With All Disrespect to Death...

a family gravesite in Edinburgh, Scotland
photographed Sept. 2018

I've been listening to O Praise the Name (Anastasis) by Hillsong quite a bit lately. I am regularly awestruck by the beauty in the rich theology and simple melody of the hymn. My favorite part, debatably, is in the third verse where we declare, “Oh trampled death, where is your sting? The angels roar for Christ the King”. I wish my voice could shout louder every time I come to this stanza because my heart screams in gratitude to our great Almighty Who did the trampling of that death and its curse. As much as I have been reveling in the English version, I have also been enjoying it in the Russian recording. The same part is said in a different (yet similar) way. Rather than addressing death, the heavens cry out that Christ has trampled death. I realized that the verb (попрал, - poprahl - past tense of the infinitive попрать) that is used was not familiar to me - although I understood it in context - so I looked it up. I was not prepared for what I read. It means “trample,” for sure, but it’s more violent than just "to trample." It means: to rudely or cruelly disrupt, stomp on, or break up; to trample. It may seem like a small differentiation, but it shed light for me on the extent to which Christ violated death. He removed, for the believer, any hold that the curse of death and the grave has on us. But not just for us. For. His. Glory. And we get to join Him in His mission to bring life to the dead, as we once were... all for the fame and glory and declaration of Him and His saving work. Although we still die, the spiritual death that was death's sting no longer holds power because of His saving work. That is good news, indeed. 

Unbroken

             The inflatable raft, holding three starving airmen, is barely afloat in the Pacific. Sharks circle the boat. Death is very near. One of these men is former Olympic runner, Louis Zamperini. How did he get here?

            Unbroken, written by Lauren Hillenbrand, is the gripping biography of this man, this Louis ‘Louie’ Zamperini. During his childhood, Louie discovered that he could run, that is, as an athlete runs. Soon, he was smashing records all over the country, trying to run a four-minute mile. He got into the 1936 Olympics, which were held in Germany, and, although he finished eighth line in the 5000 meter, caught the attention of none other than Adolph Hitler, who demanded a meeting with “the boy with the fast finish.”

            Immediately after returning home, he began training for the 1940 Olympics, but all was about to change. The Olympics were scheduled to be in Tokyo, Japan, but, due to the outbreak of World War II, they were canceled and moved to Helsinki, Finland. Then, as WWII began to ravage Scandinavia, the Olympics were suspended indefinitely. Louie joined the Army and became a crewmember on a bomber. Several times, Death missed him, thanks to the expert pilot. But, on a fateful day, a plane went down in the Pacific. Louie’s team was called to go scour the ocean with another crew and look for the missing plane, or at least the survivors. Somewhere in the middle of the ‘Big Blue’, an accident happened that would change Louie’s life forever. The rust-bucket plane his crew was ordered to fly on this mission had four engines. One went out. The pilot told the engineer to stop the propeller from turning, which was a normal procedure when an engine went out. The real problem began when the engineer stopped the wrong prop. Now two engines were out and the plane plummeted to the depths. Only three men survived. Now, they were afloat in the Pacific, literally warding off death with paddles. After weeks of floating, with little more than raw bird meat and rain water to survive on, only two men remained. Louie and the pilot. A ship came into view and they became elated with joy that maybe, just maybe, it would be an American vessel. The happiness quickly turned to horror when they saw the flag. It wasn’t the Stars and Stripes, but the Rising Sun of the Japanese Empire.

            Unbroken is a story of survival, courage, and, most importantly, forgiveness. Find out the whole story by reading this amazing book. I would recommend this work to a more mature audience due to some language scattered in the pages.

All clear? Yes.

So… through a course of fortunate events, the person who I wrote of last time read my post. So I want to thank the person that read this and told the person, you helped my relationship with him… honestly, no sarcasm. The person, showing a better part of his character, came to me on Friday and asked me why I had been attacking him (not just on my blog, but also in snide comments that I have made to him). As he spoke, I realized that what he said was true. I had been attacking him with my words, whether meaning to or not, and for this I was wrong. After he was done, I apologized, and then, to my surprise (a pleasant surprise), he also apologized to me. I realized that I had been misjudging him all along, we hugged, we did the show… we’re friends now. Later, someone else apologized for an argument that I had had with them. I then apologized for engaging, and so, now I am at odds with no one at theatre. Seeing as we have one show left today, that is a good thing. Yes, the show is coming to a close, I am not very happy about this fact, acting is so much fun, as are the people in this show. Now that I have no controversies with people, nor do they have them with me, I feel much better, knowing that I am leaving the theatre tonight with nothing to make right. Forgiveness is a wonderful thing.

Simeon.

2 Cor. 5:17-21