The Place Beyond the Pines

"The "sins of your father" theme is a popular one for shows, movies and novels, yet I always feel like it never really resonates with me and always falls flat. "The Place Beyond the Pines" might have the best showcasing of this theme I have ever witnessed, making me truly understand the full extent of what it means, and how it can be conveyed."
http://www.iowastatedaily.com/ames247/article_a9ac04c2-ab58-11e2-ac28-001a4bcf887a.html

My husband and I had been meaning to watch this movie for awhile now.  Warning, there is quite a bit of cussing, but they had to do that to make it seem more believable I suppose.

But yes, the theme of the movie is certainly the sins of the father or generational curses. 

Do things our parents do come back to haunt us?  Perhaps.  Do things we ourselves do come back to haunt us?  Without a doubt, yes. 

In this movie a cop kills a guy who robbed a bank.  The catch is the guy who robbed the bank wasn't actually pointing the gun at the cop.  He had a gun in his hand but it was not drawn per se.  Anyways, the cop, Bradley Cooper, shoots him anyways; out of fear most likely.  But this one split second of his life plagues him with guilt the rest of his life.  He finds out that the bank robber he shot has a son so he feels even more guilty.  Then ironically the cop and the bank robber's son meet at school when they are 17.  The cop's son turns out to be more evil than the bank robber's son. 

The whole movie made you really evaluate who really is good and who is bad.  The bank robber was robbing banks to support his son that he just found out he had.  So does that make his acts good?  He didn't actually kill anyone.  So how would God judge him?  "If anyone does not provide for his own household he is worse than an unbeliever."  But "thou shalt not steal." 

Anyways, when the cop's and bank robber's son meet the cop's son corrupts the bank robber's son and gets him into serious trouble relating to drugs.  The bank robber's son then realizes that this kid is the cop's son and that the cop killed his father.  He then shoots the cop's son but doesn't kill him and almost kills the cop for killing his dad. 

But in that final moment the cop cries and repents and says he's sorry to the son.  So the son doesn't kill the cop. 

What this movie really made me think of was the life of King David.  King David murdered Bathsheba's husband, indirectly.  The baby produced out of his adultery with Bathsheba dies, and then their other son, Absalom, dies tragically.   David is mortified over both children dying.  But was it God's justice?  God punishes those He loves yes?  Or is it just a matter of sowing and reaping.  We will reap what we sow.  Sins cannot be swept under the run, as this movie also so well portrays.  It's like Luke 8:17, "For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light."  Secrets can only be kept for so long.  Sins can only go unpunished for so long.

The movie also made me think of a book we read in high school, Crime and Punishment.  In the book a guy murders an old woman and the rest of the book is him struggling with his guilt over the act.  It eats him up inside and he is driven crazy by the immense guilt he has.  Finally at the end of the book he turns himself in.  He literally walks himself right to the police station and tells them everything.  Guilt is a powerful force. 
And where does this guilt come from?  Romans says the law is written on men's hearts.  "When Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, ¹⁵ who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them."  We are created in God's image.  Therefore, every single person alive is born with an innate sense of what is absolutely right and what is absolutely wrong.  Criminals may try to justify their actions.  They may seem to be living the life.  But in their hearts, their conscience is eating them up inside.  Hence the saying, "Crime doesn't pay."  It not only doesn't pay, it will kill you with guilt.  We cannot commit crime or sin and be completely untouched mentally by it.  There are those who murder children etc and commit horrible acts.  These people I believe are possessed by demons.  I do not think a human being, in his own power, can continuously do evil and feel nothing about it.  The guilt alone will destroy them.  Justice always prevails, whether it's in court or in their own minds.  Crime/sin is a poison and it will destroy those who give in to it. 

And I will say this movie made me think of my own father, the horrible acts he committed with me and thought of committing with me.  He was/is a very, very sick man.  I never yelled at my dad for what he did though; I never cussed him out etc.  I never tried to take revenge in any way.  "Honor your mother and father."  But I knew that the guilt of what he did was punishment enough for him, and I saw it slowly eat him up inside.  I saw him deteriorate from a happy, fun loving so called "Christian" man to a deranged psychopath really.  I visited my dad when I was 18, 12 years after his attempted rape on me, and was quite appalled at the man he had become.  He had become quite crazy.  My dad had morphed, and it was kind of like Gollum from Lord of the Rings.  Gollum once was a normal dwarf, but then sin got ahold of him and he rotted away.  He turned into a monster physically but that reflects quite well what immense sin does to us on the inside.  It rots us and eats away at our heart.  I saw it eat my dad away.  I saw it completely destroy his mind and heart. 

My brother has the ability to see auras around people.  I do not know how but he does.  He said my dad's aura is barely there.  It is like a thin blue light around him and it seems to be constantly falling off of him like frost falling out of a freezer, like he is quickly loosing any light, or life, he has left. 

I have known evil form a very early age.  I have seen the guilt of a criminal play out.  I have seen the way sin destroys a person in my dad.  When people commit sin they think they are just having fun, but in reality they are playing with fire.  In reality they are putting massive chains around their legs and whole body.  They are sentencing themselves to death.  Sin is serious.  Sin is deadly.  Don't play with fire and expect to not get burned.  It will destroy you, in one way or another. 

I know this blog seems a bit like Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," but maybe we need to hear more sermons like that. I have never heard a sermon that really peered into evil and how it can destroy a person. They always just want to talk about the good stuff, the good life we can have in Christ. But that doesn't mean as much unless you contrast it with how much your life... can suck without Christ, I mean royally suck. If you are in Satan's camp you are already in the lake of fire without even realizing it. You are already burning.

Jesus said, "You are either for me or against me." I think that was the verse I said to a friend to convince her to get saved. But may God increase my gift of evangelism to say this in such a way that will reach anyone not saved reading this. Sin is NOT your friend. Satan is NOT your friend. Trust me, you don't want to go to hell because all your friends will be there. Little do you know you are already on Satan's torture table. He is using sin to slowly kill you. He is dissecting your soul and he is laughing about it. Satan hates you. He is NOT for you. He is not on your side. He is out to destroy you. Sin is not fun. That is a lie from Satan. It is death. It will kill you. It is Satan's game to pull you into his web and wrap you up like a spider wraps up a fly, so that you can't move, so that he can do with you what he wants. He is completely and utterly evil. Get out from his rule while you still can. Turn to God, repent and ask for God's help, because God WILL help you. That pain in your life that you are mad at God about; you are mad at the WRONG person. Get pissed at Satan. He is the one who has been screwing you over since you were born. He is the one who is bent on your destruction, NOT GOD. Don't blame God for what Satan has done to you. Run to God, and run the hell away from Satan and never look back. 

 

In conclusion, praise God that though my life began crazy, God has blessed me with a wonderful and trust-worthy Christian man. And praise God that the curse is broken in me and what my family will be because I declare that it will be in Jesus' name. Satan can have no power over me or my family because we belong to the Lord and love him with all our hearts. God will redeem what Satan tried to destroy. In Jesus' name Amen.

to Satan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8YO5icNGn0

That is the final clip from the Matrix:

"I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid... you're afraid of us. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future. I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it's going to begin. I'm going to hang up this phone, and then I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you."

 

Or what I would say, "Satan, I know you and your demons are all around us even though we can't see you.  I can sense you and I can see through your games.  I know that you're afraid.  You've been afraid since the day you fell from heaven.  You're afraid of God's son, Jesus.  And you're afraid of us, the church.  You're afraid of Christ's power in us to defeat you and reveal you for who you are.  You're afraid that you won't get to be in total control of this world anymore.  I know the future.  You will be tormented and tortured in the end by the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.  He WILL defeat you in the last days.  You will live in complete pain and darkness for eternity.  That is how it is going to end. 

 

The war against you began when Jesus died on the cross, and we, Christ's followers, are continuing to wage war against you.  We will show the rest of the world what you don't want them to see.  We will show them the truth, that you are not their friend and that you hate them even though you act like you love them and are for them.  We will show them the truth about sin and what it does to them.  We will show them how to defeat you in their own lives; how you can no longer have power over them.  We will show them a world where everyone can be set free and be filled with joy and peace as we were meant to be before you stole that from us.  A world where anything is possible through Jesus.  You are going down Satan, and we as the church are going to help bring that about."  Amen?  Say this aloud to Satan if you would like :)  Make him scared lol :)  and always remember, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you."  That is a promise. :)