Lessons from “Forever”

Hollywood is fascinated with the ideas of the undead, resurrection, and immortality. Stories of zombies, vampires, and a certain Time Lord from Galafrey dominate the movie and TV scene.

One of the latest of these is Forever, which follows the story of Dr. Henry Morgan, a medical examiner for the city of New York who for some as yet unrivaled reason cannot die… or, more accurately, cannot stay dead. When he dies, his body disappears and he wakes up naked in the Hudson River. He seems to be a combination of Highlander, Doctor Who, Sherlock Holmes, and Quincy thrust into the conventional TV cop drama. The weird thing is, I kind of like it. It is really pretty good.

In a flashback (why wouldn’t you have flashbacks when a character as two centuries of backstory?) Henry remembers a time in the distant past (1816) when he wakes up in Southwark Prison in London, England after being transferred from the asylum he was sent to by his wife who thought he was crazy because he told her he could not die.

He wakes up to find himself chained and shackled in a cell with a catholic priest as a cellmate. After three months Henry finally decides to confide his secret to him. To Henry’s surprise, the Father belives him. And then this conversation ensues,

“But as a man of the cloth despite, my many sins, I realize now that God chose you.”

“I am not a religious man,” Henry skeptically replied.

The priest laughed and smiled back. “That has never stopped Him before.”

“This is a curse,” Henry insists.

And then something happened I did not expect. A real, deep, often overlooked biblical truth came from the priest’s lips. “No.” Was the quick reply. “Have you read your Bible? The more blessed you are, the worse it is. You are here for a reason, Henry.” Kudos to the writers for being brave enough to write such a line.

Have you read your Bible? The more blessed you are, the worse it is. I have read my Bible. And I know that is true. From Adam to the Apostles, David to Daniel, Joseph to Jesus, and Samuel to Stephen this is true. The greater the blessings God wrought through a person, the greater the suffering was that they went through.

The same is true today. I have been learning that the people God loves to use to bring His blessings in the most powerful ways are often those who have been hurt the worst.

My dear Christian friend, if you are reading this and you have been traveling through arid times, dark valleys, and violent storms, it is not by accident. These “dark nights of the soul” are often times when God is seriously at work in us, and are invitations from God to go deeper with Him so that He can bring forth blessings that we would never think could come from such experiences.

Near the end of the episode the flashback resumes. The priest has concluded that the reason he was chosen to be Henry’s cellmate was because God wanted him to help Henry escape. His plan. Help him to hang himself and break his neck so that upon his death he would end up in some outside body of water and hence escape.

“This curse of yours is a blessing.” The priest says to Henry, “No matter the prison, you are one death away from freedom!…When you are born anew, go somewhere far. Start over. Use this life, Henry Morgan. It is blessed.”

Your life may be full of hard things, inexplicable things that you don’t fully understand or appreciate yet. Know that God does even if you don’t. He chose you for a reason. Use your life and live for God though Christ, and you will discover that you are blessed. When you do, you will find that God did not leave you in the storm, He is there with you, shepherding you through it.

http://youtu.be/m17af0XmPFo