Morning Fog

(picture by Denver Post)

     It’s 11:00pm on Thursday night, July 19th 2012.  You’re standing in line to buy your ticket, trying to look inconspicuous while the bulges from your pockets give away the twizzlers and raisinettes you are attempting to sneak into the theater.  But you don’t care! This is it – the night you and your friends have been waiting for – the midnight showing of ‘Dark Knight Rises’! 

     Theater 9 is packed when you walk in, but as you scan the crowd you spot four open seats five rows up and to the right of the theater.  Not the back row you usually prefer for throwing popcorn at the movie-goers in front, but it will do.  You and your friends sqeeze past a large man with a larger popcorn and take your seats.  After several minutes of facebook-twitter-instagram updates and the unveiling of your plethora of snackage, the lights dim. The theater cheers! Here it goes – the Dark Knight rises to the big screen.

     Less than ten minutes into the film, a black figure rushes into the theater from the front right of the theater.  Did he just come from the emergency entrance?  This is crazy!  They hired an actor for the premiere??  The man dressed in black and what appears to be a suit of armor tosses two canisters emitting some type of gas.  Wow these special effects are nuts!  They went all out!  The gas rapidly fills the theater; suddenly you find yourself choking on the smoke you inhale.  Is this happening to everyone or are you just having a strange reaction? Your throat feels like it is closing up; you gasp for breath, but can’t find any air to relieve your discomfort.  A sudden panic overtakes you.  In the midst of the smoky chaos, you hear multiple explosions.  It is 2012 – is this really the end of the world?? The Mayans were right?!  You look down, two rows in front of you and slightly to the left, and see a young girl grabbing her stomach, blood covering her small hands.  Hysterical wailing, screams and explosions surround you.  This is a nightmare.  Before you have time to pinch yourself in hopes of awakening from this bad dream, a rifle is pointed in your face – the last image you will ever see before you cross into eternity. 

(photo by Denver Post)

     Last year, I spent six months interning with the Denver Rescue Mission.  I lived minutes away from Century 16 Theater in Aurora, CO.  I visited the theater on countless occasions, enjoying the discounted ticket prices and convenient location.  News of the fatal shooting at the midnight premier of ‘Dark Knight Rises’ was shocking and heartbreaking to me!  Oh how easily that could have been me or one of my dear friends at that showing last night.  How easily that could have been me with the rifle pointed in my face, facing eternity within a matter of seconds.  Would I have been ready?  Would you have been ready?  Ready for this life to end and an eternal one to begin? 

     James 4:14 says, “How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow?  Your life is like the morning fog – it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.” 

     A morning fog.  Here for a little while, then gone forever.  Our lives are life that.  When God looks at our lives in the grand scheme of time, He sees it like fog born one morning and gone by noontime.  This verse along with last night’s tragedy in Aurora encourages me to reflect on my life.  Am I living my life well, with purpose, passion and boldness?  Or am I living for myself?  Living with fear of what people might think of me?  Maybe content with living an average, just-getting-by lifestyle. 

     Life.  “It’s here a little while, then it’s gone.”  What are you doing with it?