Christian
You just knew it was going to happen. Simon is riding along, enjoying his bike, when the motor goes out. As God would have it, and not to Simon's liking, he's broken down right in front of a motorcycle shop.
I'm not a biker, but I do believe that rolling up into another crew's territory is not something you want to do alone.
As Simon enters the shop we see Alan Carver sitting there watching Duster work and right away I don't like Alan. I can already tell he's going to be that guy who tries to Lord over everyone, finds fault in everyone and does nothing himself.
But before I go on a rant, let's proceed with the actual show.
I loved the shot of Simon walking into Nitro Cycles.
The wide view with the dark sky and Simon's bike slowly fading from focus was so foretelling. It gave that feeling that Simon was walking into a dark time.
MEET THE CHARACTERS
Here are the Sons of Thunder characters talked about in this article.
SIZING YOU UP
Simon thinks he's going to get some quick help, but Alan isn't interested in helping Simon at all.
It's more about what you can do for me. From the get-go Alan starts sizing Simon up to figure out how he can profit off the human that just walked through the door.
As it turns out Alan makes money with underground fighting and he thinks Simon might be a meal ticket.
When he finds out Simon has no money, it's music to his ears.
Alan wastes no time getting Simon indebted to him.
IS IT OK TO LIE?
When Carver asks Simon for his name and if he's part of a club, Simon:
- He says his name is Sam Reed.
- He says he's never been part of a club and always stayed independent.
This brings up an interesting question.
Is it ok to lie? And if so, why and when is it ok?
I know we can rationalize lying, but if the "right" to lie isn't based off the Bible and instead our own mind, then the rationalization is just relative to the individual. And we will end up far, far away from God.
In this situation Simon is lying to save himself. Perhaps it's to save his life or perhaps it's just to keep from having to deal with an uncomfortable situation.
Certainly, I could rationalize lying to the Nazis in Germany who were attempting to exterminate Jews. And many give this type of example when approaching this subject.
But in that example, we're lying to save the life of others while putting ourselves in more danger, which is quite the opposite of what Simon is doing here.
However, this is rationalizing and not using the Bible.
Does telling a lie in this situation make Simon a liar (false witness)?
I don't want to beat up on Simon though, because I can't claim I would have done any different. And there's no way I would cause fellow Jews to be rounded up, tortured, killed, etc.
So I definitely can't pick up the stone here.
This is one of those fascinating topics of study that I hope to write about on ChristianBytes more in depth one day.
For now, I just wanted to bring it up for you to think through. What do you think about this situation?
THE WRONG CROWD
Ok, so back to the show.
There was a flashback of Simon walking into the bar to join the club.
Angie asked him what type of guy he was and Simon told him that he was a guy who "see and done a little too much."
And Angie tells Simon the bar is the right place for a guy like him.
One thing I took away from this scene was that people often feel like they can't change.
Who you were is who you are and who you will always be. Sound familiar?
It's wrong.
We've heard something like this and been told something like this in our lives and for many, it's keeps them shackled.
Perhaps what we should be asking is who do we want to be and work toward that.
By buying into the devil's lie of "can't change-ism," we become bound by the past and are then unable to reach the potential that God has given us.
It's easy for us to look at Simon's past and clearly identify this moment in his timeline where it could have forked down another avenue and led somewhere else.
Thankfully, God is merciful, loving and patient.
God is transforming & using Simon for His glory.
If only we could see our own lives as clearly as a Sons of Thunder TV show.
Work daily to be the man or woman you want to be. Serve God.
The 80s Never Die
While putting in some work to get his bike fixed, Simon is watched by an overseer from the 1980s named Jack.
Ok, he's not from the 80s, but I get that vibe from him (also the 1980s were amazing—and always will be).
Seriously, tell me he couldn't be in an 80s film?
Hmmm. Could we see Sons of Thunder 1984? I'd pay for that.
1980s aside, Carver wastes zero minutes showing Simon his future (as Carver sees it).
I'm pretty amazed that Simon is so relaxed while dealing with this situation.
My guess is he's seen it all before and is just waiting to see where God takes him next.
Finding all the money in the motorcycle tire must have been fun too.
Woo hoo! My bike is fixed, see ya later!
Well, not quite.
Since Simon is not a thief, he just calmly presents the money to Duster and goes along with everything to keep the peace.
At this point Simon has to be hoping his bike is fixed in the next day or two. I'm sure he had the feeling that he was about to be sucked into this whole lifestyle if he didn't get going fast.
JUST A PEEK
There's a good scene where Simon is fixing his bike and he hears the underground fight club going on in the other room. As he walks closer to the wall we see there's a small hole that he could take a little peek through.
This is just like how Satan tempts us all the time. He doesn't always try to club us over the head. Instead, he tempts us with little peaks at what could be or what has been. Just a little something to get us going.
It could be watching a topless woman for a moment in a movie, engaging in some dirty joke telling, barely misleading someone to get an outcome we want, siren calls from a previous way of life (drugs, women, parties, power, etc) and so on.
And from here he says whispers things such as "doesn't that feel good?" or "remember how good that was?"
In this scene, we saw Simon get tempted and walk away. Whew!
And that just what we need to do when those little temptation moments come.
Walk away.
Lee & His Mom
I just wanted to say that when we're introduced to Lee's mom (via her calling out from the other room), I laughed hard when she told him to take his time just like he did when he was born.
This is one of those great mom lines that we've probably heard many times.
Yes Lee, you take your time . . .
"You look like that fat boy that I taught in 2nd grade."
Wow, I like Lee's mom already.
I could see her saying this about me too, but I'd laugh.
When she rolled out from the other room and said this to Simon, I just thought that she'd be very interesting.
Turns out Lee is struggling with what's happened in his past (losing friends in the Army) and a failed attempt at faith in Jesus. And on top of that, he's caring for his mom, who is struggling with health issues.
Sadly, Lee is trapped. He needs to keep fighting for Carver because his mom has medical bills that seemingly cost so much that a normal job is out of the question.
Speaking of being trapped, during this segment of show we got a flashback of when Angie was talking to Simon about the Devil's Hand and serving one master completely.
He's got the one master part down right, but unfortunately he's serving the wrong master. And the master he will chose to serve will enslave him.
THE PUNCH
Carver, greatly wanting Simon to be a fighter for him, rigged up an in-store brawl between Simon and Lee.
While Simon pleads with Lee to not fight, the episode ends with Lee throwing the first punch.
Lee said he had no choice.
Lee is highly dependant on the money he gets from Carver and Carver knows it.
It's a sad state of affairs for Lee.
Will Simon fight back?
Will Lee come to his sense?
Will Lee's mom call Simon the "fat boy" again?
We will find out when this exciting first season of Sons of Thunder concludes.
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