I am a movie junkie.  One of my guilty pleasures is to devote an entire day to watching movies.  Granted, this doesn't happen often but during those times in which I allow myself a little down time, well, let's just say that it is very refreshing.  With few exceptions, I have watched the movies we own numerous times and generally speaking, have at least one quote for each of these movies that either means something to me or is memorable from the movie.  Not all of them are socially appropriate - such is the case with my favorite Christmas movie "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation", but it is still memorable.

Several months ago, I picked up a copy of "Batman Begins" and have watched it numerous times since then.  One of my favorite parts of the movie is early on in when Bruce Wayne is talking with Henri Ducard.  There is a lot of memorable dialog between these two characters but the part that I am referring to is when Henri invites Bruce to join the League of Shadows.  The quote goes something like this....

"If you make yourself more than a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, and they can't stop you, then you become something else entirely."

I was watching this movie the other night and replayed that part of the movie a second time.  The statements "devote yourself to an ideal" and "they can't stop you" is what has been resonating in my heart and my mind since then.  The quote from the movie, in my opinion, is a reference to the concept of justice in the battle between morality versus corruption, right versus wrong and/or good versus evil (take your pick - they are all about the same concepts).  We live in a fallen or "corrupt" world so I don't believe that the comparison is that much of a stretch.  The thought then is that if you devote yourself to the ideal of morality/right/good, and you are willing to do whatever it takes to live your life according to this ideal, then you will be unstoppable and ultimately will prevail.  The scary part of this concept, as illustrated in the movie, is that not everyone has the same ideal of what morality/right/good looks like.  

Of all of the deep theological and philosophical thoughts that resonate within my head and heart, this is one of the foundations: Only with God firmly in the center of my life, through the precious blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, does my life have any meaning at all (kind of a summary conclusion to the book of Ecclesiastes).  As I reflect on that statement, and in context with the movie quote, I believe that this "ideal", when accepted as the "truth" definitely moves you from where you are, or were, to somewhere else entirely.  Having accepted this truth, "they (define that however you want to) can't stop you".

Your brother in Christ,

Jim