The Truth Will Set You Free

The first time I watched an episode of 24 was sometime about 4 years ago. I got the first season from the library, and I didn't like it much, but like any show, it can grow on you, and it did. The story pulled me in like a stay-at-home mom gets hooked on a soap opera, and many of my friends who loved the show began 'dropping out', saying that the show was becoming too repetitive. True, each season is a day full of terrorist threats and political sub-plots, but I have, and will, always be a die-hard 24 fan. My heart goes out to Jack Bauer, and in a very heterosexual way. He became one of my heroes, and he still is today. I know he has problems just like the rest of us, but sometimes, above my attempts to love each and every person like Jesus does, I just can't help but care about certain people and have such intense compassion for them that it is as if someone else has placed those feelings in my heart.

Even though Jack has 'slept' with so many different women, been addicted to drugs, killed people he didn't have to, had terrible alcohol problems, and exercised more contempt in his heart than a dozen men put together, he is just as lost without the LORD as I am. He is my number one cultural hero because he never seizes standing up not just for what he believes in, but for the truth. He always starts by working with CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit) to save America from nuclear threats and the like, but what's different with Jack than any other character, what makes him the star of the show, is that there always comes a fork in the road. He can either succumb to the demands of the president, the terrorists, or even fellow CTU agents, but he cares to much about what truly is the greater good. And that isn't always what's 'best for this country' (which really means 'most comfortable for this country). It's always the truth. He constantly goes outside of protocol, goes rogue, has been tortured nearly to death countless times, and even killed once or twice, because he believes that the truth must be told every time, no exceptions. And there is nothing more important than the truth.

I watched the last two episodes of season eight tonight, and boy, were they good. This one probably had the best ending yet. However, to my great displeasure, those two episodes may very well have been the last two I will ever see. I won't speak too soon, since all I have heard are rumors arguing two different things, but for a kid who has seen every single episode of 24 ever made, it was like a brief moment of history in my life, captured in the last moments of the last episode. I won't give anything away if you are looking forward to the finale, but I will tell you that I was very impressed. I'll face it, my friends are right, the story is made by some very rushed writers, and the story is not too different from season to season, but seeing what happened between two p.m. and four p.m. meant the world to me. I even came close to tears, which I can assure you is rare.

Former president Charles Logan says in the middle of the last episode, about Jack Bauer, that he will 'never be stopped'. That he 'will crawl his way out of the darkest hole' and that he will 'come after you and find you if he has been exiled to the ends of the earth'. Yes, Jack is a bloodthirsty killer at times, and he desires fruitless things like revenge, but there is something about him that guys like me desire. I think that in some ways, all men are required to be extremely violent. This doesn't necessarily mean killing everyone that gets in your way so that you can implicate a corrupt government, but seeing a man be more violent than any other man is, in some ways, very motivating. Don't we all want to save the world, or at least the damsel in distress, or slay the dragon? The part many people don't realize is that everything we desire most deeply is also the most difficult to achieve. Life is not supposed to be easy, and if it is, maybe it's time for us to ink our pens and start listening for the voice of God, and if he is silent, then we must do his will wherever we are, stopping at nothing to implicate Satan and let everyone at least get a chance at the truth.

It all comes back to the individual stories we are writing right now, even as I am writing this and you are reading it. Don Miller says that in every good story, the protagonist wants something and overcomes an obstacle, or many, to get to what they want. I think he's right, and that's why we like books and movies so much. It's really just that we like story. We like good stories, where amazing things happen, that we could never imagine happening in our lives, and we like stories where a character endures incredible pain and suffering, against all odds and achieves something they wanted.

Even though 24 is over now, my heart will still go out to Jack Bauer. And yes, I am talking about Jack Bauer, not Keifer Sutherland. I think we all know by now that's just a cover-up for his real identity. I pray that he will find the most important truth, more important than any truth he has previously killed people and been tortured for, and project it for all the days of his life, both on-camera and off. I pray that he finds his Father, and listens to what he has to say.

Perhaps things are simpler

Perhaps many 'puzzle pieces of our lives' are really a lot more simple. Just a thought. That's all.

Maybe it's time for something new

I think it is easy to underestimate Satan. His plans are relentless, he will always wreak havoc, rain or shine, sleet or snow. I find it important to watch out not only for myself, but more importantly, to be able to expose, and dispose of his plans, wherever they lie.

Tonight I watched a movie The Machinist. It was rather oblique, yet mesmerizing and very well put together, in my opinion. The protagonist, Trevor, hasn't slept in over a year. He looks like he's been hit by an Amtrak and he wants to sleep, to feel better, comfortable, livid, again, but no matter what, he cannot sleep. This guy Ivan shows up at random, supposedly one of Trevor's co-workers, and after his appearance, strange things begin happening in Trevor's life. Throughout the movie, it is hard to tell what is actually happening to Trevor and what he is seeing because of his insomnia. Nevertheless, he begins to believe that Ivan is the one causing all the ruckus, so he attempts to track him down, eventually losing what little trust he had in his friends (or lack of). Many people have watched this movie and said it was terrible, a sort of random disarray of scenes that are supposed to confuse you. I think there is something more to the story.

You see Trevor going down a road, and it doesn't look like a pretty one. There is even a brief part of dialogue where he says that he 'tried him [Jesus Christ]'. Most of the time, it would seem that Trevor has no choice but to keep living, keep going to work, keep trying to find out what the hell is going on, but there are a few scenes where he is offered a choice. I think that the story is really about Trevor coming to a fork in the road. He can either continue down the road he is on and destroy himself, or get help. Although Trevor's story in The Machinist is more violently and disturbingly illustrated, it's all too similar to our own stories.

We have a choice too. The Enemy can trick us into believing in our actions, or justifying them. He comes in spirit, the same way the Lord does. Do not underestimate him. Because next thing you know, you're going slow and steady down a path of self-righteousness, or a path of contempt, or idolatry, or sexual immorality, or apathy, or even murder. To me, it's like falling asleep at the wheel and inadvertantly exiting off the highway. Remember the part in Dumb and Dumber When Lloyd takes his eyes off the road for two seconds, and he misses the big left turn to Aspen?

I am grateful for thinking this way about the road I travel on. But my heart melts when it comes to people like Trevor. Being Jesus to people is important, but let us take steps of faith, like in The Last Cruscade when Indy steps out from the face of the cliff, not knowing what lies ahead, but trusting instead. Let's hang our lamps up high where everyone can see.

Grab your pen

Ever thought of your life in the third person, as if you were watching a movie? I often think of my life OUTrospectively, meaning that I feel at any given moment, like I am writing my own story, but I am a critic observing the work so far. With just a month or so until I graduate high school, I am starting to give more thought to my future. People have been asking me the question without cease since probably sophomore year. First comes the observation that I graduate whenever it is that I talk to them, and then, what I know I have coming to me... the question. It's almost always the same.

"So... What are you going to do?"

I'd like to ask them the same thing! But I'm not that rude.

So now you, reader, have got me. Now I have to answer the question. The truth is, I don't know what I'm going to do, and that's okay with me. It's okay because I'm going to tell you what I want.

Like what happened to Alice, I want fall down a rabbit hole. I want to launch myself into this big, wide world, and I never want things to be the same. I want to live in a community where I am the change that I want to see happen in church. I want to work hard and be compensated for it. I want to always stay closer with God than with any other human being. I want my convictions to point me in the right direction. I want to visit the places that I picture in my mind when I listen to songs and read books.

I could go on, but I would like to make a point. I think that people are often pressure by society and that question that people keep pounding into their mind, and so they feel they are forced to make a decision. I wouldn't mind if you made a career decision or big decision about your future if it was something God told you he specifically wanted you to do, but don't just pick something because the choice is there, don't just settle for a 9-5 job and a paycheck. Don't even settle for a wife and kids. Why live life like everyone else when you can change it? Why pluck one string when you can strum the guitar?