Start at the beginning

I have my share of pet peeves like every other human. . . I do not like it when people answer their cell phones in meetings, in restaurants, in libraries/bookstores or in a theater. It shows a great lack of respect for everyone else who has to listen to their conversation when they would rather be a) getting on with the meeting so that they can get on with their work day and go home to THEIR personal life b) enjoy a meal, book or movie without having to listen to someone's longwinded boring and LOUD conversation about picking up the kids and what to bring home for dinner. . .

I also really, really, REALLY do not like animal rights activists who don't care a hoot for animal wellfare. I am still smoldering about the hunt ban in England.

But the third pet peeve, the one that started my ruminations for this post is this: when someone comes in on the middle of a great movie and asks "so who is that?", "why did they just do that?", or "oh, I just want to see the ending."

My mother is one of these people. Now I love my mother. She is one of the neatest people you will ever meet, and one of the nicest, but she has this really bad habit (and I know I have many MANY more bad habits than she).

Anyways, I was watching a complicated movie last week about an SOE in France during WWII. She comes in three quarters of the ways through and proceeds to watch it. I pause the DVD and ask her if she would like me to start it from the beginning because it is really a good movie and she would enjoy it.

Her comment is "Oh, perhaps some other time."

O.K. I am fine with that, no problem, but what on earth is she doing standing there in the doorway watching a key scene which will totally ruin the beginning of the movie!?

"Mom!, don't watch this part! It will ruin the movie for you!"

She stands on blythely watching away.

Now, most of you are reading this thinking, "This girl is nuts. Who cares if her mother sees the part where one of the key pieces of the plot is revealed. So what. It is just a movie!"

And there are others of you, my movie commrades, who are grinding their teeth at the mere thought of someone coming in halfway through a fantastic movie and wanting to play "catch up". For you, like me, see a good movie as more than just a storyline. There is so much more! Good acting, a particular scene, the production design. Miss parts of it, and the ending just isn't the same.

I want my mother to share all that, experience all that. I don't want her to miss out on any of the good stuff. THAT is what bothers me, not that she wants to come in during a movie and ask me a bunch of questions and watch a key scene, but that she is missing out on the whole picture. She is missing out on the experience that the director, writer, actors and designers worked so hard at (and since there are far more bad or mediocre movies out there than good ones, when a great one comes along it deserves ones attention from beginning titles to the 4 point type telling you where it was filmed).

How much more must God get aggravated with us when we constantly ask him, "So how is this going to turn out?"

First of all, because God is in control we KNOW things are going to turn out great. Maybe our end here on earth might not be so great, but as believers in Christ, we have eternal life in the presence of God as our birthright. It cannot be taken away. Not be terrorists, floods, accidents, illness, crummy careers, soured relationships, whatever.

So it must sadden God for us to constantly ask Him, "so how is this going to work out God!?"

And just like that good movie, the ending - whether it be happy or sad, is not as poignant or meaningful if we had not seen the whole film. If we had not invested ourselves in the storyline, the characters and the time period. So it is in life. We have to invest ourselves 100 percent into every day - into the people in our lives, our surroundings, our story.

Being worried and scared about one's future is part of human nature. I have spent many a day worried that I was not doing God's Will for my life. I ask Him, "If you'll just tell me a little of the future, it would give me something to go on."

How stupid I must sound to God! (Isn't it amazing that our holy God still loves us when we act like spoiled stupid numb-skulls for way longer than we should?) He has already told me what I need to know about my future: That as a believer I will spend eternity with Him and His Son.

What does it say in His Word that he asks of me? He asks me to love Him with all my heart, mind and soul and to love others as myself. Am I doing these things every day at 100 percent? Not hardly.

The Bible lays out the life rules for us to follow. If we pray and meditate on His word, if we love others as ourselves. . . if we do these things every day (only possible with the Holy Spirit!) then we will experience that glorious existance - and when we come to the end of our lives on earth, whether they were brief or long, we can look back in amazement and thank God that He, in his infinite wisdom, did not give us a play-by-play of our lives before we lived them. For the joy in life comes in the living of it, and as a Christian who lives out his or her faith every day you are guaranteed to have a life better than any movie, because it will be YOUR story and God will be the director, producer, writer, production designer and casting agent.

So (and I say this to myself more than to anyone else). Quit asking God "when, where, how" and go out and live His Word.

The rest will be the life worth watching and remembering.