A catered meal

Jason and I went out to the dollar theater tonight to watch a "MAN MOVIE." We picked this movie: This film was produced by Gerard Butler (featured above), who also played the main character, a vengeance-driven vigilante for "right" who kills many, many in the Philadelphia justice system to make a statement of vivid social commentary: the United States' justice system is broken. Several things stood out in this film, setting it apart from the drama/intense thrillers I've seen. First of all, despite brutal imagery and a deft, complex plot, and unrealistic chain of events, the film's message by some miracle of the cinema, remained intact. Our justice system is in fact, broken. Ending on a "the bad guy doesn't win" note, the point of this film was never redeemed. Our justice system is broken with no possible hope of being fixed. Jason and I walked out of that theater, our minds buzzing. A twenty-minute car drive later, and we had reached a conclusion, a point we agreed on (which for him and I can tend to be few and far between.) Aye, our justice system is shattered, marred, corrupted and anything but it's name. But aside from God, there is no answer. Our position in life of hopelessness, sinning our way through life to unavoidable and eventual eternal damnation exists because God is Just. But would we ever want a God who wasn't just? A God who cheated, who didn't follow rules and was changing all the time "because He loved us?" No. No one wants a God who isn't perfect, who isn't just. And so I am broken, shattered, marred and corrupt beyond redemption. Save from the grace of that same God. This film pointed irrevocably that we as people, humanity as a whole, can never, never hope to create a justice system that is actually just...apart from God. While that is sobering, it is not hopeless. It is not hopeless because we as humans are given Jesus. Grace from a loving and just God who sacrificed His son. Tonight's film was startling, vicious, and true. But it wasn't complete. Today I again recognized that without grace from a just God, I am no better than a man who murders a family, or his avenger that destroys an entire Philadelphia justice system. No, apart from God I am Clyde Shelton. I'm so thankful for my Savior. Romans 2:1-4 *Note: the dollar theater, where you don't have to have actual money to watch movies anymore, is pretty sweet. Who cares if Jason and I were the lightest people by a difference of at least 200 lbs? ---