(You can read Part I and II here and here)
"I'd only told them the truth. Was that so selfish? Our integrity sells for so little, but it's all that we really have. It is the very last inch of us, but within that inch, we are free... I shall die here. Every last inch of me shall perish. Except one. An inch. It's small and it's fragile and it's the only thing in the world worth having. We must never lose it, or sell it, or give it away. We must never let them take it from us."-Valerie in V for Vendetta
"They realized that to be in power you didn't need guns, or money or even numbers. You just needed the will to do what the other guy wouldn't." -Verbal Kent in The Usual Suspects
What is true freedom?
What is true power?
Are the stoics right? Like this man, should we all strive to through off the shackles of our mortal bodies and cease to need?
Should we throw off all emotional entanglements and go our way leaving everyone behind, because to love is to hurt? Is that freedom?
Should we oppress and manipulate and play with the world around us to gain the upper hand, so no one dares stand in our way as Verbal did?
The story of Valerie in V for Vendetta is sad to me because she was ultimately martyred for her sexuality, and sexuality is only for this life, not the next. But the broader application of what she says is, I believe, true. When we cling to the truth. We are free. They can't touch us. "The truth will set you free."
But it means so much more when that truth is a promise. A sure promise. From a God who changeth not.
When we cling to Jesus, He can lift us up. The Martyrs can sing in the flames and preach from the rack and walk through the Lion's Den. They stand unbound and unburnt in the fiery furnace because Jesus, the Truth, the Word "who became flesh and dwelt among us," still dwells among us. He walks in the furnace. And there, We are Free.
(P.S. Both movies are rated R for good reason. This not a blanket recommendation of them or their content. lol)
No comments:
Post a Comment