Rocky Balboa: A movie about a life worth living

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.”

How true this is for us and God.  Life will beat us down, and we have to be willing to get back up again.  God loves us and will help and support us, but we have to be willing to move forward.  We have to be willing to trust in Him.  It is far too often that we take the way of cowards and back down.  We want to blame anyone we can for why we aren't who we know God has called us to be.  We don’t want to take responsibility for our actions or the consequences that they bring, but we have to. To live life to its fullest, to live it abundantly means standing toe to toe with the lies that the world presents and not backing down.  It means standing with Christ and the Church that he founded.  To truly live means giving nothing less than all you have and all you are every single day for the glory of the Kingdom of God.  Will life knock us down if we live like this, absolutely. Will Christ put us back to our feet and help us to win the victory in the end?  Indeed He will.  He has already won the victory, we just have to stand with Him in order to share in it.