‘They always say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.’— Andy Warhol
The Way Back is not your typical war movie, even though it stars two of Hollywood’s go-to tough guys, Ed Harris and Colin Farrell.
The movie tells the do or die story of a worn out bunch of prisoners and their valiant, beyond all reasonable limits effort to escape certain starvation in Stalin’s freezing Gulag in Siberia. Probably the most inhospitable place on earth.
The only thing time is going to change for these prisoners is how and when they take their last breath. Their only option is to change themselves, by taking one ragged step at a time towards their freedom.
The movie is based on controversial memoir The Long Walk written by Polish ex-Prisoner of War, Slavomir Rawicz, who claimed to have escaped from the Siberian Gulag and walked 1,00os of miles to freedom from the threat of Communism and War, finally arriving in Persia. The movie takes a slightly different path as we follow the fate of our scrappy group of escapees walking doggedly across Siberia, into Mongolia, through the Gobi Desert into China and onward into British-controlled India.
As the story unfolds we become more familiar with these unlikely traveling companions ; there’s Mr. Smith, an American engineer who came to Russia to work on the Moscow metro and whose son was killed in one of Stalin’s purges, there’s an artist named Tamasz, a Latvian priest called Voss.
What binds the group to their impossible journey, and later to each other, is their collective will to fight for life and life lived free.
At times, we can become prisoners to a frozen past, an unrelenting present or a grim future. We can lose people we love, be at war with ourselves, get stuck in unhealthy patterns of behaviour, be ravaged by sickness or depression.
If you are struggling with anything that you cannot but want to overcome. If you are living a lie, if you are imprisoned in your past or you are a slave to behaviour that you want to be rid of. Take it from someone who has been there, sometimes your only option is change yourself, by taking one ragged step at a time towards your freedom.
You may feel worn out, unable, without hope. Finished. If so, here’s my prayer for you today:
We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that He has for us. Colossians 1 v11-12, The Message
God goes with you on your impossible journey, and it is all His heart that you will take hold of His strength that spills over into joy. His strength to make you strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that He has for you.
He believes in you!
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My father-in-law Arthur Smith and a friend of his, who i no longer remember his name, escaped from a Japanese prisoner of war camp during WWII. They spent 3 weeks treking through the jungle already malnourished from their treatment within the camp. Arthur ate bugs, plants and whatever else he could force himself to eat but alas his friend couldnt force himself to eat that kind of diet. Sadly by the time they reached safety Arthur friend’s stomach lining had actually stuck together and he could no longer eat and 3 days later he died. Arthur’s lasting memory of his friend is one final picture of them together and his lasting memory of the Japs – not good. Brave men and true, it will be 20 yrs in June since Arthur died after suffering a stroke. Our memories of him are his journals which he kept faithfully. Life has thrown many things my way some good some bad, very bad and i still carry them around but maybe its time to put them down and walk on without them.
@Bev
Thank you for stopping by ClairesTeaParty and for sharing your remarkable story. My family also lived through the consequences of World War II and I know very well how significant those consequences can be.
I am only now learning to walk out of the shadows. To remember the bravery, the endurance, the sacrifice and the loss and to embrace what our families fought and died for. Our freedom.
Much love to you and May His peace keep you, always.
Claire, your words always refresh me. I have been reading Man’s Search for Meaning and this is the same message in a way–we must find some sort of higher meaning to keep us going in hard times. This is how we can transcend the suffering, how we can transform ourselves. It sounds like a good story.
Yes, many times we find ourselves to be prisoners to a certain pattern of life, but just like that poem (Footprints in the Sand) says, even when we don’t see two sets of footprints, He’s carrying us. And I will add that He’s there with us all the way to this path of freedom.
I loved this, “God goes with you on your impossible journey, and it is all His heart that you will take hold of His strength that spills over into joy.”
Anxiety has been a plague to me lately… the kind that causes your adrenal glands to race before you can even stand on the Lord. I know it’s been an attack after months of peace in the Lord and knowing Him more and more as my provider, deliverer etc. Then a friend sent me a new CD by Shannon Wexelberg… The last song on the CD is based on Ps 23… the Lord bringing us out of the shadows… setting a feast for us before our enemies… leading us by such calm waters. And as I let those words flow over me each time I’m in the car, God has been restoring me and moving in His promises. He is truly our Jehovah Shalom (as another beautiful song on the CD declares) and I am so grateful to read your beautiful words of testimony to how He is bringing you forth into that beautiful freedom… Thanks for sharing Claire
— Pam
@Pam, that is the only Psalm I go to when I am feeling like that
Absolutely the best.
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