"It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything."

Warning! This post will be concerning a movie that some may find offensive. Therefore this post may be offensive to you. You have been warned!







"It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything."- Tyler Durden - Fight Club.

If you have never watched Fight Club, I do not recommend reading this post. It will not make sense and it may ruin the movie for you if you choose to watch it. I do not want to review the movie, you can find a great review here: Fight Club Review Over the next couple of blogs, I would like to talk about some of the themes and brilliant quotes from this movie.

The first one is the quote by Tyler above, "It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything." This is such a brilliant idea and a very Christian idea, let me explain. In the scene where Tyler makes this statement, it was just after taking a convient store clerk out behind the store and threatening to kill him. As the clerk feared for his life, Tyler asked him questions about his life and why he didn't finish his goal to become a Veterinarian. Tyler then threatened to kill the man if he was not on his way to becoming a vet in a couple weeks. Afterwards, Edward Norton's character asked him why he would do such a thing. Tyler responds, "Tomorrow morning his breakfast will taste better than yours and mine ever has."

When we realize that we are about to loose something really important, all the small stuff does not matter. When someone dies, you really don't care if you are wearing designer jeans or if you have the latest gadget, you are just glad to be alive. You treasure things like family and friends more. But what is it like to loose everything?

Do you really have to loose everything to be free? According to Jesus, you do! Jesus told the Rich Young Ruler, that he had, to sell all that he had and follow him. The ruler left, sad, because he was unable to let go of everything to follow Jesus. Jesus also told us, the Kingdom of God is like a man who finds a great treasure buried in a field. In his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field. And again, Jesus says, He that wishes to save his life will loose it, but he that looses his life, for my sake, will gain it.

It is only when we have lost all that we have, self-reliance, independence from God, the will to power, and hit the bottom of the barrel (as Tyler describes it), will we be able to have the freedom to embrace Christ. We are slaves, consumers of sin, and we are bound. Not only are we unable to embrace Jesus but, in our sin, we think we are free and that all that Jesus has to offer is slavery. It is the complete opposite! Jesus is Life and only in Him can we be free at all. We must daily remind ourselves that we must loose it all to follow Jesus and by loosing it all, we live!