Ok, ok, I've been a bad blogger. Once again I've fallen into the trap of forgetting about this writing medium I've got. I know there aren't a lot of people who read this, but every once in a while someone does, and then talks to me about something I've said, and it just totally makes my day. Even better, some people will not just read my most recent entry, they'll actually read all the way to the bottom. And that's wonderful. It makes me happy to know that people like what I have to say.

A while ago, someone said to me "They must be running out of ideas, because they just keep redoing the same movies over and over again." Who ever that was, and I don't remember who, I think you're wrong. The film industry (and all the other creative industries) do not have a set number of ideas that will eventually run out. It's not like the big jar of cookies that's so huge that you can't ever think you'd reach the bottom of, but eventually do. No, the ideas are endless. One reason I could understand this statement though is, as an audience, there are just some ideas that we wouldn't be entertained by, and that's a limiting factor on creativity. So really it's not the ideas that are running out, but our public tolerance. Or something like that.

A wise man (my dad actually) once told gave me a description of Forever. Imagine, if you will, that there is a rock of fantastic hardness the size of your house. There is a man who will gently rub that rock with the softest cloth in the world everyday for one minute. Think of how long it would take for him to rub that rock down to the size of a grain of sand. That is nowhere near Forever. Now imagine him doing that again, and again, until he had as much sand as there is on Earth. Again, you're nowhere near Forever. Basically, Forever is something that Humans are not given the mental capacity to fathom. Forever has no end point. Forever = . What sparked this explanation was my question of eternal life through God. [Now some of you will want to skip over such a blatant religious topic. Please bear with me.] For those of you who do not know, God has promised us eternal life with him in Heaven, if we only accept his friendship - a club if you will. Now, eternal life sounds like something from a SciFi film, but it's not - it's totally real. When we die, our souls will leave our bodies and travel to the gates of Heaven. This is the final deciding point. Those who have accepted God as their Savior and friend will be allowed eternal life in Heaven, while (most unfortunately) those who do not will end up suffering in Hell. I do not treat this lightly friends, and even though people will always joke about the parties in Hell, I promise you there won't be. And I'm not afraid to say Hell, because it's as real a place as Edmonton or Florida. The thing is, some people just can't give up their pride and accept God. And that's going to end them up in Hell. I'm not a 'fire and brimstone' guy, but sin will put you right in there with the worst of them. Let me summarize a few books of the bible here. We are born into a world of sin, and that can't be changed by us. Fortunately, God loves everyone (really) so he sent his kid (Jesus) to live amongst us. That's no small thing either. Because Jesus was the son of God, he was without sin, and therefore was able to go to Heaven. But God had other plans. He made the rulers of the time have Jesus executed by the Cross (crucified), and put all the sin of every person in the world on his shoulders. Then Jesus died with the sin, and cleared the path for every person to go to Heaven. Some people call Jesus "a great man" and I agree, but there's so much more to it, as I just wrote above.

Now consider this. Your only son who you love so much has just died for others, and that's going to allow them to live without their sins. I'd be kind of upset at the people for sinning in the first place, so I'd want to make it hard for them. God's not like that. All he asks for is that we ask his forgiveness for our sins and that we will follow him. Sounds easy, right? In a sense, it is. You say the magic words, and POOF! you've been guaranteed eternal life in Heaven. And really, it can be just like that. But God also calls us to spread the word, to love others, etc etc, and to keep ourselves free of sin. That doesn't mean that once you're a Christian you can't sin. Heck, I sin all the time. The difference is, I can ask for forgiveness, and like the loving father that he is, he gives us his grace.

So I've gone off on a tangent here, but what I've really wanted to say was, eternal life is within your grasp. No one's going to make you jump into a Christian costume, you're just going to be asked to do what God calls you to do. And Christians are a nice bunch. I can almost guarantee you that you know at least one, and for the most part, they're some of the nicest people you could know. But enough about that for now. If you've read through all that, and are still interested, please e-mail me and I'd be glad to talk to you more.