A few weeks ago I found myself in bed not sleepy, but too lazy to get up. So I grabbed my iPad and checkout what was new on Netflix. I am a big documentary fan. I love them, I think I watch them because I think they make me smarter or something. So I am browsing and I run into the movie “Grizzly Man”. It tells of the story of Timothy Treadwell and his journey to live with bears in Alaska. Most of the documentary is his own footage (over 100 hrs). He lived 13 summers with these bears, Grizzly Bears!
Tim got so close to the bears it was crazy. You can tell that he preferred the bears to humans. To his understanding he had a mutual trust and understanding with the bears, even naming a few, touching some and playing with some cubs. But it still didn’t take away the fact that these were WILD BEARS! Watching some encounters that Tim has would get your heart racing. In my head I am thinking “this guy is nuts!” You can sense the love he had for these bears, but again…THEY ARE WILD!
Unfortunately at the end of the summer of 2003 Tim and his girlfriend Amie were attacked and partially eaten by a grizzly. There were some factors that many think that caused this. Some stated that being the end of summer food was low and the bears were trying to get a good last meal before the fall. Others think that the bears that were normally in that area had moved on and the bear that attacked them were bears trekking north. Tim was never there that late in the season. Whatever happened that day meant the end to Tim’s life. In the film the director of the film listened to the audio of the attack. The camera was rolling but the lens cap was on. The audience doesn’t get to hear the audio of the attack, but the director couldn’t listen to all of it and says “turn, it off, just turn it off”.Not hearing it the audio still got my heart pumping as the audio is being described.
After the movie ended I laid there for a bit, my heart still racing from the film and I began to think. How can I apply this to my life? The dude was living with wild Grizzly bears, no matter if you think you have a mutual respect and understanding with them, it didn’t matter if you named them like a pet or played with cubs…they are freaking wild grizzly bears! It doesn’t matter if you lived with them for 13 summers and feel like you are their protector…they are freaking wild grizzly bears!
It doesn’t matter if you think that you have the bad habit, that undercover sin under wraps. Sooner or later it WILL get you. It doesn’t matter how long you have controlled it…it WILL get you. It’s not a matter of if, but WHEN. Hiding faults, shortcomings or our sin is easy to do. This is what I got from this movie. It was heavy, but a good reminder that I am not on this faith journey alone. I am thankful for my wife, my parents and my church family, and I cling on to 2 Corinthians 5:17 “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”