“Erfmamfhis”
I loved "Saving Private Ryan". First time I saw it, in the theatre, I was sick to my stomach nearly the entire movie. They start you off with this gruesome idea of what storming a fortified beach is really like; not really like how it was in a John Wayne movie. Then they pulverize until you are a blob in your seat, exhibiting a nearly 3-hour barrage of stress. And yeah, I was in a seat in a climate controlled theatre and probably a full stomach, not actually being shot at or sleeping in a ditch.
Granted, John Wayne's era didn't really allow realistic violence and as a society, I'm not sure we're better for it. But chalk it up to a lesson learned that I realized war is less glorious that it might have once seemed. But that's not the lesson of "Saving Private Ryan".
The lesson for me, stricken as I watch Defiance 12 years later, 7 years after becoming a Christian, is the last line Capt. Miller uttered. I actually didn't hear it until a few years later when, due to a VHS tape and the magic of closed-captioning, I could actually hear it. It's really the culmination of the movie, of the lesson of a group of men dying so one could live. A lesson taught through storming a stronghold entrenched in sand, of walking, in the rain, in the sun, in the rain, around the dead - cows and men - sleeping in the wild and in churches, of whispering in the night and shouting in battles as one by one the company of men, the band of brothers, is whittled to less than a squad, then picked off as the mission progresses until finally, one man, the man who only wants to return to teaching English composition and swinging in a hammock under the stars, next to his wife, finally utters his last sentence.
And it reminds me of Christianity. God's gift is giving to us like the gift of a dedicated group of men gave to Private Ryan. It's a gift, something we did nothing to deserve - minus believing the Good News - but something we need to earn while we live our lives. Following Christ, being baptized, it's good stuff. But just because you already won the battle doesn't mean you can't fight for others.
I was grateful to finally hear the final important sentence, as tanks and fighter planes blasted and strafed those damned Nazis. It's a gift, it's already mine, but I definitely want to earn it.
