James J. Braddock

I watched Cinderella Man today and am really quite amazed at how affected I was by it. The movie is about a James J. Braddock, a boxer who fell on really tough times during the Great Depression and how he fought back to the top when a second chance presented itself. It would have been another cliche fairy tale boxing story, I think, had it not been for Russel Crowe's quite stellar acting and how real the frugality felt to me. I could definitely connect to how it feels to have a guy cut off your electricity right in front of your doorstep. I have never had to beg openly for money to reconnect my lights but I can definitely imagine the sheer desperation of a father with 3 children to feed and having no other choice. I felt the tenacity of a man, old and untrained, about to be beaten down in the boxing ring.. who knows that he has NO CHOICE but to fight one and win. No choice BUT to win. Because he knows he cannot return home and look into the eyes of his children and tell them that he has failed and given up. That he just can't do it. That there won't be food for them. That he can't get the electricity going. That he can't keep the roof over their heads. No loving father can bear to do that.

It was only at the end of the movie that I realized how beautiful and blessed it was for the people who endure through such times to come out with something intangible, precious and priceless. With faith, we will be pressed but never be broken and God willing, we will bear out of this crucible as steel. It is during our hard moments that we know the meaning of hope, faith, endurance, it is from these moments that we know the meaning of blessings and it is after these moments that we realize the beautiful story that God has prepared our life to be.

I have tremendous respect to the people who have turned around adversity to blessings with legendary humility. Go watch the Cinderella Man and compare the stuff that we're made of to the man known as James J. Braddock.