The Dark Knight and Heath Ledger

"Fear God and keep His commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.

For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil."

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

This posting is going to be a bit different from the others but it has been on my heart all morning and so I want to share. This is not a review of the movie because there are plenty out there but hopefully it will give you something to think on.

Last night after weeks of agonizing, I went to see The Dark Knight. I am a huge Heath Ledger fan and developed a love for his acting after seeing The Patriot and A Knights Tale and for weeks, I have gone back and forth, as to whether or not I should see this movie. In the end, all the hype convinced me to go because I did not want to miss his "last great performance". Let me start by saying, I did not enjoy the movie. Do not get me wrong, it is a very good movie but for me, it was extremely unpleasant. Every time The Joker (Heath Ledger's character) appeared on screen, all my mind could think was, this is the last thing he did on this earth before having to stand in the presence of his/our Heavenly Father. This dark, morbid, psycho killer was the last part he played and he had to stand before God an account for this role. Every time I saw him, chills went up and down my spine. I fought back tears through the entire movie.

Now there is positive side to this I promise. You see, it left me walking away with the question of what kind of legacy will I leave when I die. Am I serving the purpose that God has planned for my life? Am I using the gifts He gave me to bring honor and glory to His name? You see, in this world, Heath Ledger is a great actor and because of this movie he will probably be nominated for an Oscar but what kind of eternal value does that gold statue have? What about his performance brought honor and glory to the God who created him?

For months, I have been writing about how we should live for God and honor and glorify Him in all we say and d but we also need to take a step back and evaluate our lives. Is everything that we do bringing glory and honor to the One who gave His very life for each of us; the One who endured the mocking, the beatings, the scorn and the shame and ultimately the cross for every single one of us? If you were to die today and had to stand before God, what would the account of your life look like to Him? What things have you done on this earth in light of eternity?

My point in writing this is that one, you will think about these things if you go and see the movie and two you will think about these things even if you do not go and see the movie. Our life here on earth is fleeting in comparison to eternity and so we should make every breath we take on this earth count for the God we so claim to love and follow.