One of the great things about this circuit-breaker (or the Singapore "lockdown") is that I can spend some time with my wife to catch up on all the Netflix films I had planned to watch.
So one of the movies I hopped on was the classic from Hayao Miyazaki, Spirited Away. While portrayed as a children's show combined with imagery and themes from Shinto Buddhism, I found some ideas that resonated with Christianity.
Synopsis
The film follows Chihiro, a ten-year old girl, as she entered the spirit world with her parents unwittingly. As her parents get turned into pigs, Chihiro seeks the help of spirit world residents to return her family to the earthly realm.
Greed
Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” -- Luke 12:15
One of the main theme of the movie is greed. One thing that united the residents of the spirit world is their greed for gold. As the spirit No-Face is seen as a high-spending customer, the residents are willing to suspend all rest hours and services in order to serve him. Seeing that this was a pattern, No-Face also tries to buy the affection of Chihiro by offering her a huge number of gold nuggets. Chihiro rightly ignores him.
Note on this point: He did not trust Chihiro to like him for who he is; he just trusted her to be greedy.
This assumption also extends to the owner of the bathhouse and her relationship with her baby. She
This point is reflected in our daily lives. After all, it is a governmental belief that high salaries and bonus retains talent. We can trust game companies to charge extra for content. Even highly-paid world leaders are not immune from corruption.
Be careful of who you trust
“From the least to the greatest,
all are greedy for gain;
prophets and priests alike,
all practice deceit." -- Jeremiah 6:13
What lesson can we learn then? From the Bible we know that not even priests, leaders or our own hearts are immune to greed.
It still shocks me today that people blindly follow certain leaders, reporters or even governments (instead of insisting on some form of discernment).
We also should watch our own hearts.
"For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." -- Ephesians 5:5
