In this episode of Breaking Bad Walter and his family begin to deal with the fact that Walter has lung cancer. Skyler, Walter's wife, is devestated by the fact that Walter has lung. She is willing to try anything to help him get better. Skyler has her sister set Walter up with the best oncology doctor that she knows of. Walter is hesitant to go through the treatment that the doctor recommends due to the cost and the side-effects that is cause by chemotherapy and radiation. Jesse on the other hand, is becoming very paanoid becuase of the meth and decides to go to his parents house. While at his parents house he reconnects with his parents and his younger brother. This is a very different side of Jesse that we see as he is with his parents and looks through his old stuff from his childhood. Toward the end of the episode Jesse shows up at Walter's house to give him the rest of the money that he made off of selling the rest of the meth. Walter kicks him out of the house and tells him never come back. Jesse procedes to go home where the maid found a blunt in his room, and his parent s kick him out. As he is standing outside of his parent's house waiting for a cab his little brother comes out and thanks Jesse for not telling his parents that it was his blunt. At the end of the episode Walter runs into a man who was rude to him at the credit union and sticks the window washer in the hood of the car and it blows up as Walter drives off.
In this episode, the focus is primary on the families of both Walter and Jesse. The audience begins to see a new side to Jesse due to his family. Jesse didn't come from a "broken home", he comes from a home where his parents are still married and seem to make an effort to be engaged in their children's lives. They have given Jesse multiple chance to change and he has not done so but they still allow him to stay with them. Jesse as manners as you can see as he sets the table for his mom before dinner is served. This kind of family situation makes me wonder how he got to where he is. What happened in his life to make him into who he is now. What events caused him to be with way and what kind of people influenced him. Does the way that he turned out suggest that his parents were not as involved as they seem? This episode is a commentary on the family structure and indivdiuals who are probably not fitting into the family structure the way that others are.
Family is so important and it is valuable to put time and effort into them, to figure out the issues that are found within even the most seemingly healthy family systems. This also raises the question of how does the church help those woh are disenfranchised from their families. What is our role and how do we create a family system with in the church?
Friday, October 26, 2012
Friday, October 19, 2012
Breaking Bad Episode 3
This episode of Breaking Bad begins where the second episode left off. Walker and Jesse are in a predicament with the acid soaked remains of Emilio on the floor and Crazy 8 in the basement locked up waiting for death. In this Episode Walter is really dealing with the weight of life and if he can bring himself to kill Crazy 8. During this episode we see Walter growing more aggressive however, the cancer limits his aggressions. Walter struggles with this weight of killing crazy 8 by himself (because Jesse ran off to escape his problems with sex and drugs). During this time he tries to carry on a human conversation with Crazy 8 trying to find any reason not to kill him and when he decides to let him go comes to the awful realization that Crazy 8 intends to kill Walter as soon as he is let go. This drives Walter to strangling Crazy 8 with the bike lock and going home.
This episode is full of commentary on human life. Walter at the beginning flashes back to a younger him breaking down the human chemically and stating that "there must be more to a human than this". This is profound in the episode as Walter struggles with killing Crazy 8. Walter also tries to find any humanity and bond with Crazy 8 only to find that the man intends to kill him. This drives Walter to believe that there isn't more to human life and kills Crazy 8. The progression of Walter's character is that he is straying further away from who he once used to be.
The question of this episode is what is there to humanity? What is there that makes a human up? re we all just chemistry or is there a soul that is involved? This is vital to our culture and ministry to our generation. This is a question that our generation struggles with and we can help bring clarity to that question with God and the gospel.
This episode is full of commentary on human life. Walter at the beginning flashes back to a younger him breaking down the human chemically and stating that "there must be more to a human than this". This is profound in the episode as Walter struggles with killing Crazy 8. Walter also tries to find any humanity and bond with Crazy 8 only to find that the man intends to kill him. This drives Walter to believe that there isn't more to human life and kills Crazy 8. The progression of Walter's character is that he is straying further away from who he once used to be.
The question of this episode is what is there to humanity? What is there that makes a human up? re we all just chemistry or is there a soul that is involved? This is vital to our culture and ministry to our generation. This is a question that our generation struggles with and we can help bring clarity to that question with God and the gospel.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Breaking Bad Ep. 2
This week on Breaking Bad, Walter and his "associate" Pinkerman have to figure out what they are going to do with the body of Emilio and the partially deceased "Cray Eights". In this Episode, Walter is faced with a new kind of low... he is now a murderer. Not only is Walter a murderer but he has to figure out what he is going to do with a half dead man. This begins the even further, moral digression that is happening. Walter cannot bring himself to murder Crazy Eight and turns to smoking pot to avoid his problems. Not only is Walter in a state of conflict with what he is doing and his morals but now his wife, Skyler is beginning to get suspicious of his odd behavior. She goes on the hunt to figure out what is going on with her husband, by finding Pinkerman and confronting him about selling Walter weed, while he is trying to dispose of Emilio's body. Pinkerman deals with Skyler and then moves the body into the bathtub in his home to soak the body in acid to dispose of it. This ends up proving even further that Pinkerman does not know what he is doing because the acid soaks through the tub causing the acid to erode the tub and cause the bloody remains of the body to fall to the first floor of the house.
In this episode Walter is now turning to drugs to handle his problems. He can't trust his partner and he can't tell anyone else so he turns to pot to cope with the pain of not only his cancer but to remove himself with the gravity of he situation he has found himself in. He is desperate, uncomfortable, and has no idea how to handle this situation. He is becoming a different person, slowly changing to the culture he has thrown himself into however he still feels guilty. He tries to be kind to Crazy Eight and cannot bring himself to murder him. Walter is removing himself from reality to deal with the pain.
Many times I believe that people find themselves in the a position similar to Walter's. They feel forced into bad situations to survive and need a way to escape the terrible truth of what their lives are becoming. They see no way out, so they run to something that will make them feel better for a moment. In ministry we are going to deal with this repeatedly whether it is with others or ourselves. We all want a quick fix but that isn't the business that Jesus deals in. He is our savior and the one who restores and brings about life through transformation. As a person who desires to minister to people, we have to be willing to understand what got them to this point, because it doesn't just happen. We also need to be willing to walk with them in their pain and help show them a God that they can turn too.
In this episode Walter is now turning to drugs to handle his problems. He can't trust his partner and he can't tell anyone else so he turns to pot to cope with the pain of not only his cancer but to remove himself with the gravity of he situation he has found himself in. He is desperate, uncomfortable, and has no idea how to handle this situation. He is becoming a different person, slowly changing to the culture he has thrown himself into however he still feels guilty. He tries to be kind to Crazy Eight and cannot bring himself to murder him. Walter is removing himself from reality to deal with the pain.
Many times I believe that people find themselves in the a position similar to Walter's. They feel forced into bad situations to survive and need a way to escape the terrible truth of what their lives are becoming. They see no way out, so they run to something that will make them feel better for a moment. In ministry we are going to deal with this repeatedly whether it is with others or ourselves. We all want a quick fix but that isn't the business that Jesus deals in. He is our savior and the one who restores and brings about life through transformation. As a person who desires to minister to people, we have to be willing to understand what got them to this point, because it doesn't just happen. We also need to be willing to walk with them in their pain and help show them a God that they can turn too.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Breaking Bad Episode 1
Desperate times call for desperate measures. If there is one thing that I observed from this week's episode of Breaking Bad is that the main character Walter White (played by Bryan Cranston) is desperate!
Walter is a common chemistry teacher, also working a job at a car wash. He is dissatisfied with life but loves his family. A few days after his fiftieth birthday he discovers he has lung cancer, that will eventually take his life. At this news Walter makes a rash decision to begin "cooking" crystal meth. After doing a ride along during a bust of a meth lab with his brother-in-law who is a DEA agent hooks up with a fromer students and begins cooking crystal meth. This in fact is a desperate measure!
As crazy as this plot is you can see the humanity in Walter's decision. He doesn't do this out of some crazy death wish but a desire to provide for his family in a way that teaching and working at a car wash can't. It goes unsaid but Walter wants to leave his pregnant wife and disabled son with something more than debt and sorrow. He wants to provide for them and he is uses his skills as a chemist to do so.
This show is a commentary on our society, no matter how drastic. Like a said before desperate times call for desperate measures and people all around us have hit a desperate time, in fact our country has hit a desperate time. So waht does that mean for Christians who believe that in the pits of life our way out is Jesus. How do we help and love those who are in desperate times? That is the question that my generation of leaders has to wrestle with. How do we help the Walt White's who are dying and want nothing more but to help provide for their families? How do we point them to the ultimate provider?
Walter is a common chemistry teacher, also working a job at a car wash. He is dissatisfied with life but loves his family. A few days after his fiftieth birthday he discovers he has lung cancer, that will eventually take his life. At this news Walter makes a rash decision to begin "cooking" crystal meth. After doing a ride along during a bust of a meth lab with his brother-in-law who is a DEA agent hooks up with a fromer students and begins cooking crystal meth. This in fact is a desperate measure!
As crazy as this plot is you can see the humanity in Walter's decision. He doesn't do this out of some crazy death wish but a desire to provide for his family in a way that teaching and working at a car wash can't. It goes unsaid but Walter wants to leave his pregnant wife and disabled son with something more than debt and sorrow. He wants to provide for them and he is uses his skills as a chemist to do so.
This show is a commentary on our society, no matter how drastic. Like a said before desperate times call for desperate measures and people all around us have hit a desperate time, in fact our country has hit a desperate time. So waht does that mean for Christians who believe that in the pits of life our way out is Jesus. How do we help and love those who are in desperate times? That is the question that my generation of leaders has to wrestle with. How do we help the Walt White's who are dying and want nothing more but to help provide for their families? How do we point them to the ultimate provider?
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