We all have our guilty pleasures, and I will confess that I love young adult fantasy literature.  I may have stood in line at midnight to buy Harry Potter books once upon a time.

I took advantage of last week's post-Christmas lull to work through the Hunger Games series.  The premise is a little dark...to say the least.  Taking reality TV to a whole new level, the books take place in a post-apocalyptic society where teenagers are forced to compete in a kill-or-be-killed contest for survival where only one comes out alive.  I have to say, the books involved some compelling characters and strong themes about self-sacrifice and human nature.  With all the hype about the sparkling vampires of Twilight the past few years, I'm just really happy that someone out there is writing decent children's literature.

What is my beef with Twilight, you may ask?  In contrast to something like Harry Potter, the characters in Twilight exist in a solipsistic universe where their romance *is* the most important thing in the world. The kids in Harry Potter are concerned with who's dating whom (et cetera).  But the standard adolescent melodrama plays out against *real* threats and *real* dangers which put their personal angst in some kind of larger perspective.  This image sums it up nicely:

Ultimately, unlike the heroine of Twilight, the protagonist of the Hunger Games must learn that true sacrifice of self is something far more than giving up and allowing herself to be killed in place of her sister (her initial act in the series).  She learns that *living* for others is actually a more meaningful act than dying for them.

So, I guess when I say that I'm happy to see that someone is producing decent children's literature, I mean I'm glad someone out there is producing something that makes kids realize that they are not the center of the universe.  Because, really, whether it's aimed for a teen audience or not (perhaps especially if it's aimed at teenagers) literature should be about challenging our perspectives on who we are and our basic assumptions about the world.

This lesson on perspective--realizing that we are not the center of the world--is an important lesson to learn in our spiritual lives as well.  The whole purpose of the Christian life is to be in relationship with something outside of ourselves (namely, God).  And as we grow deeper into relationship with God, we learn that we have more to offer one another.  This is at the heart of what the Bible is talking about when it says that "God is love": "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God" (1 john 4:7).  That love is defined not by what we can get from our relationships, but what we have to give to those around us--not only in formal acts of charity and outreach, but also everyday acts of kindness.

Perhaps a bit of perspective on our own self-importance is a useful lesson for all of us, whether we are 14 or 40