Freedom and Hope

This post is mostly for me.... because I can't get the Palmer family out of my head.


1.
From a scene in V for Vendetta [spoiler alert]:

INTERROGATOR
We'd like you to sign that for us, Miss Hammond. Where we've put the little cross.

She blinks.

EVEY
No.

INTERROGATOR
As you wish.

Rossiter begins unbuckling Evey's restraints.

INTERROGATOR
Escort Miss Hammond back to her cell, Rossiter, where she will wait while you arrange a wet detail of six men.

He forces Evey to her feet.

INTERROGATOR
Then take her out behind the chemical sheds and shoot her.

INT. CELL

The door opens behind Evey as she rereads Valerie's letter for the last time.

ROSSITER
It's time, unless you want to change your mind.

She holds the tattered piece of toilet paper to her chest.

ROSSITER
Sign that statement. You could be
out inside three years. Perhaps
they'd find you a job with the
Finger.

Evey closes her eyes.

EVEY
Thank you but I'd rather die behind
the chemical sheds.

Her last words hang in the air.

ROSSITER
Then there's nothing left to
threaten you with, is there? You
are free.

2.

I guess what I really want to say is just this: be hopeul. Don't stop fighting. On some level this thing is bigger than all of us. It's not about having a wife die of cancer at 26, and then 2 years later getting the same terminal illness. It's not about me and how I fight this disease or how our little family walks through it. The bigger picture is the battle against sickness and death that we all face because we live in a broken world. But it's even more about the Kingdom that has broken in and offers us a chance at relief from that disease. It offers health and victory where before there was none. There is hope in the midst of hopelessness. Death is not where we lose; the onset of hopelessness is the great defeater. So allow hope to rise up within you. And when it seems that hopefulness is the least appropriate response in this situation, let it rise up even more. Whisper your hope when you lie down at night; scream your hope when you wake in the morning. Live your hope as if it is the one and only thing that sustains you in this ravaged world. You will not be disappointed. - Palmer

3.
Matt 16
24Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.