Tonight was Sabina’s birthday (the young Polish woman who lives with Carol and Denise), she turned 24, and she is a great person to hang out with. For her birthday, the four of us went to see “Touching the Void” – a very powerful and thought provoking movie. There were two points of discussion.
The first point in the movie (this may be a spoiler) is where Simon cuts his friend Joe loose because he does not see anyway out. At first, my reaction would have been to do the same thing, but then I really thought about it, and I decided no way could I cut my friend loose where he would most likely die. I would have chosen to go with him, or use all my might to bring him up and out (as seemingly impossible as it appeared), if we both fell then so be it.
The second point is where Joe has already fallen into a deep crevasse, his leg is broken and it appears he will die. I thought I would rather die than go through all of that, since I have no fear of dieing. However, after the discussions with Sabina, Carol and Denise, I changed my mind. Simply dieing is more hopeless than just thinking your going to die but doing all you can to survive. Simply waiting to die would be the easy way out, even if you know heaven is waiting. Essentially, it is suicide. I do not think this is how God would want me to honor what he has given me. It would be much better to die trying my best and leaning on God to get me out, then it would be for me to give up because I wanted to be in heaven instead, which is selfish. The two men in the story did not have any faith, Joe said, “I do not believe in God, and at that moment, I did not even throw out any “Hail Maries.” Yet he pulled through because he made the conscience decisions to keep on going, even when it appeared life was going to end. Human will can be very strong, and with God, I believe it can be stronger and is much less agonizing.
PS. Last night two of my very best friends became engaged! Josh and Erin congradulations! I love you guys, be blessed in your relationship. They’ll be married next May! Life at this age is very exciting and I am sure it only can get better in God’s amazing hands!