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Fireproof: Never leave your partner behind

 

As a single man, this may seem like a silly idea to write a review on a movie about marriage.  I agree.  Silly me.  I had the opportunity to watch Fireproof today, and found it delivered so much more than I ever anticipated, and I haven't even fallen in love the first time.

 

Kirk Cameron plays the role of Captain Caleb Holt, the husband and firefighter who keeps demanding more love and respect, but hasn't yet realized that he can't give what he does not have.  Erin Bethea solidly wraps up the part of Catherine Holt, the wife who wanted so much to marry a brave man, but feels she has been left out to dry.

Caleb's father challenges him to a "Love Dare", a 40-day experiment to see if Caleb can revive their marriage.  To tell more would ruin the movie.  But I'll say this, there is no way to be disappointed with this well thought-out and thought-provoking movie.

 

Then, right when you think it's all done, and the curtains is going to close, it just keeps on turing up surprises that strengthen the relationships and put the world back together one more time.  Read more at FireproofTheMovie.com.

"When I was asked to make this address I wondered what I had to say to you boys who are graduating.  And I think I have one thing to say.  If you wish to be useful, nevertake a course that will silence you.  Refuse to learn anything that implies collusion, wether it be a clerkship or a curacy, a legal fee or a post in a univeristy.  Retain the power of speech no matter what other freedom you may lose.If you can take this course, in so far as you take it, you will bless this country.  In so far as you depart from this course you become dampers, mutes and hooded executioners.

 

As a practical matter a mere failure to speak out upon occasions where no opinion is asked or expected of you, and when the utterance of an uncalled-for suspicion is odious, will often hold you to a concurrance in palable iniquity.  Try to raise a voice that will be heard from here to Albany and watch what comes forward to shut off the sound.  It is not a German sergeant, nor a Russian officer of the precinct.  It is a note from a friend of your father's offering you a place in his office.  This is your warning from the secret police.  Why, if any of you young gentlemen have a mind to make himself heard a mile off, you must make a bonfire of your reputations and a close enemy of most men who would wish you well.

 

I have seen ten years of young men who rush out into the world with their messages, and when they find how deaf the world is, they think that they must save their strength and wait.  They believe that after a while they will be able to get up on some little eminence from which they can make themselves heard.  'In a few years,' reasons one of them, 'I shall have gained a standing, and then I will use my powers for good.'  Next year comes and with it a strange discovery.  The man has lost his horizon of thought.  his ambition has evaporated; he has nothing to say.  I give you this rule of conduct.  Do what you will, but speak out always.  Be shunned, be hated, be ridiculed, be scared, be in doubt, but don't be gagged.  The time of trial is always.  Now is the appointed time."

 

--John Jay Chapman, Commencement address to the graduating class, Hobart College, 1900

I'd like to send out a special thank you to those who have contributed to our stories at LifesPassion.org.  Your time and input is appreciated and proves your love for what you do.  Today, I received a letter from Senator Tom Coburn, read it online.

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship." --Fraser Tytler

Tytler concluded that the average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years, and that these nations went through the following cycle:

• From bondage to spiritual faith
• From spiritual faith to great courage
• From great courage to liberty
• From liberty to abundance
• From abundance to selfishness
• From selfishness to complacency
• From complacency to apathy
• From apathy to dependency
• From dependency back again to bondage

For those of you keeping up, the United States of America is now in its 231st year of existence. 231 years and I can't help but agree with Sir Tytler that this nation has reached a point in its history where most candidates win election to office with promises of bringing the bacon back home to their districts. I think Americans have subconsciously realized that they can vote themselves "largess" or money from the public treasury and as a result, the politicians are constantly pledging more public funds (or investments as they like to call it) in education, health care, security, etc.

In the book, Sen. DeMint comes to nearly the same conclusion. He says, "When this country was being formed, the critics of democracy said it won't be a permanent form of government because sooner or later people are going to figure out they they can vote themselves more benefits from government without paying for it. They were right and that moment has come."

From what I can gather, Jim DeMint believes that our country has reached the dependency stage of the Cycle of Freedom. But DeMint also believes the cycle can be broke "if America wakes up." For my part, I believe America is somewhere between complacency and apathy, and rapidly approaching dependency.

Dependency, my friends, is the last stage before bondage.

So, my question for you is where do you think the USA is on the Cycle of Freedom, and more importantly, how do we break the cycle?

Read the New York Times: The New American Consensus; Government of, by and For the Comfortable for another look at where our Cycle of Freedom may be leading us.

Credits:
Georgia Politics Unfiltered: Where is America on the Cycle of Freedom?
New York Times: The New American Consensus; Government of, by and For the Comfortable
In Search of America
People's Campaign for the Constitution

Everybody makes a difference everyday.  The question is what kind of difference.  As you travel through each day, what are you doing to enrich the lives of others?  What are you doing to show you care, to show respect, or to show your passion?  I own a copy of Mark Sanborn's book, "The Fred Factor" and recommend it as required reading for life.  One of the great tips in Sanborn's book is to "practice random acts of kindness -- everyday."  What can you do-great or small-to show kindness to someone else today?