Dark Knight

I paid my rare visit to a movie theater lately to see Batman II.  As this movie came out, I was greatly impacted by the death of the actor who played Joker, Heath Ledger. He is from Australia, quite handsome, and in many ways quite admirable outwardly. In fact, he was kind of my idol or role model until not too long ago. I watched him in a teenager movie called “10 Things I Hate About You.” I was just drawn to his cool and confident character there. There was a line that says “don’t let anyone make you think you don’t deserve what you want,” as he was encouraging a friend in wooing a girl. That was so cool.

In his real life, he was a talented actor, became famous, made a good fortune, was handsome, and had dated very attractive women. He had it all. There should not have been anything that he lacked. So I was very surprised by his death and sad. He was the same age as me, and was similar in looks to me–good looking. I thought I lost a dear friend. But it made me realize one thing. All the things that the world is going after, beauty, fame, charisma, and money–all these cannot fill us humans at all.

When I was in Thailand last month, I got to visit a hospital and a facility for the lepers. I met an elderly gentleman who lived there for most of his life. His face was all mangled, had all his fingers deformed, and he was in no form to be attractive. Probably everyone in the old times had been scared to see him, rejected him. Looking at this person, there is no hope in worldly eyes. But as I saw this man, I saw a child of God, dearly and deeply loved. I understood that our main hope and joy and strength can be found in God right now–for this leper… and for everyone else.