Spiderman 3 (WARNING: SPOILERS)

apology for throwing some Bible verses at you to start this off, and you should know that spoilers may be present in this post:

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. Hebrews 13:14

Do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. [You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it's your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you've let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you've started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom!] Romans 6:12, 17-18

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. therefore take up the whole armor of God. Ephesians 6:11-13

and i throw all of these verses at you because this was one of the key themes of Spiderman 3. the whole idea is that you got two sides of Spiderman - one who is good and one who is bad, but before there was bad, Spiderman was mostly only good. he only became bad when he was invaded by some kind of alien virus thing called Venom, which pretty much instilled all of this malicious intent in him and emphasized aggression and let him live his life out of revenge and a feeling of being mad. and that screwed up everything. he felt bad because he killed this man and because he lost his girlfriend and even hit her which is something he would have never wanted to do, and pretty soon, he is living with all sorts of consequences. he's got Sandman trying to kill him and he essentially turned a photographer into Venom who tried to kill him and his girlfriend. so pretty much, when Spiderman got attacked by Venom, it felt really good.

he got to do whatever he wanted and it felt good, because he got to get his revenge. but pretty soon, all of this started falling apart and he had become someone who he didn't want to become. and even after he had stripped off Venom and started trying to do things right, he still had to live with all of these consequences, and nothing would ever really be the same. and the idea is that Peter Parker or Spiderman started making the choice everyday - should i put on the red suit or the black suit? the black suit that makes me feel better and more powerful and lets me operate under revenge, or the red suit that... is just there? that is another one of the big themes - no matter how bad the cirumstances and conditions, we still have the ability to choose to try to make things right.

and so we have this choice - will we put on the red suit or the black suit? will be preparing ourselves with the armor of God and live with the fruit of the Spirit, choosing to love and whatnot, or will we let ourselves act under aggression and pain and try to just have fun and just feel good. (there's nothing wrong with feeling good, but we can't feel good all the time. there has to be some kind of discipline sometimes.) and even then, i think it's disturbing. because no one can serve two masters. i want to know - who am i living my life for? who has control over my life? is it my sin or my desires? or is it God? because i'd rather it be God, because...i don't know. you just have to live what you believe. i don't want to wake up one morning and look around and see that i have become something that i didn't want to become, like Peter Parker once he hit Mary Jane and reality set in that he had hit the one person he swore he would love.

another part about Peter Parker - he had been good up until he had been invaded by this alien Venom which brought out the bad out of him. it's interesting, because on at least two different occasions, we hear people say that Peter Parker is a good person. he is just facing problems that he has to overcome, but still - he's a good person. this is huge, because... we don't hear this that much. people have the idea that, if we start screwing up and things start going wrong, then we are just plain bad people. if i get a 3 on my AP Stat test, then i'm a bad student, and if i am caught speeding, then i'm a bad driver, and if i go to jail, then i'm a bad person. and it would have been so easy to see Peter like that. he's bad because he killed someone and he even almost killed his best friend and he doesn't face his problems and he is a jerk to his girlfriend, etc. and yet - people still knew that he was good.

and i don't know about anyone else, but...just to know that people will still see some good in me is a huge encouragement. to know that people see something better out of me, that they see past my failures, that they see some real value in who i am...i think i would try so much more to overcome just to please those who believed in me when no one else did. and when it comes to God...He sees good in all of us. it's His love that is always pursuing. and even when we do all of these things that are hurting everybody around us and even ourselves and even Him, He still thinks "that person's still a good person. he's just going through some rough times." not that He tolerates our sin. but He chooses to overlook it and see what is good.

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another Spiderman 3 post to come. i should get to sleep. AP Calculus tomorrow. Houston on Friday, my sister's coming back. not much more that i'm thinking about.