The Suit

I really love to watch movies. I am sure many of you can identify a great movie when you see one. A great movie gets us and we don’t even realize it. We forget that we are in a theater surrounded by a few hundred people, or that we are simply sitting at home in our living room. Great movies make us feel like we are part of the story. That’s why we like them so much.

We all have our favorites, the ones we watch on a Friday night when we are bored and wondering what we should do.

My family (I mean my two teenage sons and I) love to sit down and watch the Ironman movies. I know, some of you just rolled your eyes and clicked the little x up in the corner of the screen. If you are still reading it means you are wondering where I am going with this.

I won’t get into the whole story behind the movie but it’s basically a rich guy who designs a really cool suit that he wears to fight bad guys. It’s the whole ‘good vs. evil’ thing that has been around since time began. The suit gives him super powers.

In Ironman 2 there is something that is happening to the main character that nobody knows about. The suit is killing him. His computer companion (don’t ask) is the one that reveals this horrible truth and he deals with this problem on his own. He doesn’t tell anyone, not even his assistant.

Think about this. The more he wears it to fight back evil and darkness, the closer he steps to the end of his life.

Jesus told his followers one day that they were to die to self. Take up the cross and follow him. In some ways, each time we serve we experience this process of dying to self. We are putting ourselves on the line to meet the needs of others.

Now, the great thing about this dying to self for someone who is striving to follow Jesus is that we don’t actually die. We find life. New life. We find the path of Jesus.

Ironman was willing to put the suit on and walk closer to his death. I wonder how many would be willing to do that in real life.

If we want to really live, then we should consider giving up our lives in order to find life.

Just sayin!