As we dive into the dog days of summer and triple digit temperatures the time comes around to sit inside and watch a good movie rather than cooking in my own juices by daring to go outside. My brother lives down in Las Vegas and he never has any pity whatsoever when I complain about the heat, but his his air conditioner isn't broken, mine is. Regardless, the theme of our movie nights is living life to the fullest. In chapter ten of John’s Gospel Jesus tells
us, “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” This summer we will be examining just what
exactly Christ means by this offer of abundant life. Last week we started we watched Bella, a great movie about love, family,
and adoption. This week we are watching Rocky Balboa, which is the last movie in
the Rocky series. Rather than dealing with Rocky as a boxer who
has some new fight or new challenger to overcome, it deals with Rocky as a
retired boxer who is dealing with life after the death of his wife and the
estrangement of his son. This is one of
my favorite movies of all times because the point of the movie is not whether
or not Rocky wins the fight at the end, the point is that the fight is worth
fighting. When I say the fight I don’t
just mean the boxing match, I mean the fight of living life every day to the
fullest. Here is one of my favorite
quotes from the movie. It is where Rocky
is talking to his son, who blames his dad’s fame for why he is not able to get
ahead in the world.
“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't
all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care
how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently
if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't
about how hard you're hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving
forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is
done! Now if you know what you're worth then go out and get what you're worth.
But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you
ain't where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that
and that ain't you! You're better than that! I'm always gonna love you no
matter what. No matter what happens. You're my son and you're my blood. You're
the best thing in my life. But until you start believing in yourself, ya ain't
gonna have a life.”
