I have recently watched the movie called: The Lorax. I have never seen that movie at all. I decided to give it a chance and in result, I actually liked it.

There was a character in specific that I didn’t like at first, which was, Once-ler. The thing that I had trouble accepting was his attitude of carelessness. Don’t get me wrong, we all have been careless at some point or we find ourselves being this way as we speak on certain situations in our lives. Even though, I know that he had a reason to be the way he was, I just didn’t know what it was that made him be this way.

As the story progresses, we come to find out that the once-ler was a young boy neglected and ignored by his family member and specially by his mother. Due to being surrounded by the constant negativity from his family members, his desire of success awakens. The desire to be successful in our personal life is great, the problem is the: When, What, How, and Why we strive for success. Once-ler used this success drive by his neglected nature from his mom. All he wanted was love and acknowledgement. Because of this, he finds a beautiful place with colorful trees and has an idea of this new, beautiful place and decides to make a promise to cut down All of the colorful trees until he sees money.

There is a biblical scripture that is found in, 1 Timothy 6.1-10, in which I will paraphrase it in a way that can be understood, short and precise. It mentions that: who ever teaches anything that is not supported by the word of God is wrong. It also mentions that the lack of Love, creates lots of unnecessary things like, Division, Hate, Envy, War, Corruption and also, The love of money.

Now, let me clarify, money IS necessary but it is not everything. We need money in order to keep things flowing in this world yet, money doesn’t solve all problems. If we don’t learn how to manage our thoughts, habits, desires, intentions and money itself, then, the lack of money is the least of the problem, if not, it is ourselves. Now, I say this with all respect. There are a lot of people and family members that come from poverty and would have wished to provide more than they could of and that is acknowledged. The problem is, the things that we do just for money itself and sacrificing anything for it, that’s where the problem lies.

As we can see that Once-ler did that very same thing. He saw money flow and became arrogant, reckless, and pushed everyone away. Sure, we can say that his family members did deserved to be pushed away and be neglected like the latter once was but, you see, now that all trees were cut down, once-ler ended up back to square one, all over again. This time everyone was gone.

Not only that but once-ler was warned by the lorax to not cut down all the trees in which, he later on disregarded that due to the pursuit of love and acknowledgement from his mother and money. Now that the chaos happened, all he has is himself with more damage than he once started. Once-ler accepts his demise and stays in his destroyed kingdom alone for years, until we see, Ted, the main protagonist, being similar to once-ler. ted, is in pursuit of a real tree in order to conquer the love of his life. That’s were he meets the once-ler and find out his backstory. The amazing thing about this is that, once-ler may have thought that he had no hope, no redemption and that he will be forever alone as a failure. I currently to this day find myself to feel similar to once-ler, I bet you have felt the same way, when it comes to God, Family members, Friends, our jobs and even Lover. Yet, Life brings us new opportunities to: Heal, Learn, Grow, To connect again with the things that have been lost. It is just like how Jesus did in the cross for all humanity. He gave his life in order for us to be able to connect with God himself through the holy spirit. John 3.16

I have resonated with once-ler since its a reminder that I have been like him at some point in my life and still can be bound to be in that state of mind but because of Ted, in this case: Jesus Christ, has allowed me to be on the right path called life.

To conclude, encourage you to see this movie if you have not watched it. Also encourage you to, seek Jesus Christ. It doesn’t matter what you are, where you are, what you believe, see, think or even want. If you just simply allow him to be welcomed into your life, just like how once-ler allowed ted to listen to him and even put him to the test to see if Ted really did cared about the last tree seed, I tell you to do the same thing. If you have tried everything and yet nothing has worked, Try Jesus. I assure you, you will not regret it.

God bless you.