Tommy Olsen

This year has been an interesting one so far. Without getting into too many details let’s just say that things have been good, but they have also been hard. A long time ago I accepted that no matter what I do in my life there are going to be hard things that will happen to me, and that I am going to have to do my best to endure and have a positive attitude about them. But for some reason this year I felt that my hardships seemed to weigh me down more than usual. Whether it was financial struggles, my wife's constant sickness, confusion about career paths, or the spiritual battles I have faced, things seemed to be a little more difficult than usual. I felt more discouraged, and more distracted than normal. I doubted and complained more, and I felt that I didn't have as much hope. I've experienced these feeling at various moments through out my life, but many times this year they seemed to linger more than usual.

(To help paint the picture, for anyone who's read or seen Harry Potter I kind of felt like how Harry feels in the Order of the Phoenix)

After a lot pondering I felt as though my faith in things was beginning to dwindle. Not only my faith in my religious beliefs, but also faith in other things as well. I've always considered faith as the belief or trust in something that leads to action. Faith, is one of the most basic principles in life, and it seemed to be falling out of my grasp.

As I started to recognize that faith was missing from my life I also started watching the TV show Lost (which has become one of my favorite new shows).

(Once again I am going to use another pop culture reference because that's what I do, I watch movies and TV and think of how I can apply it to my life. I think that's really just my way of justifying watching so many movies.)

Lost is about a group of strangers that are abandoned on a mysterious island, and the show chronicles their efforts to try and get off the island. As I watched it there was one character, John Locke, that was really interesting to me. If there was one characteristic that defined John Locke it would be his faith, and his belief that he had a purpose on the island. He was an ordinary man, who had experienced a very hard and sad life. When he first landed on the island he had an experience that changed him. It caused him to believe that there was a bigger purpose to him being on the island. Most of the people around him doubted him, and thought he was crazy, but he didn't let that stop him. He went out and tried to discover the mysteries that the island held. He exercised his faith, but many times he ended up failing which caused him to doubt again. Then something else would happen that would renew his faith, and give him determination to move forward again.

Locke made a lot of mistakes along the way in developing his faith, but it always made him stronger person. In the end he was never really able to fully understand the full secrets of the island, but he always received the answers he needed at the time he needed them.

Life is so much like being lost on an island with no really direction or purpose. Just as John Locke and the other characters were all lost on the island, we in sense are all lost here on earth. We are trying to finding purpose, understanding, and meaning to everything. We have experiences that lead us to either accept faith or deny it, and most of it depends on our attitude. Just like they don’t find answers to everything that happens around them, we too won’t have answers to every question, but we can find answers to the most important ones, and that is where faith comes in.

After watching this show, and through a few other experiences, I realized that I was lacking the first step of faith. Instead of believing I had been entertaining thoughts of doubt, disbelief, and discouragement. I was letting those moments of despair determine the outcome of my life, rather than believing in the things I knew and exercising my faith to determine my own outcomes.

Since this experience I have made a resolve that I would try and live as a Man of Faith. One who believes in and trusts in things I know and feel to be true. One who tries to avoid doubt, discouragement, distraction, disobedience, and disbelief.

This simple principle of faith (the belief or trust in something that leads to action) has been so pivotal and life changing in my life these last few months. I still struggle with being 100% faithful to the things I know, and like John Locke sometimes I fail. But I have felt a huge difference in my life as I have tried to live by faith, and not just on my own!

No matter what one believes in, faith is essential. I choose to have faith in Jesus Christ and his teachings, but whatever you believe in, have faith in something. I know that faith centered on Christ is what has helped me drive away fear, doubt, confusion, distraction, and discouragement!

So back in July I started watching the TV show Lost. I started watching it not expecting too much. I enjoyed the first episode but once I watched the fourth episode, Walkabout, I was hooked! From there on I pretty much binge watched the whole series and finished it in about 2 and half months.

(There are some spoilers, but not too many, so beware if you have seen the end don't want it spoiled)

After I finished season 1, I was so excited about this show that I posted on Facebook saying that Lost may be my new favorite TV show, but I was surprised by the response I got from it. There were a few people that said they loved it, but there was also a lot negativity towards it. I'm not gonna lie, I was a little discouraged by it, but I kept on watching, and the more I watched the more enthralled and excited I became. There were a few episodes here and there were just okay, but besides that almost every single episodes was outstanding, even if they didn't answer every question.

Then I got to final episode. The episode to close out the show, to sum everything up, and answer all the questions. Going into it I knew there were many people disappointed by it, but that there were also a lot who loved it. So what did I think of it........

Well at first I was a little confused (like I was many times watching this show), but then once I saw Jack meet up with everyone else and the Micheal Giacchino's music started playing I started to tear up like a little baby! Even though I didn't totally get what was going on, I knew that Jack was finally able to let go, and move on, and that the thing that was most important to him now was the relationships he made with the people on the island. And for me that was enough. I was satisfied, and the more I began to think about it, and piece together other things I began to love it even more. Now I can get why people were frustrated that it didn't answer every question, and there are still a few things that I wish could have been answered, but isn't that kind of how life is? We don't always get answers to everything, and rather than trying to answer everything we should focus on the things that are most important, like are our relationships, and learning to overcome our stumbling blocks in our our lives. Anyway that's what I got out of it, and I loved the final!

So with that all said here are 10 reasons why I thought Lost was amazing!

1. Interesting and Engaging Characters

From the beginning to the end, the writers of the show always put the characters above everything else, and for me that's why I think this show did so well. It was always about the characters. A lot of other movies and TV shows start off with focusing on an event or some kind of an idea, and then through in some characters. With Lost they started with characters, and then crafted everything else around them, and that's why I think this show was successful, and I was able to relate to all the characters. Even if there are still a lot of unanswered questions, and we got to see a darn good ending to some of the most amazing characters to ever grace television.

2. Mythology

I don't think I've ever seen anything like the mythology in Lost. From the time travel, the numbers, the monster, and the all amazing connections between characters, this show introduces so many fascinating concepts. Sure it doesn't conclude or explain all of them in detail, but it still added a great mystery and suspense to the show.

3. Interpretation

I loved the way they ended the show, and allowed the fans to interpret the ending in way that is satisfying to them. It gives a lot of answers, but not all of all them but at the same time it gives you enough to interpret it the way you would like. It's kind of like how the movie Inception ended and in how it never says whether or not the main character Cobb is still dreaming or not, but the important thing is that he is with his kids now (which was always his main goal). Lost ends in a similar way that shows that each of the characters were able to get what was most important to them. At least that's my interpretation.

4. Good vs. Evil

Lost has such an awesome narrative about good and evil. There are so many great analogies to the battle of good and evil. I'm not going to get into all of them, but one of my favorites is Jacob's wine bottle analogy.

5. Letting Go

One of the central themes of Lost is the idea of letting go. In a sense that is the reason why all of the characters were brought to the island in the first place, because they all had something they had to let go of in their lives. In the finale it shows through Jack's eyes that once someone is finally able to let go of certain things in our lives, they are finally able to move on to the next stage of their life.

6. Spiritual

I love that Lost was never afraid to tackle the subject of spirituality. Most of the media tends to stay away from it, even though it is huge part of a lot of peoples lives. I like how the spiritual themes though were never specific to one belief, but rather it embraces different ideas and then lets the viewers interpret them for themselves. One aspect of the finale I thought was interesting was when Jack goes into the church to see the coffin you see around him a collection of different religious symbols. I also really liked Ben's story of the apostle Thomas.

7. Time Travel

When time travel was first introduced to me on Lost, I was not really feeling it. I thought it seemed to be out of place, but as it began to unfold and explain it more I totally changed my attitude about it. Season 5 is probably one of my favorite season because the time travel was handled so well and was so interesting.

9. Faith & Science

This was another interesting theme that was explored throughout the show. Their's the man of science, Jack Shepard, and the man of faith, John Locke, and its intriguing to see how each of them respond to things taking place on the island. The show raises the question about whether the events on the island are that of science or something more. It's interesting to thinking about this in our own lives and whether our world and life is based on science or faith.

10. People in New Light

One thing I loved about this show was that my perception of the characters was always changing. I went from hating one to loving them later on. The character of Jin, was one that I really did not like in the beginning, but as his back story unfolded and I understood why he acted the way he did, he became someone I could relate with, and I liked his character much better. Watching this show made me think about how in my own life many times I judge some based on their actions, rather than taking the time to understand why a person acts a certain way. It made me realize that everyone has their own story, their own experiences, and their own to beliefs as to why they behave a certain way, and that my approach to the people I meet shouldn't be to judge them critically, but rather should I try to understand their situation.