While surfing around on CNN, I came across an article on James Gandolfini. I click, read the first line and was intrigued. Here is is.

“The only time I met James Gandolfini, we talked about God.” Father Edward L. Beck

I wish I could say the same.

I was at Muir Woods in Northern CA with my family. It was vacation time visiting my wife’s Aunt. I seen James and thought he looked a lot like the guy I had seen on the Soprano’s. So in a moment of boldness I walked up to him and told him he looked like that guy. His response was “There’s a good reason for that”. To which I replied that he sounded a lot like him too. He echoed his previous response.

In the moment I tried to get a photo so I could prove the encounter to those I knew. Graciously he declined. He was there with a friend or agent and what I assume was his son. He commented that he didn’t want a picture in such a beautiful place. I can’t say I blame him for declining.

I blame myself.

Though I didn’t have the knowledge that I had now, I did have knowledge of the Lord. Did I share a piece of literature with him? Sadly I did not. What if something I shared changed his paradigm shift?

Though I cannot continually reflect on the past, I can learn a lesson. Never pass up an opportunity.

Father Beck walks away from his encounter encouraged that Tony Soprano is human and makes mistakes. Reading his conclusions, I would have to disagree.

Despite his occasional murder or infidelity, most of us thought Tony was a pretty good guy. We thought he only roughed up the bad guys who chose to put themselves in harm’s way with their profession choice.

Occasional murder or infidelity? Human or not, the bible gives no indication that such behavior is acceptable even on occasion! How close to the days of Noah we are when these sort of things can be passed off and the one acting them out is called “good”.
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: Romans 3:10

We believed he loved his wife, even though he cheated on her. We trusted he cared about his kids, even though it was sometimes with the back of his hand and punctuated with the “f” word.

Its a backwards world we live in. When someone cheats on their spouse I can’t walk away from that drawing the conclusion that they loved their spouse. Yes we are sinners and in a sense we do that in the Spiritual realm with God. We say we love Him, we fall. But our experience is not the example. God’s experience is our example. His experience is one of faithfulness to us despite our wrong doings. It’s not Tony Soporano that would be the loving one, it’s his wife staying with him despite the fact that he cheated. The example is that we should be faithful and endure the wrongs of those close to us, and in doing so we are demonstrating love toward them, not the other way around.

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Yes, Tony was a mass of contradictions, but that’s why we liked him. He made us feel better about our own contradictory lives because they seemed angelic in comparison to his.

Comparing ourselves to another is the wrong approach. God is our example. If I’m looking at someone else and feel better, I’m looking at the wrong thing. There is nothing about ourselves that is good.

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Romans 3:23

Our direction of focus should be this way

The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. John 1:29

There’s precedent for dubious heroes in the Scriptures, too. Many of the biblical boldface names led lives that were hardly free of moral ambiguity.

Abraham pretends his wife is his sister and proffers her for sex to powerful kings. Noah drank too much. Lot offers his virgin daughter to be gang-raped. David was an adulterer and murderer, Samson was a Lothario, too. And Moses was a murderer with a self-esteem problem.

Just because they did those things, doesn’t make them right. Yes many biblical figures have a colorful history, which is recorded for our benefit. God is not sugar coating the lives of men through history to give us a distorted picture of reality. Rather God wants us to see things for the way they are, sin is ugly. It destroys lives. There is nothing glamorous about it.

Abraham’s course of life was more than that event, here is the mark he left.

And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. James 2:23

Noah’s life was not consumed in drunkenness. He lived in a base society, he was not perfect. But let us not forget he spent 120 years preaching the gospel to a dying world, and how?

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. Genesis 6:8

Lot offered up his daughter to morally corrupted men. He tried to protect strangers in his care from an act of wickedness. By the next morning God was rescuing Lot by the hand of the angels he was trying to protect. Lot was put in a situation that none of us would want to be in, choosing the lesser of two evils. We can’t look at the situation as if he wanted to offer up his daughters. In the end, he made a judgement call. God forgive any of us put in such a situation.

And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Genesis 19:7

Samson had a weakness for women. Many men do. That weakness has been exploited by the devil over and over again in history. When we walk away from the story of Samson are we supposed to walk away in awe of the man? Should we not have pity? As children we grow up looking at him in admiration for his great strength. When we hold Samson in such esteem for his strength we are as diluted as he is for beholding women in their beauty as the foundation for a relationship. It wasn’t about Samson’s strength, it was about the Lord. When he did something that required great strength the bible precedes it with this phrase: “And the Spirit of the Lord” Judges 13:5, 14:6, 14:19, 15:14

He probably didn’t look like He-Man or else why would the Philistines be so diligent to find out why He was so strong? If he looked like a body builder it would have been obvious. It would make more sense if he was 6′ and 160 soaking wet.

And what about Moses? Are we to look to him and remember him as a murder and person who has no self-esteem? The life of Moses came in phases. The Moses who murdered was the Moses raised by the Egyptians. The Moses who received the 10 commandments which says “Thou shalt not kill” was the one who’s life had an encounter with God and walked with Him 40+ years before receiving the tablets of stone. He was not the same man. He was changed by God.

By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Hebrews 11:24-25

Did he lack some self confidence? Yes, but better to be lack self-esteem and be called meek by God, exhibiting a fruit of the Spirit and inheriting the kingdom of God than be so over confident you cannot be used at all.
(Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.) Numbers 12:3

Yet despite their glaring peccadilloes, they are heroes for us because God uses them despite their foibles, writes straight with crooked lines and all that.

Now that part, I can agree with. However, Tony Soprano is not in comparable to the aforementioned men, with one exception. They’re all sinners in need of grace.

That’s our Tony, profane and to the point. We cheer for him all the more because, even though he messes up his own life, he tries his best to make sure his kids don’t mess up theirs. “Do as I say, not as I do.” How many of us have heard that sage advice from our doting parents?

But Tony is not the example. God is the example. And God sent His Son so that we would not just do as He says, but do as His Son did.

By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. John 13:35

Tony Soprano is not a model example for a hero. Jesus is the hero.

Lesson # 1
Let’s be diligent to make sure we don’t waste the opportunities God gives us. You never know who you might meet.

Lesson # 2
Don’t look to fictional tv characters for heroes. They won’t get you closer to heaven, especially if you follow their example. Look to Jesus, He’s the only One worth looking at.