Imagine Your Life as a Movie…

Imagine your life as a movie.  I once heard a motivational speaker issue this challenge.  Your life, he said, is a movie, and the script isn’t finished.  It’s up to you to decide if your life finishes as a tragedy or a comedy. 

I’m not sure I agree with that last statement. 

I can imagine my life as a movie.  The opening scene is a year-old baby, sitting on a horse in front of his Dad.  The scene shifts to a confusing night an eighteen-month-old cannot understand; why is Mama crying and why is Daddy not there, and why will Daddy never come home again.

There are scenes from childhood, of exploring orange groves, pastures, and woods with my dog Mo, going to school with my lifelong friends.  Then my mother marries my stepfather, and I step into the strange world of Florida suburbia.  High School is music, band, and championships.

The thread throughout the movie is this early, strange call to be a pastor.  I am a leader in church.  I preach my first sermon at sixteen.  I go to college to learn the Bible, how to think theologically.  I have my first serious romance.  I have my second serious romance.

There are mistakes and sins.  Just because you are called into ministry doesn’t mean you are immune from saying “Yes” to bad choices.  I go to seminary.  I stay out a year to pastor my first church.  I go back to school, met a girl and fall deeply in love.  I decide to stay and get my Ph.D. I am called to my second church.  There, I discover not everyone likes me.  I propose.  She says yes.  I struggle with my coursework and working full-time.  We marry.  I’m called to a new church.  God delivered us.

Our son is born.  I write my dissertation, an unreadable analysis of three chapters in Job.  I pass oral exams. Our daughter is born.  I graduate – Jimmy Carter is the speaker.

I’m ready to move.  Nothing works out for two years.  I get depressed.  Finally, a church in a place I’ve never heard of, Sumter, SC, calls me to serve. 

We move.  God shows up.  The church grows.  It’s exciting.  Our last daughter is born.  The church votes to relocate.  People in town think we are crazy.  I need to make more money.  I teach classes at local colleges. 

We move into the new building.  The church keeps growing.  The Great Recession hits.  The church struggles through tough times.  We emerge.  God keeps working. 

The kids graduate.  They go to college.  Smart kids equal expensive colleges.  God provides.  The church is doing well.  We launch a new campus. 

My oldest daughter gets married.  Son gets married.  Covid.  Controversy over a column I write.  Raise money and build building for campus.  Sister dies from cancer.  First grandson is born.  Brother/best friend dies from cancer.  Now I run the family ranch and pastor a church.  Launch second campus.  Knee replacement.

Start to think about retirement.  Start process.  Second grandson is born. 

Which brings us to today.  As I look back, I realize I wasn’t the only one writing the script.  Satan and the forces of evil were trying to wrestle the pen away from me, encouraging me to make wrong choices and decisions.  They were often successful.  The lie they told me was that they could write a better script than I could.  The tragedy is how often I believed their lies. 

God also offered to take the pen and write.  Funny how it seems like letting God write my story feels like losing control, when letting Satan write the script is also losing control, but doesn’t feel like it.

I look back and I see God leading me down the right paths, guiding choices, granting me blessings beyond measure. 

My movie isn’t over.  I don’t know how long this life/movie will last.  I hope it lasts a long time with good health.  Don’t we all?  I do know this: when God is writing the script, my life, my story, my movie is better.

I don’t agree with the motivational speaker who said I get to write the ending to my story, to decide if my life is a tragedy or a comedy.  I remember from English class that tragedy leaves you sad at the ending; comedy leaves you smiling.   I’m not sure life is that simple.  I’ve known many believers who lived tragic lives.  But I also know the great promise of Jesus: there is a life beyond death, and in that life, if we are his children, his followers, there is great joy, great feasting, and great music.  There is a triumphal sound in heaven, a melody of joy that reverberates throughout the city of God. 

When God is writing your script, your life is a joyous comedy, because you know, no matter what tragedy falls on you, God will work out all things for good.

Just be sure to keep the pen in His hand.  Let him write the script.