No Script

It's no secret I enjoy Hallmark movies. There's a certain wholesome predictability that comes with the almost unrealistic love stories that always end up resolved in under two hours. During an especially cheesy scene, I laughed out loud at the hilarity of how the writers had perfectly scripted the conversation between the two main characters who would inevitably end up together in the end. 

The reality is life isn't scripted.

I've certainly been in the midst of those moments when I wished I was reading the script. If only I knew the lines, knew exactly what to say, if it had been penned for me with the ending in mind. We can't always come up with the perfect thing to say in the midst of a tension-filled moment. Too many times I've let the silence fill the void when words simply wouldn't come. 

We also can't take back our words. We don't get retakes. Oh how I wish this were so. Too many times I have been the reason someone is hurt and it could have all been avoided if I had just kept my mouth shut. 

There are no scripts, no do-overs of scenes, no well-penned conversations having gone through edits and revisions. It's happening in the here and now and we get one chance. We don't know what each day holds but we do hold the the hope of eternity before us. Recently I've been reminded that even when life happens unexpectedly and without prediction, I can trust the eternal security I have in Christ as my Savior and salvation through Him as what I hold onto. 

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen; for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:18

The very temporal life we're given isn't a dress rehearsal - it's the preamble to the eternal life we're promised if we choose Christ and His gift of salvation. What I can see before me pales in comparison to the most unsuspecting and surprise ending of any script ever written and this isn't fiction! It's the greatest story ever written and the Gospel truth. 

There's grace for those moments when we don't know what to say and mercy for the moments when we've said too much. We don't have to know what to say, we just have to be willing to look to Jesus as the author and perfecter of our faith and fix our eyes on what still remains to be seen.