The Order of the Phoenix

In Swiss cinemas, movies are paused in the middle so that people can take a break.. (but I don't need a break!) The stopping point is chosen exactly at the middle of the movie so most of the time the line got cut just as the characters were speaking... nevertheless I enjoyed my first movie experience in Switzerland, with my favorite Harry Potter now the 5th story.

They have terribly grown up a lot.. now Harry had a girlfriend not sure whether the story will continue into Harry's getting married (can't imagine!). Fortunately seems that the author has decided to end the whole Potter story.

I like this one the most because Harry has grown more mature and he was facing more challenges. When he was a kid his only danger was his enemies who were much stronger and powerful than he was, while now he sometimes has to struggle with himself. Welcome to the adults' world Harry! Human hearts are not just as simple. Realizing the angry dark side in his heart Harry said to Sirius "I'm afraid I'm a bad person", and I like Sirius' answer "we all have good and bad sides in our hearts it is which side you choose to act on". This reminds me of how we live our lives as Christians. We were all born with sins that never go away from us until the day we die. Even the most faithful Christian sometimes has the desire to sin, if not everyday. The desire to sin does not make us sinners, as long as we fight with it and choose not to act on the desire. However, if this world did not have a God that is righteous and almighty, like in the movie if Voldemort the dark Lord was the highest and most powerful being, how desperate would it be then -- in fact I think if that was the case, there would have been no need to fight with our sinful desires.. why not just go with them and we would have all gone to hell in the end anyway.

If there was no such God, Harry wouldn't have won the battle with Voldemort in the end. Seems that love and joy had defeated Voldemort. But love or joy are emotions that can be controlled by human beings -- "we want to defeat the dark lord? we just need to love each other. " It doesn't sound too hard to accomplish, at least it is not entirely impossible, even without any extraterritorial help. We, as human beings the created thing, still believe in our own abilities so much that we think somehow our intrinsic potential, if being stimulated to the highest extent, could defeat anything. This is the so-called "self-righteousness".

It is just a movie and still, I love the scene when Harry was possessed by Voldemort and finally Harry won by going through all the lovely memories in his mind. He said to Voldemort "I have friends and love and I feel sorry for you". I've never thought this way before. If the dark lord is indeed someone completely deprived of love, joy, all the beautiful, pure, good, just things that ever exist, I really do feel sorry for him. What is the use of his power? Even powerless human sinners like us sometimes do feel all the beautiful things and think our life is worth living.

I praise our God for being the righteous, loving, sovereign God that is above all power, higher than all kings and eternal in time. It is within Him that we have all our hopes.