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I don't understand the Oscars—or at least I should say, I don't understand the Academy. I tried watching There Will Be Blood and ended up getting so completely bored out of my mind that I couldn't finish. On my second attempt watching No Country For Old Men, I finally made I through, surprisingly enough. But I'm still not sure what it says about American movies that this is the kind of thing that garnered that much attention, even with the nuggets I took from it.

Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) finds his cache of money, happening upon a shoot-out that ends with everyone dead and drugs and money galore left behind. Of course, where there are drugs and money, there are more bad guys: didn't anyone see what happened to the "innocents" in Fargo? Of course, we've already been told about the cost of being on the side of good: when Tommy Lee Jones' sheriff gives the voiceover to start us off, he tells us you have to lay your soul on the line to be on the side of good.

For much of the movie, if not all of it, Javier Bardem's Anton Chigurh steals the show as the hitman intent on recovering the cash. He's cold, lacking in social skills, and basically, one of the sickest baddies I've seen in recent years. Actually, a Celebrity Deathmatch between Chigurh and Hannibal Lecter would be one for the ages. He flips coins to determine your fate and gets very grumpy if you won't play along. It's the kind of dark humor you might expect from the Coen Brothers, working out a Cormac McCarthy piece.

Still, I found the exchange between Jones' sheriff and his father to be the most interesting. The movie has worked around and with death and life throughout, but these two men reflect on their own mortality in light of their profession. It's a halfway realistic conversation, and one that I thought took a sudden faith-related spin. Jones says: "I always figured when I got older, God would come into my life somehow. And He didn't. And I don't blame Him. If I was Him, I'd probably have the same opinion of me that He does."

What a sad, yet truth-filled commentary on the lives and opinions of many inside and outside of the church. We expect that God will somehow "show up" later in life, because while we're reckless and young and immortal, we don't need a God calling the shots and demanding choices of us. But when mortality creeps in, and the fear of death or an aged loneliness begins, we suddenly run for answers and comfort.

The harder truth is that our guilt can get in the way of our expectation about how we'll be received by God when we do reach out and seek Him. And that's just as true of folks inside the church! What hope do people have outside of the church who've never heard that Jesus loves them unconditionally, problems and all?

No Country For Old Men could depress the daylights right out of you, but the old Sheriff's response to his son reminds us that we have to be ready to give an answer for the hope we have. We are loved by our Creator, the God of the Universe, and life hinges on that love, not the flip of a coin, or our own sense of self-righteousness. This is no country for old men, but a better place; a kingdom of mercy, hope and love awaits, just longing to be embraced.