourite clips of Batman begins on my laptop. I think out of all the movie characters I relate to most, Bruce Wayne (in the newest batman series) is the one I relate to the most. It's crazy how much I identify with his character in Batman begins. So many parallels between his life and my spiritual journey the past couple of years ever since I went on my 2-year trip to East Asia.
In Batman begins, bruce wayne is fed up with Gotham and just wants to leave it, go to the East for a while, and fight crime there. He goes around, studying the world of crime and comes upon a school of crime fighting masters, who train him how to fight crime effectively.
"You know how to fight six men. We can teach you how to engage six hundred." *swords clash*
The spiritual version is:
"You know how to fight six demons. We can teach you how to engage six hundred." *swords clash*
After he's done training (for 7 years! I was only gone for 2), he boards the plane back. On the runway Alfred greets him with the words "Master Wayne, you've been gone for a long time." Bruce replies "Yes I have." and boards it.
On the plane ride back, Alfred asks him "Are you coming back to Gotham for long sir?"
Mr. Wayne replies "As long as it takes. I want to show the people of Gotham that their city doesn't belong to criminals and the corrupt." He also adds later on that "People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy."
This is more or less what I've been going through spiritually the last 2 years or so. I was fed up with the spiritual state of the church in the West, Canada, and Toronto. It seemed so apathetic. In the spiritual realm, it seemed ruled by spiritual criminals (that break God's spiritual laws) and the spiritually corrupt (Go against God's Kingdom and his governing). I wanted to go where the spiritual action was, in East Asia. I sort of unexpectedly came across Christian spiritual formation masters that taught me the ways of the spiritual realm, how the spiritual world worked, and how to fight "spiritual crime". My spirit was trained, not so much with intellectual facts, but with hands-on engagement of spiritual sparring with sparring equipment.I learned how to use the sword of God. I learned that it's not good enough to just hold the sword of God (the Bible), but one must know how to wield it effectively in live battle (meditate on it skillfully and prudently during heated situations/circumstances). I was taught timeless principles of spiritual warfare not through second-hand downloads of armchair theological books, but through first-hand experience.
After I felt I had enough training, my heart wanted to go back to Toronto, to contribute towards the spiritual revival of a sleeping city that's been in a spiritual slumber way too long (we even have a company called sleep country Canada). I believe God, the storywriter, is the one who has returned this burden for Toronto in my heart, to see spiritual revival here, just like how Christopher Nolan returned a burden to redeem Gotham in the character of Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins.
When Bruce Wayne first reappeared in Gotham, he had compassion on the people in it, for they were like sheep without a shepherd. But he didn't just impulsively go in right away and start the action (this is something crucial that I'm learning right now). He started to plan his courses of action, design equipment, and strategize how to strike. He understood his culture well. He understood specific conditions of his city as he gathered intelligence about how things were going. And he started to design his Batman equipment in a way that would allow his principles of crime fighting that he learned in the East to be effectively applied to his own Western city. He took time and effort to do this.
I feel like I'm in this stage right now. I'm learning (sometimes the hard way) that I can't just impulsively jump into things without any thought and planning right away. I need to figure out the conditions of this city more. The state of spiritual allies and enemies and the status quo here. I need to design my "equipment" that will help me to apply the timeless spiritual principles effectively when things start rolling. Just as how Bruce Wayne used scientific gadgets and technology to help him navigate and strike in the physical realm and work with the physical laws (e.g. gravity) and not against it, right now, I am trying to learn about the "psychological realm" of our age in the West, understand neutral laws of psychology and construct and equip myself with psychological tools to effectively and relevantly apply these timeless spiritual formation principles in spiritual warfare here. I should not rush this. Practically, this includes how the process of digesting concepts and ideas affect the human, how images have a subtle yet strong effect on the mind, the power of analogies in how they help the mind organize and arrange seemingly mutually irrelevant data, the power of connotations from carefully chosen words, the power of hidden assumptions in images etc. I feel like I am renovating my "psychological batcave" right now.
I also thank God for mentors that act as my "spiritual Alfreds" as well as various resources that resource me like "Lucius Foxes".
I sense a few things happening in the future that happened to Bruce in his journey of returning to Gotham and fighting crime in it.
I feel that I will fall down many times in the future (like Bruce) and will need Alfreds to pick me back up.
There was a part in the movie where Bruce Wayne felt like he failed to save Gotham.
“I wanted to save Gotham… I failed” - Bruce
“Why do we fall, sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up” - Alfred
“You still haven’t given up on me?” - Bruce
“Never” - Alfred
I already kinda felt that I fell down a few times.
Also, just like how Batman has some people that don't like him as well as another bunch who do like him. He gives a mixed impression, and is portrayed as a controversial figure. Some ppl support him. Some ppl are against what he does. He doesn't abide by the human-made laws just for the sake of abiding by the human-made laws. He doesn't purposefully go against them just to be a jerk, but when he sees higher principles that supersede human-made laws, he sticks with the higher principles, and by doing so, offends the traditional cops who "go by the book" in every single case just because that's the way how they've been doing it in the past. He sees flaws in the human-system of crime fighting so he doesn't wait for the traditional law enforcement guys to do their thing. He starts his own "unauthorized" crime fighting. He is a vigilante not for the sake of going against the cops and doesn't try to stop what the cops are doing. He doesn't disrespect the cops for pleasure. He just sees more effective ways of doing things and therefore does his own thing.
In some ways, I can identify with Bruce in this respect as well. I know (and am starting to prepare myself) that not everyone who wants to see spiritual crime abolished in Toronto will agree with my non-traditional means, but I will continue to start a grass-roots spiritual crime fighting movement. I know I will encounter opposition from others on the "same team" as me in the future. I think it would be naive to believe otherwise. I should just psychologically prepare myself for it.
I find so much inspiration from this Batman begins movie that I find myself rewatching my favourite motivational clips from it about once a month (at least). It's crazy how many spiritual parallels I find with Bruce Wayne. Or perhaps maybe it's becoming more of a self-fulfilling prophecy ever since these parallels entered my mind a little over a year ago.
I feel God speaking to me sometimes as I watch this movie. Of course the analogies are not all perfect with lots of flaws, but nevertheless it really concretizes a lot of things I feel in my soul as I journey in this chapter of my life.
Plus, I believe that God speaks to his people not outside the cultural symbols of the person's own culture, but within them. In the Gospels, Jesus always used cultural symbols inside of the culture of the person he was talking to illustrate Kingdom principles in a very relevant/real/immediate way. He did not use Chinese illustrations to a Jewish audience. Nor did he use African analogies to the Romans. He used cultural symbols originating from the Jewish culture to communicate Gospel truths to the Jews. He used Roman terminology to illustrate Kingdom truths to the Romans.
I strongly believe that if Jesus were living in the West today, he would use symbols within the Western culture to illustrate the unchanging truths of the Kingdom of God. He would totally say stuff like "The Kingdom of God is like McDonalds because..." or "The Kingdom of God is like the White House..." or "The Kingdom of God is like the TV show American Idol...". With his wisdom, he could take any everyday object in his sight and illustrate profound spiritual truths from it, like an SUV, or a bowling ball, or a 747 in our culture.
With that in mind, I feel God speaking to me a lot in modern day movies. By that I don't mean that he tells me new apostolic truths through them. But I mean that he really fleshes out abstract principles that appear far away from my soul in a really in-your-face realism through modern day movies that contain modern day symbols/analogies. Of course the truths being fleshed out are (or should be) in line with the truths and the general direction of the truth laid out in the Good Book.
Yes, the Kingdom of God is like Batman begins.
Oh yea. And I do plan to work with "Commissioner Gordons" (people who feel called to remain working "within" the traditional system to continue capitalizing on the strengths of it in ways vigilantes can't) in the future. Batman can't crime fight without Commissioner Gordons that work with him. I don't feel that it's an either/or distinction of God redeeming Toronto EITHER through non-traditional grassroots spiritual movements OR traditional systems. He can, and I feel like he will use both to team up with each other, each with their own calling.
*The final action scene where the bad guys want to poison the entire Gotham hydro system by sending a train full of poison into the main city's water supply*
“The narrows is tearing itself to pieces” - Commissioner Gordon
“This is just the beginning. If they hit the whole city, there’s nothing to stop Gotham from tearing itself apart from mass panic” - Batman
“How they gonna do that?” - Commissioner Gordon
“They’re going to use the train. The monorail follows the water mains to the central hub beneath Wayne Tower. If the machine gets to the station, it’ll cause a chain reaction that’ll vaporize the city’s water supply. “ - Batman
“Covering Gotham in this poison” - Commissioner Gordon
“I’m gonna stop him from loading that train, but I may need your help” - Batman
“What do you need?” - Commissioner Gordon
“Do you drive stick?” - Batman
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