Challenge Central: a CBC devotional
By: Charlie Lyons
Our family has a lot of movie buffs. Most family gatherings include rundowns of recent box office buzz.
Whether it’s in the theatre or sitting in the best seat in the house (my seat in my house), like me, you’ve probably had those crazy moments in the middle of watching a movie. The scene is tense, filled with drama and danger. The characters are at risk. The dark music draws you in. The apprehension builds. Your palms are sweating, and your pulse is elevated as you grip the armrests. The moment rivets your mind, body, and soul. Suddenly, the scene ends, often with the main characters surviving the immediate risk. The story ensues, and you calm down, realizing – it’s just a movie.
Of course, life is not a movie, but it can be filled with scenes that feel traumatic and threatening. (Hasn’t it felt like we’re living out a movie as these last three years unfolded?) As a pastor and chaplain for the better part of 20 years, I’ve sat, shared, and prayed with many people in the middle of a heartbreak, trauma, loss, or fear. Truth be told, I’ve had my share of those scenes in my own storyline along the way.
The truth that brings great comfort in times like this is the reminder that the movie is not over yet. As bad as the present scene feels, it will pass and the story will unfold under the hand of our gracious and loving God. Even when we do not understand the movie, we know the Movie Maker – and He is good.
On Good Friday each year (or perhaps one of the other days of Holy Week), Christians often have Psalm 22 as part of their daily readings. This well-known Messianic Psalm reflects Jesus’ agony on the cross – in many ways, the most painful, cruel, unjust ‘scene’ in history. The Psalm begins, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.” (Psalm 22:1-2).
This reflects the real emotions of the Psalmist (and of the Saviour in a prophetic sense) at that dreadful moment.
Yet, the next verses focus not on the feeling of the present scene but on the character of the ‘Movie Maker.’
“But You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them. They cried to You, and were delivered.”
The rest of Psalm 22 goes back and forth between the pain of the immediate scene and the greater reality of the character and promises of the Movie Maker. The last section of the Psalm is filled with praise in spite of the excruciating pain of the moment. For example, verses 23-25 read, “You who fear the LORD, praise Him!… For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden His face from Him; But when He cried to Him, He heard. My praise shall be of You in the great assembly”.
Essentially, he is saying that as bad as the present scene feels, it will pass and the story will unfold under the hand of our gracious and loving God.
So, here’s where the rubber meets the road for us today: friend, you may be in the midst of a horrible scene in connection with your health, your role at work, your finances, your marriage, your family, or even your internal thoughts and emotions. The scene is real. The struggle is genuine. But! — the greater reality is that your movie is not over yet.
Above your storyline is a loving, gracious, and divine Movie Maker, and He. Can. Be. Trusted.
