This week at Geek Devotions, Celeste takes a look at the classic anime, Rurouni Kenshin. In this anime Kenshin has chosen to live a very different life than the one he used to have. Unfortunately many approach him to change and once again take up his violent ways. But does he have to? Do you have to go back to your former ways? Or can you choose to continue walking in what God has for you?

Written Devotion

Today we are starting Anime April a week early! Kinda like an anime prequel?

We are talking about the classic Ruroni Kenshin. In Ruroni Kenshin, we meet the wanderer Kenshin who is struggling to be different from the person he was in the past. In his past, he was known as the “Man-slayer.” After years of war and countless battles, he has decided he wants a peaceful life. For the first few episodes of the series, you see that his past is not ready to let go of him yet. In the 6th and 7th episodes of the 1st season, we discover that another man-slayer has found out about Kenshin and desires to fight him. He even goes so far as to kidnap Kauro in his attempt to make Kenshin kill again. Kenshin says something interesting at the end of the story arc. He says, “I may still be that man-slayer, but that doesn’t mean I have to live like that.”

As Christians, we choose how to live a life devoted to Christ. We will always be the sinners that, through grace, have been saved. But we don’t have to live the life of those sinners. Instead, we can choose to live a righteous life and follow the paths God has paid out for us. In Ephesians, we find an interesting verse that speaks to this.

to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:22‭-‬24 ESV

Ephesians 4:22‭-‬24 (English Standard Version | ESV)

We choose daily whether to give into the new self that God has given us and be like him or not. Of course, the longer we choose to be like God, the easier it will become. But it is still a choice we have to make every day of our lives.