Captain America: Winter Solider

[Captain America (Chris Evans) has been working for a CIA-like program called Shield, that is run by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson).  He is upset with how things are going with it.]

What is the point of government?  Well our Declaration of Independence states "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." It comes from the governed excepting the role of those over them.  Captain America is correct in his statement that this isn't freedom this is fear.  We could understand that in order for us not to be hurt, to be wounded is to be ahead of the curve.  The only problem is escalation is never an appropriate response to violence.  If you hurt me with a knife, well next time I will bring a gun, and then you will bring a bigger gun.  The question with that becomes when does it end.  If we are to change the world we must be different from the world.  "To love at all is to be vulnerable." - C.S.  Lewis

There is a man who actually came to respond to that very issue.  The need in us to constantly protect that which we have, freedom.  Christ came so that we might be truly free.  Cap and Fury are arguing over the state of the world, but the best we can do is fight for a good cause.  If it wins it wins, if it doesn't it doesn't.  We are too attached to certain things, but they cannot provide ultimately safety.  We attempt to make sure that everything is under our control, but the thing is it cannot be.  There are very few things if any that we can control in this life.  The only thing I have control over is myself.  I can choose to live in fear, or in hope, but they cannot both exist at the same time.  So choose hope this day.  

Goal! The Dream Begins

[Santiago Munez (Kuno Becker) is an up-in-coming player for Newcastle United footballer.  The head coach has a word with him after seeing a play.]

Isn't this the story that all pro teams need to be taught?  The ball/puck can travel faster than you.  It points out though one of the oldest lessons that is so important for us to learn in the western world, that the team is more important than the individual.  Now I am not saying that a single person does not matter, but if the person is not looking out for others then there will be no team.  It takes people out on the pitch working together to be able to accomplish the goal (pun intended!).

In our culture in the west we have a great emphasis on the self, and that is good, but it tends to create a neurosis.  We tend to think that the world is about me, and it ain't. I have to come to recognize that their our people on this planet, and that at times they need my help.  I need to look at the human race at my team mates, the people who help me accomplish winning the best and greatest game there is, life. Without them I will not succeed in my endeavors.  As much as people love to think that there are solitary and need nobody or nothing, they only need start thinking about all the things that allow them to be in their nice comfortable world.  May you be challenged today to act on behalf of somebody on your team, pass the ball. 

Xmen

[Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) has prevented his friend Erik Lensherr (Ian McKellan) from murdering people different than himself, non mutants.]

Now this is not the best clip from this series of movies to describe their relationship, but it does show something beautiful, friendship.  Erik is known as Magneto, and Charles as Professor X.  They became friends early on for different reasons depending on whether you follow the comics or the movies, but none the less they are friends.  Most people today would think how could you be friends with somebody and yet have them thrown in prison?  The answer can be found in a quote from Thomas Jefferson, "I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as a cause for withdrawing from a friend."

In our modern day and age we think that we cannot be friends with someone because they do not believe the same things as us.  There is great danger though in surrounding yourself only with like minded people.  It creates a bubble, and isolates us from the world, not to mention the muscle of our mind becomes atrophied.  Our mind is meant to be challenged, and stretched.  We can never gain that if we do not seek out opinions that are different from ours on a wide variety of views.  I will admit I have trouble doing this at times, but thankfully God always has a way of making sure that my ideas are challenged by the people I meet or the shows I watch, or videos I see.

Another connection with the last point is that it is good to be challenged by a friend, somebody you trust.  If you are pursuing truth, and I myself am pursuing truth, why does it matter if we are not in the same place yet?  You provide me with a sounding board, a way to check whether what I have discovered, figured out is truth or not.  This has to be the case if truth is outside myself, not bound to my decisions.  This is why Professor X could have Magneto thrown in jail and yet still be his friend.  Friendship is borne from a love for the other, to will the good of the other.  Magneto had done something wrong, and he needed to face the consequences of his actions. 

Evan Almighty

[Evan Baxter (Steve Carell), a new politician,  has just come to the realization that God (Morgan Freeman) has in fact asked him to build an ark.]

Has this ever happened to you?  Has God appeared to you and asked you to build an ark, or maybe something of a Divine Task?  Well He has never done this for me the way that He has done it for Evan in this clip, but He does speak and ask things of us.  How often are we like Evan and asking why me?  You are a unique combination of talents, desires, and faults.  But the beautiful combination of who you are is what makes you exactly the kind of person that God could use for a particular task.  He chose Evan, who made his campaign slogan "we can change the world," because God likes that campaign.  He has an idea or two for the world.  

Do you ever look at your circumstances and think I hate this, and God must hate me because He put me in this situation?  I know I do plenty of times.  God in the clip responds wonderfully though to why He does what He does "because I love you."  We are not made to be content, and happy all the time, their will be times of pain and sorrow (especially given the call of what it is to be a Christian "pick up your cross...").  All these experiences, moments, are given to us for our good and maturation as human beings.  We are meant to grow closer to Him through every circumstance. 

Kung Fu Panda 2

[Po, the panda, (Jack Black) has just suffered a defeat, but in his defeat he has learned something.]

Kids movies can teach us things too!  Why is it that Po is able to throw the cannonballs back at the ship that is firing at him?  It is not some fancy Kung Fu trick, but rather that he is at peace with who he is.  Po took the entire film to be able to come to this realization.  It is not something that is easily done, yet it is important to reach.  We are called to be at peace with who we are.  It is not to mean that we ignore our faults, nor are we to dwell on them over much.  It is this happy balance.  Only through this balance are you able to do miraculous things like Po did by catch and redirecting the cannonballs sent his way.  

Many people I might say it is so hard to stay focused on it though, and right they are.  This is why when Po first does this his hand catches on fire and he scrambles around to put it out.  And then as he learns how to do it at first it is bobbling, and then he can soon direct where it goes more than just away from him.  We learn things in a process.  You are not going to do it amazing the first time you do something.  Give yourself time to learn, and be ok with when you fail a little or a lot.  Get back up and try it again.  Po had his hand catch fire the first time he did this task, but did that prevent him from continuing?  No, Po realized that even when you don't get it perfect the first time, you keep doing it, and eventually it will get where you want it to be. 

Man in the Iron Mask 

[This is the culmination of the film.  King Louie XVI (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a terrible king, and the 3 musketeers have tried to replace the king with this twin brother Philippe (Leonardo DiCaprio), the man in the iron mask.  D'Artagnan, the man who saves Philippe, is their father.]

This scene is so moving for me.  D'Artagnan is this man who seems always to be caught in the middle of warring parties even though he is trying to do the right thing.  D'Artagnan is the father of both Philippe, and Louis.  He wants to have the brothers not fight, and not harm one of another.  He views reconciliation, and the nobility of character far above revenge or hate.  D'Artagnan did what all father's should do lay down their life for the sake of their children.  

The love that D'Artagnan has is shown again by the fact that he is laying their dying he takes the time to instruct his son, Philippe about what is the right thing to do.  You should not raise your hand against your brother to kill him even if your brother would do the same.  He wants his son to be a good man, both of them.  

We have problems in our society today because people do not take the time to be good fathers as D'Artagnan was to his sons.  He we need men to step and be the father that they are called by God to be.  

New in Town

[Lucy (Renee Zellweger) is a big shot executive from Miami visiting a small Minnesota town to try and shut down a factory.  She is having dinner at one of the local workers houses.  Ted (Harry Connick Jr.) is one of her main antagonists during the process.]

Don't you just love those tense dinners?  Hopefully your thanksgiving is not like this.  None the less though this brings up an interesting perspective.  Is Ted right, or is Lucy right in this conversation?  Are there good things about living in the city?  Are there good things about strong successful women? Or is it Ted's argument, do women sell their body as sex objects?  Or is Miami (big town) filled with drug lords? 

I would like to propose that both have something to learn.  It is good that we support living in the city, and successful women.  The question is what is the end goal of that success.  What is the measure for success?  Is it money? fame?  Or is it something that is when we are away from the crowds, away from the business?  Can we look at ourselves in the mirror and be happy with who is looking back at us?  Lucy needs to understand that it is not good for a woman to be successful at the expense of her dignity. 

Ted needs to learn that just as much as he feels that he is being prejudged, he is doing the same thing to where Lucy comes from.  So the take always from this clip is that we have to remind ourselves what success is, but more importantly that we need to be open to new worlds, and perspectives.  We need to be careful not to be hypocrites, and cast ourselves with the same measuring stick.