Interactions with God #25

Maturity is overrated. Me, I am a 15 year old at heart. My frame, however, is almost 52 and it reminds me of that fact every morning. I like cartoons, anime, to make my youngest daughter happy. I have since I was little. I love God too, and they don't have to be mutually exclusive. Though some anime can be very bad to watch, most of it is fairly harmless...unless the devil wants to make use of it.

Thundercats, was a cartoon on the airwaves back in the mid 80's. It was a rather popular show, I suppose, with 15 year old boys. Seeing that I was pretty much at that maturity level, I would also watch the show with the teens who were living at the house in Houston. No one had a problem with it. I didn't, as one of the house leaders, nor the pastor of the ministry itself. It was a pretty harmless cartoon, until Dillon moved in.

Dillon was a five year old. He and his mother showed up one day, chased out of their house by a drunken husband and father with a shotgun. Though we were a house for lost teenagers, we could not turn them away, especially since they had been friends with Ray for years.

They had been living with us for a few months before Dillon started having nightmares about the cartoon, The Thundercats. In his nightmares, the evil guy in the show would appear to Dillon and say scary things. We didn't think much of this as the show could be somewhat scary to a five year old, so the solution was simple. The show was not to be on when Dillon was around...problem solved, or so we thought.

I came in from a day of working outside. I was hot and smelly, and sat in one of the chairs in the main room of the house. I had intended to get a shower, but since I had already sat down, I was struggling to motivate myself to get up and do just that. The Thundercats was on, and several of the teens were laying on the floor to watch. The show was simple, you had these alien cat/men (the good guys) living in a compound, while opposing them, was a man-mummy wizard who lived, as most bad guys do in a dingy cave like area. The bad guy, of course, could not leave well enough alone and in each episode came up with some new and diabolical way to attack the Thundercats. In this particular episode, the bad guy was appearing in the dreams of the Thundercats to torment them.

As I watched the episode unfold, still working up the motivation to go get a shower, the bad guy got to maybe the third one, saying something like (Que scary voice) “I am Mumm-Ra (the bad guy) and I am the master of your dreams...I am the living nightmare and I control your fears!!” Yes, something like that, repeated it over and over as he went to each of the Thundercats, while they slept. Frankly, I didn't think anything of it...I was still thinking “get up now”, “go get a shower...” Then it hit me, something was wrong. I immediately looked to my left and hiding in the corner was little five year old Dillon. Dillon who was having nightmares of this very cartoon character in much the same way as he was tormenting the Thundercats!

You know, it is always a cool thing to see God moving, not so much when you see the devil move. God quickly opened my eyes to this evil tactic. This episode was not a repeat episode for the boy. So, the timing with the little boy's nightmares was uncanny. I freaked out. “OFF with the TV!” Needless to say, the teens were not happy.

It was not the show that was the problem. It was how the enemy used it. The devil used an innocuous cartoon to his advantage, of a 5 year old child. The biggest thing I learned there was that satan does not look at children any different that he does an adult. God, however, looks at us all like we are children. I became much more aware of how the enemy works, but learned to listen to God, and his warnings regarding even the smallest of things.

The show was banned at the house from then on...just to be on the safe side.