Dear all,
I love Samurai films. I was grabbed the first time I watched The Seven Samurai (still not surpassed in my opinion). And now that I have a Region 1 dvd player it has opened me up to a world of previously unwatchable films of the genre!
A few nights back I was watching one such film – The Great Killing. It is about a group of rogue Samurai and others who are fighting against an unjust authority and organize a revolt. So many of the characters give up s much for the big dream of saving Japan from corrupt leadership.
January. The start of a New Year. Resolutions! This is the time when many of us give up things; well for a week at least…
I never have for a couple of reasons:
- Jesus has set me free, so why put extra burdens on myself – please feel free to disagree with me.
- Why choose this one date to make these decisions? I feel a healthy evaluation of my life more regularly (monthly or fortnightly) will make desired changes more achievable.
Please don’t read these two reasons as me saying I have it all together!
One line that did grab me in the film was when the grieving Samurai who’d seen his wife of three months slain by corrupt soldiers, spoke to the gambling lazy Samurai who was drifting nowhere about why he had decided to join the rogue group. He said: “A life can only be thrown away once.”
This can be read negatively, as in, “don’t throw your life away and waste it!”
Or it could be read as a positive challenge.
We’re all “throwing our lives away”,
Each life diminishes by one day as the sun goes down.
None of us are indestructible.
Each morning we have a day less left to live.
Life can only be lived one day at a time.
So where are you throwing each day of your life?
Where am I “throwing” today?
Yours because of Jesus – Neil.
