Wednesday, April 17, 2013

And This Is Why:

I submitted this essay for a scholarship prompt:
What is the most inspirational clip/video you've seen on the web and how has it inspired you?

The clip, “Most” The Movie (The Bridge) Music Trailer Video*, is a condensed version of the Czech film, “Most”, and beautifully portrays the story of unconditional love.  Christian Cinemas summarizes the film as “the story of the close relationship between a bridge operator and his young son and the fateful day when they both try to head off an impending rail disaster. Hundred of passengers on a steam train are unaware of the danger as they head towards an open drawbridge.”
As a train of people approaches the drawbridge, the son of the worker attempts to pull the lever in order to close the bridge. While he is struggling to grasp the handle, his father watches him fall in beneath the rail, all as the steam train is quickly coming.  Throughout the clip, these captions fade across the screen: “Once there was a man, who had a son he loved very much. The man worked as a bridge master for the railroad....His son loved to watch the trains...and the people who traveled on them...people who were lonely...angry...selfish...hurting...and addicted....A tragic mistake...leads to a terrible choice...allow everyone on the train to die...or pull the lever...and allow his son to be crushed by the bridge...”. A fury of contemplation is filling up the weary man’s face as he holds the handle, torn between the decision to save his one and only son, or have mercy on all of the struggling people; those unaware of his heartbreaking choice.   In the last second, the man snaps the lever and the clip freezes, allowing for the audience to absorb the sacrifice the father just made. Immediately following, the man is beside the railroad as the train passes, and he is screaming, stricken with overwhelming grief. He pulls at the hair on his head with stiff, curling fingers and paces back and forth, swaying left to right. The windows of unsuspecting passengers are passing, and the only one to notice the man is the drug addicted woman. As she is lighting a substance, she meets eyes with the man as he lifts his head in desperation toward the gray sky. She realizes that she had seen him with his son as she boarded the train. The woman displays an unspoken ache for the bridge master, and suddenly drops the drug. The captions continue: “The Salvation of all...Requires the Sacrifice of One most dear....The Sacrifice of One...Brought hope for the future....” In the next scene the same woman – now presumably sober and born again with a new perspective and purpose – carries a small child through a crowd of people. The man is amidst the crowd and recognizes the woman. His seemingly unnoticed sacrifice is suddenly fulfilled in that brief moment, knowing that the woman used the opportunity he provided to turn her life into something praiseworthy.  As the woman walks away with the small baby, the man clasps his hands to his mouth and smiles. Had he not made the sacrifice, this woman would have never known her true value. The man raises his hands in the air, rejoicing. The clip fades to the most glorious statement: “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. John 3:16, The Message”. 
John 3:16 is illustrated in a way I hadn’t known before in this clip. The common relationship between a loving single father and his bright-eyed son is forever changed after the man’s heart-wrenching sacrifice in order to save people that were undeserving compared to his son. In a way, I think the man sacrificed his son in order to save me, had I been on the steam train. Distracted by elements of unworthiness, jealousy, obsession, hate and anger, had my life ended on that train, I would have never known my true worth and an unconditional love far beyond my understanding. Then I realize that such a thing has taken place, and I have been saved by the sacrifice of One’s only Son. By believing in Him – as this clip has inspired – I can have a whole and lasting life.

 

 

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