Yesterday I talked about a movie, The Company You Keep, which I found rather meaningful, in a good way.  I talk today about another movie I saw recently, a movie which I found meaningful, though in a different way.  It is This is the End.  Starring a phalanx of actors whose comic roles have endeared them to countless Millennials, actors like Seth Rogan, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, and James Franco (although to be fair, I should say that Franco was superb in the drama of 127 Hours, and Hill quite impressive in the perilous plot lines of Wolf of Wall Street), This is the End presents a Los Angeles teetering on the edge of catastrophe, its streets torn up by monster earthquakes, demons roaming through the ruins, widespread lawlessness, a city in its final throes of existence.
     In the midst of this chaos, our intrepid group of actors struggle to survive.  As the movie travels to its conclusion, we see them learn that survival lies in self-sacrifice, to willingly die for the good of the others.  So it goes that at the end of the movie, the three (and I won't say whom) who sincerely done this wind up in heaven, replete with halos and white robes.  They had met the requirements.
     Unless one is astonishingly consumed with himself, it's difficult to argue that sacrificing oneself, even to the point of death, for the good of others is a bad thing.  After all, Jesus said that, "There is no greater love than that a person gives his life for a friend."  Even if we believe that we are going to heaven (indeed, even if we do not!), we should still be willing to give ourselves totally for the good of others.  Ultimately, however, heaven is not about doing, but believing, believing in what heaven means.  Heaven means that God is love, and God is love means we can trust, absolutely and totally, our belief in him.  that of course is the essence of faith.  That's why Jesus died, that's why Jesus rose again, and that's why we will see God most clearly when we let go of what we think we can or should do and simply believe that he is true.
     Is this easy?  Not always:  it will change your life.  But that's OK.  To paraphrase a memorable line from Star Trek, however, I will put it this way:  "Faith:  the final frontier."