麻豆约拍

So here we are. A global pandemic. War in Europe. 1.7 million people abandoning homes and cars and fleeing to neighbouring countries.聽聽It feels to me like I am in living in some sort of mash-up of all the disaster movies I ever watched as a child. I鈥檓 half expecting to wake up one morning and find aliens have landed or a giant gorilla has scaled the Empire State building or bloodthirsty dinosaurs are running amok in our streets.聽聽

That鈥檚 when I catch myself imagining a Will Smith,聽聽Charlize Theron or The Rock appearing to save the day. Nothing can stop them: not upside-down boats, meteor strikes, eco-catastrophe, giant tidal waves or the collapse of world orders. They will be in the right place at the right time with the right intel and an array of improvised gadgets. They will prove once again that good triumphs over evil. It turns out all those disaster movies I watched as a child did not just give me nightmares and chewed-up nails, but hope. They made me believe true heroes will emerge in times of crisis. Baddies will get their just desserts. Monsters can be overpowered. Enemies will be reconciled and forgotten values of kindness, community and solidarity will rise from the ashes.聽

Just when I was beginning to think that this hope was just a Hollywood myth, I spoke to my friend Yuri in his lounge in Kyiv. We were joined on the video call by thousands of people from around the world wanting to pray for and with Ukrainians. Yuri explained how desperate the situation was. It was like drinking coffee without water, he said. Bitter. Sickening. But there was also hope in his words. In the midst of disaster, he still trusted in God鈥檚 promise that good would ultimately triumph over evil. As Yuri prayed for those he knew sheltering from the bombs, for the women and children he was helping to feed and get to safety and even for the Russian mothers who were grieving their dead sons, he showed me that our Hollywood movies hadn鈥檛 been altogether wrong. In these difficult days disaster movies can help to remind us that Hope is the Oxygen of the Soul. Tonight I鈥檒l be praying for good to triumph over evil as I re-watch one of our family favourites: Towering Inferno, Titanic or Chernobyl.聽