"Every passing minute..."

is another chance to turn it all around." That line was floating through my mind today for some reason. It caught so much of my attention that eventually I had to do some research to find out where it came from. It turns out it's from a movie called Vanilla Sky. I remember watching the movie and being so engrossed by the story that it left me feeling almost violated by how deep it took me into the life of the main character, played by Tom Cruise, and how much I could relate to him. I remember telling my roommate at the time that I hated it because it was so weird and too artsy for my taste. But I realized today, all these years later, while I may not like the movie, it is still a great story. It sucked me in, made my feel something, and more than anything it made me reflect on what my own life has been and how I choose to live it. It resonated with me so deeply that as I sat in church and thought about what the past year has been like for me, a quote from that movie is what my brain conjured up.

"Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around." I know sometimes I go into a tail spin once things start going wrong, and I know that things start going wrong right when I'm aligned most with God's will for my life. C.S Lewis once wrote that Satan is all about the least amount of effort for the greatest impact. That's why we often see our Christian leaders fall so hard. Pastors, Priests, Elders, etc. get caught up in sex scandals, embezzlement, and other various departures from acceptable behavior. The devil is a crafty SOB and he works on those who are the most noticeable, for their fall will create the greatest amount of collateral damage.

No one ministers to the ministers and the spotlight hides nothing. This past week, Jason Russell, one of the founders of Invisible Children and the creator of the KONY2012 campaign got drunk, exposed himself in the streets of San Diego, started vandalizing cars, and was eventually arrested by SDPD. I am in no way trying to express any feelings of superiority or judgement by sharing this story, for I have done some truly idiotic things while under the influence. Luckily, there was no spotlight on my life at the time. I completely empathize with Jason's situation. He is a devout Christian, but his documentary brought on the attention and scrutiny of the whole world which Satan used to break him. The KONY documentary attained over 100 million views over a few short weeks and positive change was sweeping over a situation that Satan had kept secret for decades. That, my friends, warrants a large bounty from the Devil himself. I don't care how devout a Christian you are, when Satan puts that kind of pressure on you, compounded by that much stress and attention, it takes a miracle not to crack. (not to say that Satan can't be resisted though)

I mention that story for the sole purpose of saying that we are all going to fall pretty hard someday. Those who never fall, never take a serious leap of faith towards God's call in their life. The important thing is to remember that His love and mercies are new every single minute of every day. The night may bring the storm, but the day will always give us the opportunity to turn it all around. We can sulk in despair as we dwell on how we will always fail and are never good enough, or we can choose to stop that toxic mindset this very instant. Every passing minute God gives us the chance to view ourselves as He does. This life is fleeting and to waste another minute with our hearts heavy laden with guilt because we can't live up to some divine standard that doesn't even exist would be a slight against God's overwhelming forgiveness for our sins. It's easy for God to forgive us, what's often harder is for us to forgive ourselves. I know Jason Russell probably feels that way today. I know I feel that way far too often. But, so help me God, I'm determined not to let it stay that way.