February 24 – “From Deity to Deadpool”

Now yesterday was an unusual day for me.  Aside from the usual hours of church preparation work, Chris and I actually went to see a movie.  We went to see the late-afternoon showing of Risen, the new one about the resurrection of Jesus.  It tracks the story of the resurrection from the perspective of a Roman tribune.  He is sent out by Pilate to squelch the rumors and the movement before an upcoming visit by the emperor.  The story centers around his CSI-ish search for the missing body and his encounters with the apostles on the way.  Won’t say any more about the story line.  It’s probably worth a go-see for yourself.  Two favorite things … the character of Bartholomew was a riot.  Very joyful guy in the face of whatever occurred.  Always smiling.  Seemed just about to burst with inner joy.  And he had great teeth.  You saw a lot of them.  Great character.  Second, there was a moment when John was talking to some people about Jesus and his love.  As the people walked away, another disciple congratulated him on a job well done.  He agrees that it went well, and adds, “I think I might use that one again.”  The mantra of preachers everywhere, John.  I liked this movie.  It was … fun.  But then, I’m a Book of Acts kind of guy anyway. 

Now I know going to a movie is not that big a deal in the normal world.  But here’s the unusual part.  Around six I got a call from my oldest son, Kel the Comic Book Master.  He wanted to know if I could accompany him to a showing of the new comic book movie Deadpool.  Two movies in one day.  Now that doesn’t happen to me very often, but the lure of spending some time with Kel and my curiosity about why a comic book movie should be rated R got the best of me.  I knew the R rating would keep Chris from going.  She was right in the middle of manufacturing a quilt anyway.  So I headed into Texas to meet Kel at the Mall of the Mainland theater.  Now this movie was the total opposite of Risen.  Oh, I’ll say up front that the humor was sarcastic and actually really funny.  The story line made sense and I now have an understanding of who the main character is supposed to be and what his connection is to the whole X-Men universe.  It really helped to have Kel there to interpret those connections for me.  I’ll also say the whole thing was laced with gratuitous sex scenes and incredibly foul language.  From what I understand the comic books aren’t much different.  There is no way I would recommend it to anyone for that reason alone. 

Deity to Deadpool.  I was exhausted when I got home last night.  Didn’t wake up until after seven this morning.  And Chris actually got out of bed before I did.  Maybe today has promise.  It definitely started out … unusual.

2 John 6 says, “And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.”

Father, thank you for another chance to connect with my son.  Amen.