I admit it. I am an
incurable “24” fan! In my totally
unbiased and extraordinarily accurate opinion Jack Bauer is the all time
undisputed hero of dramatic television. Jack Bauer is who James Bond dreams
about when he sleeps. He is Captain
America without the uniform. Jack Bauer
is who Chuck Norris wants to be when he grows up.
Okay, you get the picture.
I really, really, really, like “24.”
I was totally stoked when Fox announced Jack was coming back for “24:
Live Another Day.” The world will once again
be safe for democracy!
“24” follows the efforts of Jack Bauer, a counter terrorist agent,
as he stops ultimate bad guys in 24 one hour episodes which represent one day
in his life. The coming reintroduction
is a mini-series of only 12 hours.
Is there a point to your madness, Pastor? Actually there is. “24”
is fiction. I wish threats to world order could be
resolved in a mere 24 hours by the heroics of a single man with a receding hair
line and great one liners. Over a half
century of life argues loudly that it simply isn’t so. We might give “24” some credit though; most
other dramas suggest crisis can be reduced to ashes in an hour including
commercial breaks.
There are too many flag draped coffins and somber soldiers playing
“Taps” in lonely cemeteries for us to believe for one skinny minute that the “24”
narrative can ever be true. We applaud the
heroism displayed in living color by our brave men and women in uniform so we
can sit comfortably in our dens and cheer for fictional characters like Jack.
The danger for those of us styling ourselves as followers of
Christ is the pipe dream that all our battles can be started and finished in a
24 hour solar day. They just can’t! Experience has taught us and re-taught us that
pain often stretches well past sunset and sorrow often hangs around for quite a
number of sunrises.
Isaiah mused 2700 years ago that “those who trust in the
LORD will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will
run and not grow weary; they will walk and not faint” (Isa. 40: 31). Conventional wisdom interprets this as a progression
from the heights of spirituality to the lower regions of faith. Soaring like eagles is the ultimate and running
and walking are lesser substitutes. I have
believed for some time that is backward.
Most can soar for a time if given enough religious
excitement. They might manage a good gallop. What requires the greatest grace is the gritty
determination to plod on when it looks as if you have made little progress
today and perhaps yesterday also.
I wish we could lick every foe and settle every difficulty
in 24 hours just like Jack but observation and revelation alike shout that the
Christian life is a lifetime gig. We
don’t just live another day; we live every day as the heroes and heroines Jesus
made us.
This post appeared originally as a column in the Daily Press
