This is shout-out to our friend, compadré, and fellow Marble Slabber–HAPPY BIRTHDAY! You may praise the Lord this year that Renée and I are not planning a surprise like last year. But just so everyone has the opportunity to remember the fun…

Randall, a coworker, his wife Selina, and myself went to see the famed Matrix: Revolutions this weekend. While we were deep in the action of the movie, Renée was watching “School of Rock” with your friend and mine, Jack Black. She came out of the movie very happy and giggly; we came out of the Matrix a little confused but excited by the amazing special effects.

A little background (and maybe a few spoilers, so beware): before going to see the Matrix, of course, you can’t help but hear things from friends, other coworkers, and the web. Unfortunately, I had heard many bad things about this third installment of the trilogy, and so I was a little set on being disappointed from the get go. However, it seems that it was for the best, because allowed me to go into the movie and come out a little bit more impressed.

There is so much talk about how the Wachowski brothers went from making a great first movie to simply selling out with the second and third movies. I’m not here to debate that, even though I tend to agree. What was so amazing about the first movie was the mind-trip that it, philosophically, gave its viewers. The idea that we are all under slavery but don’t know it seems strangely familiar. I was hoping that the second and third movies would continue to explore the philosophical points-of-view to a greater depth, because, quite honestly, I was looking for connections to Christianity.

The first thing I ever heard about the original Matrix movie was that it was “the Gospel.” Like I said above, it was the feeling that is captured in Stacie Orrico’s popular pop song… “There’s gotta be more to life / than chasing down every temporary high / to satisfy me / because the more I’m tripping out thinking there must be more to life / well it’s life, but I’m sure… there’s gotta be more.” The then-Mr.-Anderson is approached with a radical idea: that he is in bondage–in fact, the entire world–and that there is, in a manner of speaking, “more to life.” Of course, then, there are a myriad of other connections to Christian themes (the most obvious being that Neo, the One, sacrifices his life, only to come back to life and save the world), but that the “more-to-life” theme seems to strike a chord close to home with many.

The reason for this, of course, is that there really is more to life. We do live in bondage. It’s something called sin, or as the archers would put it, “missing the mark.” No one is perfect, and we continually have this propensity to do “evil”–that which is not “good”. However, there is freedom. It’s in the person of Jesus Christ, who promised that he would show us the “more-to-life” – the abundant life (John 10:10). All we have to do is believe.

And as Morpheus said, “I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it.”