The Scarecrow Knew!

The Scarecrow knew Dorothy could go home anytime she wanted to, but he DID NOT TELL HER!

Let’s look at this story and see what is really going on!  Everyone that Dorothy became friends with had very serious problems!  Did you ever wonder why she didn’t make friends with at least one “normal” companion on this journey of hers?

Do you ever wonder why YOU seem to attract friends who have a great deal of chaos and trouble in their lives??  Well…I have one of the answers for you!  I am not saying this is the only answer, but it is definitely one of the reasons.

Didn’t you grow up in chaos and trouble?  I know you are out there…  You became accustomed to being around problems and used to having messed up relationships.  Did you enjoy this??  NO, of course not…BUT when you are used to something – you will continue to attract those situations…you will continue to attract those kinds of people into your life.  It feels “normal” to you. For most of us who grew up in dysfunctional families…we have had great difficulty building trust…difficulty keeping good people in our lives…troubled relationships.  I want to point out some wisdom at this point:  Anything you label as “normal” or “alright” in your life – whatever that “thing” is, you will not be able to change it.  You must recognize it as NOT normal in order to become determined to make the needed changes in your life in that area!  It takes so much courage to take a realistic look at your own life and it also takes a lot of time to think things through.

Back to the Scarecrow – just to help make the point!  He seemed lovable and appeared very loyal to Dorothy.  Probably he did care a lot for her…but he knew if she went home – he would be left behind!  He had been isolated all his life…an unattractive and weak “man” whose only job had been to scare other living creatures…not much of a life.  Then this lovely young girl comes into his life and she is so kind.  She was very open about the problems in her life and then those two characters (with their problems) set off on a journey to “find the solutions they needed.”  The Scarecrow had never felt such closeness in a companion and he did not want to lose it.

I believe he knew that Dorothy could go home anytime because he was the character in the movie that was supposed to be the smartest.  I believe he could have figured it out because as it turned out, he was much smarter than the “fake” Wizard of Oz.  The Wizard who turned out to be harmless but a fraud!

As it turned out, the Scarecrow gave in to his selfish desire to keep his friend Dorothy in his life and did not tell her that she could go home at any time.  He was afraid of being alone again…although at the end of the movie, we see that he had made other friends (Tin Man and Lion) and we are left with the hope that they had learned some valuable lessons together on the Yellow Brick Road (the Journey towards Wisdom) that all of us travel in our lives.  Some of us learn – we absorb the Wisdom…sadly…others do not and get off the Good Path.

I can sympathize with the Scarecrow but I cannot agree with his selfish decision.  Throughout the years of my life, I have learned that our Almighty God gives good things to his children who are generous and helpful to one another:

Matthew 7:12
So then, whatever you desire that others would do to and for you, even so do also to and for them, for this is (sums up) the Law and the Prophets.

Generosity is one of my favorite characteristics to find in people I meet.  It is a true gift of spirit.

God Bless you,

Macky

P.S.  This interpretation of The Wizard of Oz is my own creation and I make no claim that the author intended it to be interpreted in this way.

The Scarecrow’s Secret

What was the Scarecrow hiding from Dorothy?

What do a lot of people who are intelligent hide from the important people in their lives?  Join me this weekend to learn some interesting things about the Scarecrow and about people and their secrets.

Are you a pretty smart man/woman?  very smart?  Do you keep secrets from people you love?  Let’s talk about why it is so tempting (and so dangerous) to keep secrets!!

See you this weekend…

Macky

Love for the Tin Man…Love for You..

The Tin Man started in life as a human man and was “in love” with a munchkin woman in the story of the Wizard of Oz.  According to the story, his job was cutting wood and he cut off his own legs with an “magic” axe that was given to him by an enemy.  A merchant, called a tinner made him replacement legs using tin.  Shortly after, Tin Man cut off his own arms and again the tinner replaced his arms with tin.  Next Tin Man cut off his own head; again the tinner replaced his real head with a tin head.  Finally, he cut himself in half which “drained” him completely…after the tinner replaced his body, he was then a totally artificial / superficial empty “man.”

Consider that his enemy was his “Lack of knowledge,” and he created his own pain; he sabotaged himself and through his ignorance, he became an empty “man” and finally a rusted bit of tin trash that could not even move.   I submit to you that the Tin Man was not on a quest for true Love but that he was on a quest for POSSESSIONS. The story states that he was anxious to have a “house and a wife.”  Those words do not indicate that he was searching for Love. He was looking and making preparation for a dwelling and a woman to meet his needs.

Let’s talk about the true nature of Love and then return to the Tin Man.

Having Love is one of life’s greatest gifts.  However, I would never tell anyone that it is easy to find or easy to acquire.  Actually, it is one of the rarest treasures to receive and (in the world we live in…) one of the most difficult treasures to hold on to.  There is so much emptiness in our world…and yet, people are not seeking to find out where they are going wrong.  They keep trying the same old routines of meeting people and creating “relationships” and they are NOT finding Love.  Most are only finding lust and a temporary companion – someone to keep around so that they do not feel lonely.  THIS IS NOT LOVE.

There is a paradox / a kind of contradiction regarding the gift of Love and if this “twist” is not understood and not “followed,” receiving true and lasting Love is not in your future.

If you want true LOVE in your life:  read on…

Receiving Love is a RESULT of living your life and seeking Godly goals. To state the paradox…the contradiction very simply, it is this:

YOU MUST GIVE LOVE BEFORE YOU CAN RECEIVE LOVE

There is a Bible verse that sets us on the right path to having Love in our lives:

1 John 4:8

“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

If you understand this verse you will understand one of the sacred truths about Love = Love is God and God is Love. This means that “Love” has the nature of BEING ALIVE…it is more than an emotion of enormous feelings of dedication and loyalty to another person. True Love is actually ALIVE. Yes, I know this is hard to understand, but if you will think about it…think a lot about it – then you will know why true Love is so rare. Having true Love in your life also means having the living and Almighty God in your life. It comes down to this very important point:

Having God in your Life means you will never be empty again.

Yes, you will still have challenges, but the heart-breaking emptiness and thoughts that you “just can’t make it,” those will leave. They will leave as you accept the presence of God and begin to live a life of Love – as described in this chapter:

I Corinthians 13 of the Bible is often called the Love Chapter. It explains the nature of Love beautifully:

The Way of Love

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

We can not make any assumptions about the Tin Man’s relationship with God, but we can see that as he began to forget about his own problems and start to help his new found friends…he experienced the fullness of joy; of Love and friendship.

When you begin to live your life knowing that “it’s not about me,” when you look outside yourself and become a giver of (whatever you have) to give…you won’t have to go looking for love…

Love will come to you.

Try it dear friends and may God bless each of you,

Macky

Your own Yellow Brick Road..

For anyone who has watched the movie, “The Wizard of Oz,” you will remember the words Dorothy repeated towards the end of the movie as she clicked the heels of her Ruby Slippers together three times and said: “There’s no place like home!”

But before she had realized that “home” is a wonderful place to be…she had to take a long journey down the “yellow brick road.” The movie doesn’t tell the whole story of Dorothy, but the book (which led to the movie) tells us that Dorothy’s parents had died when she was a baby. And even though it appears that she was well taken care of by her Auntie Em and her uncle…well…her life was somewhat sad and dark. Her aunt and uncle appeared tired and did not have smiling faces. We can imagine that a young girl like Dorothy was lonely and sad. She was faced with the loss of the only living being that appeared to show love and loyalty to her – her dog Toto.  Her cruel and cranky neighbor was having her beloved dog taken away, which was why Dorothy was running away.  She could not face her empty life without her one true friend.

The movie reflected Dorothy’s sad mood at the beginning of the story. Remember the movie started in black and white before later (in Munchkin Land) started to broadcast in beautiful and cheerful color? Remember the dark and dangerous tornado that sent Dorothy’s family into the cellar…everyone except Dorothy and her beloved dog Toto. I have often wondered how any loving family could stop searching for the child in their care and go into the cellar without her. As a parent, I can tell you that I would not have stopped looking!

Many of us had rough starts in our lives…dark and lonely years without very much love or loyalty from the people around us. Obviously we got enough to eat and had an adequate roof over our heads (we are still here..) but we too probably often wanted to run away…we wanted a better life than what we were experiencing.

I think one good interpretation of the yellow brick road is that it is the path to maturity and wisdom.
And it is normal that – along the way in our lives – we pick up other persons who have similar challenges…people we have things in common with. Dorothy met a man who was on a path to fill the emptiness of his head (the Scarecrow); she and the Scarecrow met and welcomed the Tin Man to join in their journey – as he was looking to fill the emptiness of his chest…he believed he needed a heart. Finally, the three travelers met the Cowardly Lion whose personality lacked the courage that was required of his role as a mighty Lion. So our brave foursome, Dorothy who needed a home and her four hopeful friends stepped onto the path of maturity and wisdom.

The goal of their journey was to find the man who could give them the desires of their hearts – a man they had heard about: The Wizard of Oz. So many of us are looking for that person in our lives…the person with all the answers. But, my friends, the Wizard of Oz had no power and no other person on this earth has any such power either. WHAT A WONDERFUL LESSON OUR FOUR BRAVE “FRIENDS” LEARNED!! It is important to know that there is no human being that has all the answers. We can help each other and share the lessons we have learned on our own yellow brick roads; but, it is true wisdom to know that no human has all the answers!

As you continue on your path; as you continue down your Yellow Brick Road, you can – if you WILL – become more and more mature. You will look to almighty God for your wisdom and as we go through life gathering and pondering the life lessons from our friends and relatives, we will learn to make wise / well thought-out decisions and we, like Dorothy and her fellow-travelers, will realize that we had the knowledge all along: we have a home (home is where the heart is); we have a brain (we just need to learn how to use it wisely before we engage in behavior); we have a heart (we have to be willing to be vulnerable…we must not let a childhood that lacked love and encouragement stop us now from having a loving life ourselves!) We have courage (if we believe in the gifts that almighty God has placed inside of us…if we believe in ourselves and refuse to be afraid of what people can do to us.) This courage will give us the strength to step up and do the right thing; to live a life of integrity and truth when the whole world is soaking up the evil things that are offered by society – life-destroying addictions; sexual depravity; violence…both verbal and physical, etc, etc.

You can make your home joyous regardless of where you are. You may think that you do not have a home unless you are making mortgage payments. Not true! If you rent the smallest apartment ever built or if you live in a boarding house – WHATEVER – you have a home and you have the knowledge (like Dorothy) to make it your “home” whenever you have traveled far enough down your Yellow Brick Road to have gained wisdom and maturity. Not there yet? Do not give up!! Keep traveling…keep learning…look to God and His son, Jesus Christ. Read your Bible and live a life that is honorable and pure.

How much more does God take care of you if he takes care of His animals:

Psalm 84:3
“Even the sparrow finds a home,and the swallow a nest for herself,where she may lay her young,at your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.”

I pray that your journey is whatever it needs to be in order to bring you great wisdom, maturity, peace and joy,

Macky

Ruby Slippers…Coming This Weekend..

Loneliness and loss of self are the most obvious words to describe nearly all of the main character’s of “The Wizard of Oz.”

Together we will take a simple but deeper look at the story and find some ways to improve our outlook on life. Please come back this weekend as I discuss the following:

Dorothy lost her home. The Scarecrow had an emptiness in his head and needs a brain. The Tin Man was empty inside, and needed a heart. The Lion felt inadequate and very afraid without courage. They needed someone who would listen to them and offer some advice and insight. Do you feel like you can relate to these characters? I know I can. Come back on the weekend and have this discussion with me.

May God bless all of you,
Macky