What can I say, what an amazing film: it is action packed, funny, it has a good storyline with interesting characters and it is even thought provoking.  (If you haven't watched it yet, make sure that you don't leave when the credits start to roll at the end becasue you will miss the final scene).

One of the things that I found interesting is the way that Tony Stark (Iron Man) copes with the knowledge that he is dying.

In the first film, he creates a device called an arc reactor that keeps his heart beating. It is also this powerful device that powers his Iron Man suit allowing him to be a superhero. The real irony is that this device that is keeping him alive is also slowly killing him. The palladium in the arc reactor has begun to poison his body, slowly killing him, and all his attempts to find a substitute element have failed. Tony becomes depressed and dissilusioned and he even ends up driving one of his closest friends away. Iron Man is a symbol of hope to the world and yet he himself has lost all hope.

An encounter with a character called Nick Fury changes everything. He gives Tony an injection that slows the poisoning and he also provides him with a chest of his father's old artifacts that can hopefully be used to find a cure for his palladium poisoning. While watching the film reels from the chest, Tony discovers a message from his father that leads him to find a disguised diagram for the atomic structure of a new element. (The disguised diagram is in a model of an expo that would allow people to showcase their new inventions. This was part of the fathers hope for a better future for the world). Tony hand builds a particle accelerator (as you do!) and synthesizes this new element, creating a new triangular chest arc that means that he keeps his power and stays alive without the poisonus element.

All this made me stop and think about what is fueling us. What energizes us? What do we depend on? It made me wonder if we too depend on things that we think are good for us, but that are actually toxic.  It is easy to think of a drug addict or an alcoholic as a classic example of this, but someone can as easily be addicted to shopping and having to spend money they don't have, or to pornography or to having to be the centre of attention. All of these things make us feel good in the moment, but in the long term they will destroy our lives.

If you become aware of something that you are depending on that is toxic in your life, then I would encourage you to turn to God. He has the power to set you free and he will meet your needs if you trust him. In the Bible God calls himself our father: Tony's father left him a visoion of hope for the future and that vision contained the information that healed and set him free. In the same way, our heavenly father has given us hope through the Bible which contains the truth that can set us free and heal us. All we need to do is believe and respond.

With hope restored and healing received, Iron Man is able to save the day from the bad guys. If we allow God to heal and bring his hope, we too will be transformed for the better (although I don't expect that he will give us Iron Suits so that we can fly - what a shame!)