When Everything Changes

There are those moments in life when everything changes. When the things you knew to be true, the things you were absolutely sure of, suddenly become untrue, and new realities invade your story that were impossible just moments before. These are moments that shape us. 

The moment you find out that your wife is pregnant for the first time.

The moment you get the phone call that your son has been arrested.

The moment you learn that your father had a secret affair, and you have a sister you never knew about.

The moment you are told you were adopted as a baby.

The moment your trusted pastor resigns for moral failure.

The moment your dad tells you that you are moving across the country.

The moment you learn that Darth Vader is Luke’s father.

Maybe that last one doesn’t register quite as significant as the other examples. But put yourself in the shoes of Luke Skywalker. Since you were a boy, you had this feeling that you were destined for more than tending a farm on a backwater planet. Something in the stars called to you, and you couldn’t wait to take a step into a larger world.

Then fate, in the form of a plucky droid, led you to a Jedi master, who revealed that you were right all along. Greatness is in your blood and your future, and he showed you what you would become. He also hinted at the father you never knew, and told you the name that would put ice in your veins: Darth Vader.

Darth Vader. The spectre of death. The right hand of the Evil Empire. The villain, not just of the galaxy, but of your own story. The Dark Jedi who killed your father, cut down your mentor before your eyes, and then hunted you planet to planet as you fled across the stars.

But you weren’t made to be hunted. 

Through the greatest Jedi master ever known, you were shown the depths of the power of the Force, power that you had the ability to harness. In a moment of trial, you were faced with your fear, personified in the towering, black masked figure of Vader himself. And you learned that if you faced him, you could win.

Now here you are, sword to sword, in the fight of your life, unprepared for his dark might, but desperate to win. Your conflict has led you literally to the edge of an abyss, and there, with no hope of winning, you hang on for dear life, and the monster… poses a question.

“Obi-wan never told you what happened to your father.”

“He told me enough,” you gasp. “He told me you killed him.” All your hatred, bitterness and rage are collected in that statement. All that has defined you – your orphanage, your pain of unknown identity, your quest for vengeance – all come together in that one sentence: “You killed my father.”

“No…” he says, the word hanging like a guillotine blade over everything you’ve known. “I am your father.”

You try to deny it, but you cannot resist the truth. It all makes sense: his tireless pursuit of you, the vision in the cave of your own face inside his mask, Yoda’s warning not to rush to face him. You cannot escape it. The villain of your story… is your own flesh and blood. 

This is a moment that shapes you. But what shape will you take, when all is said and done? Will you, too, don a dark mask and black cape, stalk the galaxy with a red saber in hand, executing the vicious will of a tyrant? Or will you strive for redemption and reclamation?

Mere minutes after having his hand cut off and his heart cut out by Vader, Luke sits in a bunk on the Millennium Falcon, and hears a voice call his name, “Luke.” His head pops up. “Father.” And it responds, “Son.” The impossible has become real. Luke believes. What now?

This moment for Luke Skywalker is one we all face. You might not learn that the villain in your story is actually your father. Maybe instead you learn that your father is a villain. Or that you are the villain. Or that the villain you thought you knew is really your redemption.

Like the moment you came face to face with a God you hated, and learned that he was good.

Like the moment you first understood that Jesus is all about grace and not about rules.

Like the moment you realized you’re not in a fight for your life, that there is hope for redemption, that impossible things can be true.

Like the moment you found out that the God of the universe became a human being just to save you.

These are the moments when everything changes. These are the moments that shape us.