The Characters Don't Know

Sitting down to watch a movie with my wife is typically a challenge. She prefers to watch a new movie with a new gripping story. While I occasionally like new movies, I prefer to return to movies I have previously watched.

This is partially because I know my old favorites won't disappoint me as a new movie can. However, the bigger reason is that I like to reexamine the movie to grasp the deeper themes and meanings. I start to see the foreshadowing, the small details that impact the greater story, and reflect on the decisions that characters make.

I get great enjoyment out of rewatching movies, and I can learn valuable lessons. Unfortunately, it can come with drawbacks that I tend to ignore.

Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop

As a kid, I loved Remember the Titans. The story was gripping, there was plenty of action, and I could reenact the tackling on my bed—a perfect story for a pre-teen boy.

However, the scene where Gerry Bertier gets in a car crash haunted me.

In my child mind, it felt as though something had to go wrong when everything was good. I started waiting for the other shoe to drop. Being a Royals, Chiefs, and Kansas State University fan certainly did not help.

I knew there had to be a monster around the corner because life was too good.

I was taking the movie and projecting it onto my life. I was looking for foreshadowing of future events. I was trying to make connections that didn't exist. I wanted to know the whole story.

Looking back, I realize I was trying to solve the same problem many years later.

As a child, I wanted to know when disaster was coming so I could prepare for it.

As an adult, I wanted to know exactly where my life was headed so I could arrive there as quickly as possible.

In both cases, I wanted certainty.

Writing My Own Story

To combat uncertainty, I would create a plan and a story that would play out in the future.

We all do this to a certain extent, but I did all I could to stick to that plan. In my career, I wanted to be a principal of a school, so I started on my master's degree as soon as I could. I knew what the story wanted, so I was going to achieve it.

Then I lost my teaching job, and the narrative was shattered.

Suddenly, the story I had carefully written for myself no longer made sense. The future I expected disappeared, and I was forced to confront a difficult truth:

I was never the author of the story.

We can plan. We can prepare. We can work hard. But we never have certainty about our future.

The good news is that this is okay. We don’t need to know the full story. Our story will change in ways that we would never expect, bringing us joys and sorrows that we could only dream of. The future is not ours to worry about. It will come to us one day, but right now we have this day to live.

As Jesus says in Matthew 6:34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.” 

We do not have the full story. Honestly, I probably do not want to know my full story. I would rather live it once than live with the knowledge of what is coming and then experience the events. 

So instead of knowing the full story or being asked to plan it ourselves, we are offered an easier option. We are simply asked to be faithful today.

This Week's Challenge

Take one concern about the future that has been occupying your mind.

Instead of trying to solve the next five years, focus on the next faithful step.

Ask yourself:

What is God asking of me today?

Not next month.

Not next year.

Today.

Then do that well.

The future chapters will arrive in their own time.

Forge Ahead

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