The Shortness of Life

Watching films late at night always make me draw poignant thoughts, hence the reasoning of this post compared to my last few.

As I work until midnight Monday to Friday, I only have the weekend evenings to watch films. And tonight has been quite an interesting night.

Coyote Ugly:
no real touching stuff in this for me to talk about. But did start my TV film watching.

Walk the Line:
we learn that it's about Johnny Cash. He's waiting in the workshop at Folsom Prison waiting to come on stage. He's sat looking intently at this circular saw. Why? We go back to a flashback, and see a young Johnny and his older brother Jack. Jack is 14, Johnny must be around 11/12ish. They are best friends, and Jack always has Johnny's back. Jack is a Christian, wanting to become a preacher when he's older, and wants to please his family. Jack agrees to go down to the saw mill to cut some wood, and agrees to Johnny that he'll go fishing afterwards. At the saw mill, Johnny gets bored and Jack tells him to go fishing without him. Johnny leaves and goes fishing, and when he walks home, his father drives by quickly and picks him up, 'Where you been??' Johnny returns home to find his older brother, Jack, on his bed close to the brink of dying - he had a horrific accident on the saw. Jack is pale, his torso wrapped in bloody bandages, and asking if Johnny can hear the angels. Jack passes away moments later. How short can life be? Jack had a huge life in front of him, wanting to glorify and serve God. Yet he died. We'll ask why, but Jack's death caused Johnny so much grief, that he managed to get caught up in drugs, sex, and a lifestyle that nearly caused him his own death. From this, his friend, June Carter, also a Christian, helped him through his drug addiction. Johnny recovered and became a Christian himself. In the grand scheme of things, Jack's death was significant in Johnny's life. I cannot say for sure because I have no idea about God's plan, but certainly seemed like God was there in Johnny's life - God reaching out his hand, and eventually, Johnny finding it.

Current film, Ladder 49:
This film does not have a Christian message in it. But, certainly shows the fragility of life. The film follows Jack Morrison (following a theme here), a Baltimore firefighter. Over the course of the film, we follow his personal life along with his worklife. We see his love life going from meeting a girl in a supermarket, to dating, to marrying her, to having their first baby, to having two children...and in his workplace, we see his first day at the firehouse, his first fire, his best friend dying, his first injury, his friend badly burnt. These men risk their lives to save strangers, and die for us, and we barely pay them the blindest bit of notice. This film really shows you what they go through day to day - the sacrifices they make. We should seek to be thanking these men and women for their services, and thinking, do we have our lives sorted? Lives are fragile. Life is short, do we know what's coming next? Are we prepared? Think, and pray over this - it's the most important decision we'll ever make.