The Force of comfort

I've always thought that Lucas' idea of midichlorians in the bloodstream to explain the Force was always a cop out. It was a bad attempt to explain something mystical. Very bad. But now it's part of it all. I've always wondered if a Jedi had a blood transfusion with a non-Jedi if the recipients midichlorian count go up or not. But that's not what this Spiritual Sci-Fi Friday is all about.

In A New Hope (spoiler alert) Ben Kenobi became the mentor martyr to save Luke and the rest. He was dead. Yet, in the final battle, Luke hears Ben's voice coming to him loud and clear. In The Empire Strikes Back, Obi Wan is all blue and sparkly. At the end of Return of the Jedi, Obi Wan, Yoda and Anikan (first the older guy then Hayden Christiansen) were all blue and sparkly. The Force allowed them to come back. The midichlorians were strong in them and held them together.

In many ways, this gave us all hope and comfort. They weren't dead. They were still around by the power of the Force. The midichlorians were still mystical after all and things were good to go. The battle has been won! The unblinking primitive Ewoks helped defeat the massive Empire. And all is good with the world.

I think we're all like that. We love the victory. We love the ability to overcome adversity. We love those highs that we get in knowing that all things are working out for our benefit. And it's great. It's wonderful. And we want to live in that moment forever.

And then Heir to the Empire comes in. I can't believe I've never read this book. I bought it for my brother back when it first came out. But I never read it. Until now.

And it's all different (spoiler alert). At the start of it, Luke's depressed. Hahn and Leia are married and are stressed. Wow. That sounds like my life. And even ol'Ben Kenobi is fading away, no longer able to stick around. Where's the comfort after death? Where's the happy ending?

So many times this is more of our reality than it is the Battle of Endor. The emperor may be defeated but we will always have our Grand Admiral Thrawn. And the battle continues. With all these attacks and battles, where's the comfort of the Force?

What about us? What about our comfort. There's this thing called the Heidelberg Catechism. It's a great document. It starts out with this question: What is your only comfort in life and in death? Not what is your greatest, what is your best, what is the one that you like. What is your only comfort in life and in death.

The answer: That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. Dude. Now that's epic.

Midichlorian counts don't matter in this. It doesn't matter how the count is, you can only be blue and sparkly for so long. Yet we have so much more in the long run with Jesus being our only comfort.

I can rattle on and on about this. Honestly, yes, I've laid at wake at night thinking about this stuff. That and what ever happened to Qui-Gon Jinn.

What about you? Where's your comfort?