Life and Death and Apollo 13

I'm really becoming a fan of finding places in our culture where human life is valuable.

I'm a little behind on things, but I only saw Apollo 13 for the first time a few weeks ago. Anyways, it was great, and one thing in particular really struck me. When it looked as if Apollo 13 wouldn't be able to land back on earth, the entire world was captivated by the story. People put their normal lives on hold, gathered around their televisions, and prayed for these lives that hung in the balance. For three lives. Yet how often do we not care about far more than three lives that are hanging in the balance? While it's discouraging sometimes when people don't care about stopping the thousands of deaths each day from abortion, it's refreshing to see the world care about the lives of these three men.

Life and Death and...the AVENGERS!!

I'm not usually one for action movies. While they can be fun, completely lacking a plot is one of the most annoying things a movie can do. Even if there is a plot, not having good characters or character development or anything at all realistic is really annoying. Well, I don't know if the Avengers somehow managed all of that perfectly or if I was just in a super good movie-watching mood when I watched it, but I loved it.

Maybe I just liked all different superheroes with all different back stories, habits, styles, and struggles all trying to put aside their differences and work together. Iron Man's arrogance, the Hulk's anger issues, Captain America feeling outdated, Thor being a mythical god...ect, it made for an interesting plot.

Or maybe I just like the idea of superheroes.

Or maybe I realized just how much superhero movies appeal to the part of us that wants the good guys to win, that wants evil to lose, that wants human life to be spared.

I'm beginning to realize the parts of our culture that does value life. The Avengers have to work together in order to protect millions of people from dying at the hands of evil. Near the end of the movie, New York City is under a huge attack and many authorities wanted to drop a nuclear bomb on the city in order to keep the attack from spreading. The Avengers want to spare as much human life as they can, so they have to find a way to save the world as well as the city.

I like superhero movies, cause with each daring and incredibly act they are protecting the lives of the human beings. Too many action movies show thousands of people dying during a really cool shot of a building blowing up. Superheroes value and protect human life.

October Baby: March 23!

The hardest part about pro-life work is treating it correctly. On one hand, abortion violently kills an innocent child. Meanwhile, the people in abortion clinics as employees and as scared girls who feel they have no other option are real people who really exist, not baby killing monsters. At the same time, countless women suffer silently from the pain of a past abortion or abortions. When educating people about abortion, what should our attitude be? Do we treat abortion like a genocide, like the holocaust? Do we speak about it sensitively and avoid talking about the baby all together as not to hurt a woman who has had an abortion? There are so many examples of people and organizations and articles (probably some of my own) veering too far on one side or the other.

On March 23 a movie called October Baby is coming to theaters. When I first heard of the movie a few months ago I was incredibly skeptical. I tend to be wary of Christian movies, music, and art in general. While it's certainly not always true, there is a lot of poor Christian art out there. However, when I had to privilege of seeing a prescreening of October Baby a few weeks ago all of those thoughts vanished. October Baby is a beautiful piece of art that tells a beautiful and heart wrenching story of very real characters. It's a stunning and quality movie with a strong Christian message. It's a movie about abortion, but it's doesn't feel like a movie about abortion. It's a story about people effected by abortion. It shows the abounding forgiveness and love of God after abortion, but it shows the pain it takes to get there. This film shows that abortion is murder, but it does so in the most stunning way I have ever seen.

On March 23 it comes to theaters, and I strongly recommend seeing it. See it twice! See it seven times! If it doesn't do well the first weekend it will leave theaters quickly, but this movie deserves being in theaters for a while. People need to see it.

I get so discouraged watching movies and TV shows that tear you down. While they're entertaining, they portray life so negatively. This movie, however, is absolutely beautiful while it shows that life has value and is worth living. It's honestly the only movie I can think of that has this message, a message the world is aching to hear!

The Morning

This was originally posted in June of 2011 using tumblr. 

The world:

“The mask I polish in the evening by the morning looks like shit.” (Bright Eyes) 

God:

“Weeping may spend the night, but there is joy in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5)

I’m holding on till morning