I can't speak for the later seasons (I'll look forward to the comments for that), but we just borrowed the first season and it's really a love story surrounded by a terrorist plot. Will Jack and his wife get back together??? etc.

So what does this have to do with temptation and 1st Corinthians? Lots of people have asked me about situations in their life when it seems as if God is indeed allowing them to be tempted beyond what they can bear. But might that just be a matter of perception?

We may be entirely unmoved by the plot of a movie, told from a perspective that doesn't draw us in (like the typical men's reaction to a "chick flick", or a woman's reaction to a "shoot-em-up). But then our hearts are racing and our eyes are watering for another story that is just as phony.

Whose reaction is the authentic one? If my wife and daughters are captivated by Jane Eyre ("Oh, that poor girl!") and I am detached, which reaction is more appropriate?

For entertainment purposes, no doubt the passionate reaction is best. We're seeking a catharsis in movies, after all. But in real life, perhaps the more detached view is the more real measure of what is happening.

In a thriller movie, we get all tense even though we know for a fact that the star character will live through the danger and come out on top. In fact, we get tense even if we've seen the movie before! But the reasoning part of our mind knows that we have no cause for fear. We already know how the story ends.

So what is happening when we are tempted or tested? Our emotions get involved - that's not bad. We experience pain or fear or frustration or sadness. But when our emotions take over, that's different. We already know the end of this story, don't we? We know the truth behind the scenes, and where the characters go after they leave the stage. And yet, if we know all this and we still allow our fear of death or loss to grow out of control, whose fault is that?

James says that a person is tempted when "by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed." It is not that we cannot endure temptation, but that we dwell down in our little dungeon of self, wallowing in the feelings of loss or self-pity or desire, and we never stand apart to look at it for a moment from God's perspective.

"God will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear." But we may choose to not bear something.

Think of it this way. A salesman tells you, "I guarantee that I'll offer this item at a price you can afford." What does that mean? You can choose to find his price unaffordable, if you don't really want the thing enough to forgo other things. Or you can see the true value of the item - you can (in God's case) recognize that what he desires for you is far and away more precious than anything else. And then you make the exchange with no regret or hesitation.

What if the price tag for your child's eternal life were one year on a ventilator? Would you pay that? Under other circumstances we would consider that to be a terrible price, an almost unbearable test. But we don't know how God is using our difficult situation of the day, our trouble-du-jour. We just know that we can trust him.