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Janet & I watched Rocky Balboa, a.k.a. Rocky XLII. Rocky movies are getting to be like Super Bowls. They could use Roman numerals nobody understands, “What’s an L stand for? If there’s an X before the L, how many is it?”
Not just that numbering thing throws me off but Rocky spits out cliches and blood with remarkable regularity. Original dialog or realistic boxing cuts this film down to a 28 minute After School Special. This sappy film somehow earned a 76 on Rotten Tomatoes. I guess nobody heard that Stallone was busted in Australia transporting several vials of anabolic steroids.
With all that, there was one redeeming scene that landed a great punch. Rocky is trying to get his narcissistic son to realize that life is not always pretty. In fact, it’s often pretty cruel, but the measure is not on what knocks a fellow down, rather that he gets back up. Rocky tells the kid, “You got to keep moving forward.” I love that line! Keep moving forward. “Rocky” spoke from experience, of course, and I bet you can too.
Unfortunately, this fantastic scene of the father (who had it too tough) explaining life to his son (who had too easy, but still needs to learn from his own pain) is ruined at the end of the movie. But hey, let’s not let that bit of Hollywood underwriting dissuade us from understanding the deeper reality. A few inspired thoughts to close:
Prov. 24:16 [The godly] may trip seven times, but each time they will rise again. But one calamity is enough to lay the wicked low.
Prov. 24:10 If you fail under pressure, your strength is not very great.
Phil. 3:13-14 No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.
Keep moving forward.
