. . . people interested in Heath Ledger and the role of the Joker. Not really, but it seems that way. That post I wrote in January is in Google's top ten when you type in just about anything that reads like, "Did playing the Joker role lead to Heath Ledger's Death?", or "How did the Joker role affect Heath Ledger?" I have an invisible statcounter on my blog that gives me search engine type information and it is telling me that there are a lot of people who are wondering if Heath Legder got in touch with some type of evil that ended up leading him to his death. You cannot watch the role that he played as the Joker without thinking that it must have affected him. He spent hours and hours meditating on the evil of the Joker until it consumed him and destroyed him. It is not far from accurate to say, "You are what you think."
The Bible tells us to think on things above, not on things of this earth (Colossians 3:2). How much time do we spend worrying about things? How often do we wonder what is going to happen to us? How much do we think about material things, evil things, deadly things? Are we envious? Do we covet? Are we lustful? Are we unforgiving, or do we hold grudges? Are we full of pride? Hate? Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) turns everything upside-down and tells us that it is not enough to just be outwardly righteous - we must be inwardly righteous as well. What we thought about internally was just as important, if not more so, than what we did externally, because out of the heart flows all types of evil things. Romans 12:1-2 tells us that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Ephesians 4:22-24 tells us to put off the old self that is corrupting us, to be made new in the attitude of our minds, and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. We need to think on things above.
The only way that we can really change is through Jesus. We have to admit to Him that we cannot change on our own and we have to ask Him to change us. The other day, I saw a brief moment of a show on MTV called "From G's to Gents." It takes a bunch of 20 something guys who are hoodlums and it is trying to show them how to be gentlemen. If they make the transition from thug to gentelmen, they win $100,000. I thought that it was pretty interesting because they were dealing with guys that had no hope for change and they were trying to help them change and become better people. What caught my attention was the guy who was on the phone with someone from back home crying saying, "I can't change." He was hopeless. Even when $100,000 was on the line, he could not give up the thug-life. It had become who he was because he had spent a lifetime devoted to it. Interesting.
We are all in that boat, though. Whatever we think about is what we become. Because we are born sinful, we are prone to think about sinful things. The only way that true transformation can really happen is if we are born from above and are given a new heart and mind by God. Jesus has to save us. We must look to Him in faith and ask Him to change our lives. When we do this, He cleanses us and gives us a new start. Then, we continue to think about Him and His ways and our minds are changed. Instead of dwelling on the sin and selfishness that destroys us, we dwell on Christ, our source of righteousness. We start thinking about how we can bless people instead of use people. We think about others instead of ourselves. By the power of God that aids us in this, our lives change.
Heath Ledger spent his time dwelling on the dark side. He played an amazing role in an amazing movie, but he took it too far. He could not control it and it consumed him. But, lest we throw stones, how many of us are consumed by money, by greed, by selfishness, pride, anger, lust, anxiety, our appearance, our popularity, our security, or our place in life? How many of us get consumed by religion thinking that we can in some way merit the merit of Christ? We are consumed by a million different things and all of them lead to death apart from Jesus. He is our Source of Life. The sooner that we realize that, the sooner that we find the reason that we were created.
Alan,
As an actor I can confirm what you are saying. To truly be a good actor (not that I'm saying I am), one must immerse oneself in the character. It truly is like being possessed by another person. That is why I have backed off of my acting in the past year. I don't like the forces that are at work sometimes.
Les
Posted by: Les Puryear | July 21, 2008 at 06:29 PM
Once again a very important message, Alan. Thanks for posting this. Keep writing; this is g.o.o.d. stuff.
Greetings from Holland!
Posted by: Antje | July 22, 2008 at 01:47 AM