TV Reruns and Life

Are you like me when it comes to TV shows and movies where you will watch them over and over again if you love them? Let’s just say I won’t admit to how many times I’ve watched Lord of the Rings, even if I could remember! My go-to movies and TV shows are some of my favorite things to watch. As TV Land used to proclaim, “It’s got rewatchability!” When I talk about reruns it’s not the ones like many people think of, like Friends or Seinfeld. I’m talking about the true classics (in my opinion), like The Dick Van Dyke Show, McHale’s Navy, Hogan’s Heroes, and Gilligan’s Island, just to name a few.

All those around me will attest to the fact I can’t resist quoting my all-time favorite “McHale’s Navy” episode.

Ensign Parker (talking about overcoming nerves): “You’ve gotta lick this before it licks you.”
Captain Binghamton: “Oh, knock it off and quit talking to me like I was an ice cream cone!”

There’s plenty more quotes where that came from!

On Gilligan’s Island, there was one particular episode that made me stop and think. During that show Gilligan found and ate some sunflower seeds that made him able to hear other people’s thoughts. Of course, everyone else wanted to be able to do the same, so they all ate the seeds. Well, I’m sure you can guess how that turned out — not well at all. Since everyone could hear each other’s thoughts, they all wound up mad at each other. The TV show was funny but I also took away a deeper meaning from it.

The fact is, we all have bad thoughts from time to time whether we want to or not. Take yourself and another person. Do you think you both would remain friends if you could read their thoughts and they could read yours? Gut level, I don’t think so. I don’t think anyone would. Truthfully, I would like to go live in the middle of nowhere to escape hearing everything! I have to deal with my own inner voice which is hard enough keep in line sometimes.

Then the thought hit me the other day, there is Someone who knows our thoughts and that is God. He knows our thoughts, what we’ve done, what we haven’t done, and what we are going to do and yet He still loves us. As a person who can randomly remember a stupid thing I said 20 years ago, it’s not a pretty sight when I look back. Try as I might to be good, I still pull some stupid stuff. Some ‘humdingers’ to be exact! Can you go back and remember some things that have happened which you’re not proud of?

Yet God knows all and He still loved us enough to send His Son, Jesus, to pay for our sins. Would you be willing to sacrifice yourself or your loved one’s life for a close family member or a friend? But what about your worst enemy or that one annoying coworker? Myself, I’m not sure I could do that, but God did. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 NIV). Here’s a passage that highlights God’s loves for us even though we aren’t perfect, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8 NIV). God’s love for us is so great that even knowing all of what people have done in history and all what people will do in the future, He still sacrificed His Son for us so that we could live with Him for eternity. To learn a little more about God’s love read my blog, “Love > Hellfire.”

On a lighter note since I can’t read your minds like Gilligan could, feel free to leave me your positive thoughts in the comment section below. Just kidding!

Keeping the perspective,
Lauren