Any who..
The premise of this post centers once more on why Heroes is a fantastic tv show. (Ooh.. I should listen to a sermon while I type. One second... Okay, more like 38) You see, last night, we finally got around to watching the 2 hour premiere that aired on Monday. Again, Peter, the reason I started watching the show at all, had such a wonderful moment.
You might need a little background. Not many I know watch this show as faithfully as I, so let me explain that a lot of things have not been going so well for Pete. In the previous season, he made several mistakes, and throughout this one, he's been trying to make up for it.
(Fascinating, the pastor is talking about challenges and difficulties that went on this past decade. He said, "When you have a decade from hell, you also must have had a decade of heroes." Does he know what I'm typing about??)
Peter returns to his original job as an EMT, and uses the superpowers that he has to save as many people as possible. He keeps the newspaper clippings of those who are saved, and posts them on a wall in his apartment. There's not much else to his apartment, which means Peter may be hiding behind these stories. Perhaps one would notice them and ask about them, so that Pete wouldn't have to answer to the sins of his past. Someone at one point asks him whether he's trying to make up for his mistakes. And if that's the case, he tells Peter that he's got to let it go.
Then in this last episode, Peter's brother officially dies. That's a complicated story not worth delving into right now, but the point is, Peter really loved his brother. And during the wake, instead of being there, Pete is listening to the police scanner. Hoping for another hit. Another distraction to satisfy the pain going on inside.
He ends up getting shot. Thankfully Claire is there to save him, but she is disturbed by the situation. She tries to tell him to stop.
He responds: "What? So I would have to start feeling again?"
I paused the show (a perk to Tivo). I ended up having about a half an hour discussion with my friend about how true this statement is. We do, at all costs, distract ourselves with various things so we don't have to feel what's really going on right now.
We could even distract ourselves with good things. Things like saving people, in Peter's case. Things like music, or hanging out with people, or sports. Sure, there are bad things we can get into as well. But the reality is that we need to face our pain someday.
We are made to feel, and with that comes all sorts of emotions ranging from joy to mourning. We are allowed to cry when it hurts, we are allowed to celebrate when things are well. There is a time for everything, as one wise man once wrote. Yet, if we choose not to feel, we might be missing out.
Jesus even comes out swinging with this statement: Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. (Matthew 5:4)
And then that same wise man says: Sorrow is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart. (Ecclesiastes 7:3--although you should just go ahead and read this whole chapter)
What if it means that we couldn't experience true joy unless we experienced sorrow? What if we were placed into our tough situation for the sole purpose of better understanding that only our Father in heaven can satisfy our needs? Or maybe it's a sin issue. Maybe we have to more fully comprehend that only grace can cover us, that our sin was what nailed Jesus to the cross. Now we can begin to fathom the unconditional love of Jesus to go that far for sinful, old, me. We are more grateful for the sacrifice, when we've experienced the weight of our sin rather than choosing to ignore it.
I doubt we could ever fully understand. God is significantly beyond us and the way our mind works. But I have noticed that He gives us situations that help us to see the way He sees. Even if just a glimpse. Remember when God commanded Abraham to kill his son of promise? In the moment when He's supposed to bring the knife down, an angel of the LORD stops Abraham and a ram is provided for the sacrifice. Maybe in that moment, Abraham felt the way God felt when He had to turn His back on Jesus. There's nothing like the pain of losing a child. It's considered one of the worst kind of losses one can experience. Now Abraham could sympathize with God?
And how much more, do we have a God who can sympathize with us!
Last night ended with a Rob Bell video. I've been trying to watch it for awhile now, and finally found the time to do so. It's called "Today." Rob says that while there are all sorts of things that have happened in our lifetime, we also are only given today. Yes, we are to celebrate and to mourn, but we also have to come to a point where we move on. We can't dwell on the past thinking that they were the best, or the worst, times of our lives. I thought how unique to couple the Heroes episode with this Nooma episode.
Then I thought, maybe we can never move on until we let ourselves feel it. Hmm, that might be difficult to swallow.
"Cause we're so scared to find out
what this life's all about.
So scared we're gonna lose it.
Not knowing all along,
that's exactly what we need."
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