If you have not seen it, it is about a kid that is adopted by a corporation and is pressed into service to do a reality tv show from cradle to grave without his knowledge. In it, he is manipulated into staying on a massive stage through fear of water and other methods. It is a massive undertaking and requires massive amounts of actors and resources, but the outside world is really into this life that is projected from thousands of cameras. Finally, as time goes on, he becomes aware that things are just not right. Nothing is as it really seems. People are injected into his life to move him one way or the other in this scripted journey.
My wife hates the movie - but I happen to love it. The reason I love it, is because this guy is subjected to all forms of chicanery and he is able to power through it all to escape to his true love and an outside world he had no idea could exist. I find great parallels to my own life in that our lives are largely scripted in order to produce the greatest amount of growth and challenge, so that we can obtain the greatest prize - IF we endure to the end.
Near the end of the movie, Truman (the main character) is trying to escape the island paradise he lives on to find what is on the outside. As he tries to escape from this massive set, the Truman Show director basically tries to stop him at any cost, as he has invested billions into the set and life of this character. If Truman is not stopped in his escape attempt, all of that will be lost, so the director turns up the wind and wave machines until it appears that he is going to kill Truman. Truman is defiant to reach his prize and makes my favorite line in the movie:
I can SO relate to that as I have stepped outside my various life situations and have said the same thing as it has gotten sticky down here on this great set of life...... Is that the BEST you can do to me?? Sometimes in life, we are pushed to our absolute limits and we just have to step outside ourselves and remember that this life is just a test (a long one) and that we are here to see what the envelope of our personal limitations are. What is our breaking point? The Savior had the greatest tests - and many of us have some amazingly difficult ones to endure. They are scripted to be in proportion to our largeness of spirit - what we can handle. Possibly, what we agreed to before we came here - with the greater the test, the greater the reward. But, as we get to the end of our test, the prize is waiting and it will be worth it.
As you deal with death, disease and infirmities of body, mind and soul - just step out of it every once in a while and tell yourselves that one day soon, it will be over and you will have the most amazing eternity ahead of you. I have had to stick to this during turbulent times as conditions my wife and I have been subjected to, would cause 97% of other couples to not make it. Yes, I calculated the statistical probabilities of the situation I find myself in. A 3% chance of making it - and yet I will power through everything and come out victorious!
This sums it up: https://youtu.be/KX5jNnDMfxA?t=10
This sums it up: https://youtu.be/KX5jNnDMfxA?t=10
So, yeah here is the Truman Show spoiler if you decide you do not want to watch the movie:
My favorite quote from that movie was, "In case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening and good night." Years ago I thought that would be the perfect thing to say in a church court if the church ever tried to excommunicate me for the love of the truth.
ReplyDeleteWhy would they excommunicate you for the love of the truth? It sounds like what you are trying to say is in case you ever become overzealous over something you perceive to be truth, begin in your own pride to go against the proper authority God established on the earth, and completely apostatize. You are welcome.
DeleteAs we heard recently at Women's Conference,
ReplyDelete" I do not know why we have the many trials that we have, but it is my personal feeling that the reward is so great, so eternal and everlasting, so joyful and beyond our understanding that in that day of reward, we may feel to say to our merciful, loving Father, “Was that all that was required?” I believe that if we could daily remember and recognize the depth of that love our Heavenly Father and our Savior have for us, we would be willing to do anything to be back in Their presence again, surrounded by Their love eternally. What will it matter, dear sisters, what we suffered here if, in the end, those trials are the very things which qualify us for eternal life and exaltation in the kingdom of God with our Father and Savior?"
- Linda S. Reeves
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/10/worthy-of-our-promised-blessings?lang=eng