The thing about a good movie, (and this one was good and pretty clean, which is hard to come by these days!) is that it hooks you from the beginning by helping you to identify with the characters. Then, it unfolds the story, bit by bit, as you root for those characters to succeed. Of course, before success, there is usually some sort of failure, or mishap, that makes us feel sorry for the characters.
Last night I saw it coming from a mile away. Oh, the heroine in the story had many unfortunate moments, because she was living a life of lies, from one small fib to the next, but eventually, it all caught up with her and she was completely humiliated. Talk about hitting bottom.
It was so bad, that I just couldn't watch. You know how some people hide their eyes when there's a scary moment in a movie? Well, I had to "hide my eyes" from her humiliation. I wanted to fast forward through her difficulty and get to the happy ending. Silly, I know.
What does this "girl movie" have to do with what matters to me? Well, last night it dawned on me how much I treat my life like I'm watching a movie. Things are going along great and I laugh, and feel good. Then, when it comes to the part where things go sideways, where my own mistakes catch up with me, or someone hurts my feelings, or I just don't get to where I want to be fast enough, I want to fast forward to the happy ending.
Instead of trusting God in the good, and the bad, I just want to skip the bad all together. At the very least I want to close my eyes and say "just tell me when it's over!" What I really should do in those times, is fix my eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of my faith. (Hebrews 12:2)
How did the movie end? The girl set things right and owned up to her mistakes. She mended relationships that were broken by apologizing to the ones she loved that she had hurt. And yes, she got the guy. But she had to walk through her failures to arrive at true success.
In this lifetime, we will have difficulties. Most of the time difficult situations are lessons in life that we have to learn due to our own shortcomings. Sometimes though, we are involuntarily dragged into hard times by those around us. Either way, God is faithful, and He will stay by our side to the end.
We have the ultimate love story in Jesus. He paid the price for us on the cross. There is nothing on this earth that He won't walk through with us if we let Him. He is our happily ever after in this life, and the life to come.
"So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world." 1 Peter 1:6-7, NLT
**Update**
A few girls (Ok, everyone who has read this) have asked what the name of the above mentioned movie is. I didn't mention it on purpose, because I didn't want to take away from the lesson God was teaching me. But now that you've read this far, the name of the movie is "Confessions of a Shopaholic." It's rated PG for some mild language and "thematic elements", whatever those are! I only raised my eybrow at one scene, which suggested (nothing was revealed) a couple was doing something they should not do outside of marriage. I laughed my head off and it had some really deep, great lessons in it about both finances and honesty in relationships. I definitely recommend it if you need a good laugh/cry!
13 comments:
Wonderful post. Thank you. I need to know the name of the movie though! LOL
thank you for sharing :)
Me too. I love watching movies. Thanks for the honesty. God can speak to us through all sorts of ways if we only take time to listen.
I'm also curious about which movie you watched. It reminds me of a Sandra Bullock movie...
I appreciate how you connected the plot with deeper truths. I too would rather skip past negative consequences. It's comforting to remember the hope of heaven when I'm plodding through the messes I've created.
I love a happy ending too. Do you recommend the movie? You gotta let us know what movie it is. I haven't watched one in a long while. Have a great weekend!
This is a beautiful post! Thank you!..I am with the rest of the girls....so what movie was it?
Thank you for your post.
Thanks for sating our curiosity. My guess was totally off, yet I thought it interesting that different movies contained similar plot lines. Clearly these stories have roots in our common human experiences.
I haven't seen the movie, but I did read the book. That is a good example of how we always just want to get to the happy parts in life, but sometimes we need to do things that are difficult first.
Great message! Some of my greatest lessons have come from walking through the trials WITH my savior! I don't like going through them, but I wouldn't trade the closeness I glean!
On a less serious note...I totally want to see that movie! Glad to hear a pretty good recommendation. Now to convince my husband HE wants to see it! :)
Hey Melissa-
What a cool lesson you put into words after watching that movie. We like the happy ending--which we wouldn't even appreciate without the mess on the way to it, huh?
We don't like the hard times, do we? But God is doing something so big in us--He doesn't waste the pain if we cooperate. He is a Redeemer.
Thanks for this post!
Will have to put that movie in my queue. I love how you tied everything together in the post. . .and don't you think sometimes God has us go through those difficult times (whether self-imposed or not) to strengthen us? That's so hard to remember, though, during those times and when we most need the prayers of our friends and family. Anyway, thanks for sharing.
I actually read that book, and the whole time I was wondering "what is this girl getting herself into?" She pretty much was digging and digging herself into a big big hole. I'm going to see if they have it at the library. =p
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