Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Keep Your Hand at the Level of Your Eye!



This post contains "spoiler" information (regarding both the book and the movie Phantom of the Opera) to some degree or another. Consider yourself warned.

I don't know how many of you have read Phantom of the Opera or seen the movies, but the concept of keeping your hand at the level of your eye is very important (though not well explained in the movies I've seen). The Persian (who is somewhat replaced by Madame Giry in the movie) knew the Opera Ghost (O.G.) before he came to Opera House. Resultantly, he was very familiar with the O.G.'s capture techniques; one of his favorites happened to be the lasso. If he got the rope around your neck, you were dead.

Raoul, in his quest for Christine's safety, places his life in the hands of the Persian. The Persian tells him to always hold his hand out in front of him at the level of his eye like he was holding a revolver and about to fire. His revolver, however, he was to keep on his hip. Raoul did not know why the Persian told him to do this, and the Persian could not take the time to explain. The Persian knew, however, that if the lasso successfully got around your neck and your hand in that position you were able to easily free yourself from the O.G.'s snare. Raoul did not know this, he just had to trust in the Persian.

This concept struck me. We, too, are following someone, though we don't always know our quest, sometimes we do. We can get so focused on our goal (saving Christine/[insert your goal here]) that we sometimes forget to protect ourselves from the enemies attack (the lasso/[insert attack here]) - I mean, after all, if you don't know why you are doing something it can seem rather trivial and unimportant, and our guide (the Persian/[the Triune God]) must remind us to resume our position.

We do not always know the enemies attacks and what they look like, but God does. He has told us that we can keep his path by hiding His word in our heart. His word protects us in ways we do not always know, and we can be in situations where we are attacked, but because we have done what our guide told us to do (though we knew not why) we can counter that attack through the method the guide gave us.

So whatever you do, follow your guides orders. Even if you don't understand why, follow and obey. And always keep your hand at the level of your eye!

original image source

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