might as well face it, you're addicted to...

24?

in my last sermon at duncanville, i mentioned that i was a recovering soap opera addict-- that i have been clean for 15 years, but when i was in college i was a nut for days of our lives. not one of my proudest moments.

now i am a desperate addict of 24. this happened mostly by accident. until a couple of weeks ago, i never watched an episode. then i decided to re-up with netflix, and, after hearing and reading hype from 24 lovers everywhere, put it at the top of my list. it's been there ever since.

the thing is, quickly into the first disc (each disc holds four episodes, so it's like three hours of commercial-free entertainment) christy and i were both hooked. jack bauer works for ctu, a counter-terrorism unit in los angeles. his family is kidnapped and he is involved in a plot to assassinate a presidential candidate. it's a very intense, and very real, show. this is not news to anyone who has watched jack try to hunt down the bad guys by any means necessary.

we soon decided to upgrade on netflix to three movies at a time, another $7/month. we did this because we were driving to mckinney or frisco to get the next episode (easily a 30-60 minute round trip, depending on store location). too impatient to wait for the postal service! even after the upgrade we're still traveling. does it really take two days to send something from coppell to prosper? cmon! don't they know what it's doing to us???

tonight we'll finish season 2. then we'll face the difficult decision of waiting until after our england trip next week to begin season 3. no, christy is not willing to go six hours a night to squeeze it in. believe me, i tried.

i suppose the appeal of 24 is this: jack bauer represents our own troubles. the show debuted in 2001, right around the time of the sept. 11 attacks. we live in uncertain times, and it's sort of eerie how the show predicts what is happening in the real world. for example, in season 2 the president is reluctant to go forward with a war until he is convinced his evidence is 100% flawless. our own government struggled with the same thing, preparing to go to war in iraq, in 2002-2003, about the same time this was played out on 24.

it's been said before in many places: people need a hero. we need to believe there is someone out there who can deal with the world's problems that seem too overhwelming for us normal folk. sometimes they can fly or are super strong or can make that impossible moral decision in the moment that the rest of us would need time to consider the consequences.

as a person of faith, i believe that things are not as bad as they seem in the world. i believe God has not abandoned us, so i do not look upon the world with despair. my hope is in God, not a fictional character. still, jack bauer is appealing. even haunting. unlike my soap opera days, i am not ashamed to admit my addiction to 24. and if that next disc is not in my post box this morning, i'll...

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