Unstoppable and Fireproof

Last night we watched a movie with some friends of ours.  It was a really good movie, very intense.  I think my heart was pounding out of my chest the whole time.  It was "Unstoppable," a movie about a near train disaster that occurred in Ohio in early 2001.

Even though it was a really good movie, I woke up this morning thinking about one part in particular that I thought was pretty dumb.

These two men, Frank and Will, are trying to get out of the way of an oncoming runaway train with some toxic chemicals on it.  Frank is probably in his 50s with 2 daughters in college.  Will is maybe in his late- 20s.  He is married with a son, but his wife has a restraining order against him for doing something stupid.

So the two men are pretty much thinking they are going to die so they're telling each other their stories.  Will came home one day to find his wife texting someone.  He assumed that it was a mutual friend of theirs and that they were cheating together on him.  He grabs her arm and scares her, she probably thought he was going to hit her.  So he goes to this friend's house and confronts him, threatening him and even pulling a gun on him.  When he gets home he is served the restraining order, and then finds out that his wife was texting her mother or sister, I forget exactly who it was.  So he overreacted and got himself in trouble.

Frank was married, but his wife died of cancer a few years before.  His two daughters are working to pay their way through college, at Hooters.

When Frank tells Will this, he is sort of shocked by the news, blushing.  But he says, "I'm a fan."

So a man who supposedly "loves" his wife and wants her back, pretty much admits that he lusts after other women.  That doesn't sound very loving to me.  And that is what marriage has become. 

It is not permanent.  It's like your spouse is a car.

I heard the story of one famous football player asking the other when he was going to "trade his wife in" for a better/newer model.  Just like you would trade in a car.  With this attitude it is no wonder that the divorce rate is so high.

Jesus says in Mark 10:6-9-

But ‘God made them male and female’ from the beginning of creation.  ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’  Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.”

And Ephesians 5:31-33 says:

"As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.”  This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.  So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband."

Another movie, "Fireproof," illustrates marriage like this:

Caleb Holt: I'm not gonna tell her. If she wants to go ahead and file, it's up to her.
Michael Simmons: Divorce is a hard thing, man.
Caleb: Well, if it brings peace...
Michael: But Caleb, you want the right kind of peace.
Caleb: What do you mean by that?
Michael: You know what that ring on your finger means?
Caleb: It means I'm married.
Michael: Yeah, well, it also means you made a lifelong covenant. You putting on that ring, by saying your vows. The sad part about it is when most people promise for better or for worse, they really only mean for the better.
Caleb: Catherine and I were in love when we got married. Today, we're two very different people. All right? It's just not working out anymore.
Michael: Caleb, salt and pepper are completely different. Their makeup is different; their taste and their color. But you always see 'em together. And when you... Hang on a second.
[Michael glues a salt and pepper shaker together]
Caleb: What are you doing? Michael, what did you do that for?
Michael: Caleb, when two people get married; it's for better or for worse, for richer or for poor, in sickness and in health.
Caleb: I know that. But marriages aren't fireproof. Sometimes you get burned.
Michael: Fireproof doesn't mean a fire will never come, but that when it comes you'll be able to withstand it.
Caleb: You didn't have to glue them together.
[Caleb picks up the shakers and starts trying to force them apart]
Michael: Don't do it, Caleb. If you pull them apart now, you'll break either one or both of them.
Caleb: I am not a perfect person, but better than most. And if my marriage is failing, it is not all my fault.
Michael: But Caleb, man, I've seen you run into a burning building to save people you don't even know. But you're gonna let your own marriage just burn to the ground.

I think that says it all.

It's not a game, marriage is a serious, life-long commitment.  Commitment to something or someone takes hard work.