They REALLY lived!   

                           By Russ Lawson 

One of my favorite movies from the past few years is called "Second Hand Lions". The movie is about two old bachelor brothers living in the middle of the prairie in Texas. They have lived adventure filled lives, served in the French Foreign Legion and lived in Africa for 40 years. Now they have come back to live out their last years alone and feeling old and useless. Then fate intervenes; a niece who has made a series of bad choices in her life "dumps" her son (whose about 12 years old) on their doorstep for them to keep.

The boy is scared out of his wits; he's a city boy and doesn't know the first thing about the country, the eccentric uncles are about honor and honesty. Slowly a bond begins to form and the boy begins to learn about the past these men have led. He understands that they feel they have no reason to live and are actively looking for dangerous situations by which to end their life (with their boots on as they say) while they are still able to face challenges.

 Trying to regain some of their excitement for life at one point the brothers buy an African lion from a circus, which they plan to turn loose and hunt. It turns out that the lion is old, sick and tame and they end up letting it live in their cornfield. That's where they get the name of the movie, "Second hand lions," because that describes the brothers also, once ferocious, now just old and not able to do what they once did.

 You know what I love about this movie, I can identify with the two old brothers to a point. Through the grace of God Melody and I have lived through some tremendous adventures while serving Him. We have lived in several different states here in America and even on the African continent. We have friends, brothers and sisters in Christ literally all over the world. We have worked hard, dealt death and illness and difficult situations and are still able to keep going, at least for the present. We have experienced life to the fullest with all of its joys and sorrows up to this point in our lives and I pray that we can end our lives "with our boots on" (still actively seeking adventure in Christ).

 At the end of the movie the uncles now in their 80's "go out in a blaze of glory" so to speak. The young boy, now a man meets someone who had heard the stories about his uncles from his grandfather in North Africa. The statement is made, "so they really lived". The last words of the movie are the response of the young boy, now a man when he says, "Yes, they REALLY lived". What better epitaph could you want? Doesn't that say it all for us, who of us isn't seeking some kind of fulfillment, something that makes us feel that life is worth living, something that gives meaning to getting out of bed in the mornings?

 Do you want to really live? The apostle Paul had a handle on that idea. He wrote in Philippians 1:21, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain". Paul also wrote in Romans 14:8, "For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s."

 God speaks through the apostle John in Revelation 14:13, where we read, "And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this down: Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from all their toils and trials; for their good deeds follow them!"

 The adventure continues for those who serve God, because "they really live" loving and serving God now and forever! How are you doing?