My First Movie Review

Usually, I don't do movie reviews.  But, our family went yesterday to see the new holiday movie called The Rise Of The Guardians.  It is an obviously fictional story about Santa Clause, the tooth fairy, the sandman, and the Easter bunny being chosen by the man in the moon to guard the hopes and dreams of children.  When the children of the world are threatened by the boogy man, the four guardians are not enough on their own, so the man in the moon appoints Jack Frost as the newest member of the guardian team.I am sure you can already tell that this is a silly movie, but I loved it!  I first loved it because it is a classic tale of good versus evil, and I always love a good fight between good versus evil.  I love seeing good prevail.  The world keeps telling us that there is no such thing as good and evil or right and wrong.  The world wants us to believe that we can all choose to live "differently" without being "wrong".  But obviously some movie makers still know, that kids are born with an instinctual desire to see good kick bad's butt.  Movie's with good versus evil battles sell and I for one love them!My affection for this movie grew as the movie developed.  Throughout the movie, Jack Frost is not sure why the man in the moon would choose him to be a guardian.  No humans can see him because they have to believe in him to see him and while kids in the movie believed in the other guardians, no one believed in Jack Frost so he lived a lonely life.  He helped kids have fun in the snow without them ever knowing he was helping.The villain in this movie was clearly the boogie man.  He tried to instill fear in each child in the world so that they no longer believed in "good" things such as the tooth fairy or Santa, but instead believed in the boogie man and feared him.  So the battle began, the boogie man attacked the kids dreams, stole their teeth, and their eggs.  The guardians fought back with shear might, logic, and determination.  But, in the end, none of this was strong enough.  Fear was taking its toll on all of them and they were down to only one child in the whole world that believed in them.The boogie man had them cornered and was about to destroy them all when it finally occurred to Jack Frost why he was chosen!  He told everyone that they were fighting with the wrong weapons.  He said that they must fight fear with fun!  He started throwing snow balls and getting all the kids in town involved in a big snow ball fight.  He brought snow into their bedrooms and let them see wonder!  The boogie man had no ground to stand on anymore.   The only one left with fear was him and he shrunk in defeat.OK, now I realized how bizarre this movie sounds and I am not promoting the belief of Santa, the tooth fairy, or the Easter bunny.  But, I found myself tearing up when Jack Frost came to the realization that he was fighting with the wrong tools.  I realized that as Christians, we often fight with the wrong weapons.  We try to reason with the lost, we argue with those who don't see our point of view and we even yell at those who offend us.  But, it is not working.  For the most part anyway.  But, we are forgetting our strongest weapon which is also our greatest gift.  The Joy of the Lord.In Dueteronomy 26:46-47, the Israelites are told that they will suffer curses because they did not "serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things".  In Nehemiah 8:10, the Israelites are instructed to celebrate the Feast of the Booths and they are told that the Joy of the Lord is their strength.  All over the bible we are told to rejoice even in the midst of suffering.This movie brought these verses to my mind and I started thinking about what this world would be like if all of us Christians spent our lives enjoying God no matter what circumstances we were in.  What if we stopped trying to tell the world what they did not have, but showed the world what we do have! We are the children of the Most High God and by His mercy and grace, He has bestowed upon us His joy!  How dare we not enjoy it.  And as we enjoy it, I believe we are going to see its strength.  I believe that the Father of lies is trying to use fear to rob us all of our joy, but when the world sees our joy cannot be stolen, they will believe!  They will want what we have.  And as we turn our affections towards God, I know we will see Him work in our lives and then we will have even more to tell a lost and dying world about!I personally want to live like Jack Frost.  Joy does beat fear any day!