Coming Soon / Now Playing

Imagine with me for a moment that you are a multi talented writer, director, producer, and casting director. You’ve finished writing the script for this amazing movie, you’ve gathered all the resources you need to produce it, and you’ve recruited the best cast and technical staff for the film. You hold the initial meeting with your team and in your hands is the script. But since it’s not open, all anyone can see is the title of the movie on the front page. The purpose of the meeting is a meet-and-greet to get everyone introduced to each other. You mention to the team that you have to go on a three month vacation but as soon as you get back production will begin.

So now it’s three months later. You’ve returned home all relaxed and rejuvenated, ready to start work on your master piece. Now imagine your rude and utter shock when as you are driving home from the airport, you start to see billboards advertising your ‘now playing’ movie! You toss aside your sombrero, your vacation buzz all hushed up now. You send out a mass urgent email asking everyone to meet with you early the next morning. During the meeting your bewilderment is overwhelming and you can barely get the words out. “Ummm, sooo I see that MY movie is now playing?? Would someone care to explain to me what is going on?” you ask in as calm a voice as you can muster…an exercise that in itself is a feat of epic proportions. The lead actor jumps up and says “well boss, we decided that instead of wasting the 3 months you were away, we could just start the movie production. It worked out great actually ’cause our schedules are now free to work on other gigs.” “But you didn’t have the script!” you exclaim. “How do you know the movie plot? The individual lines I carefully crafted for each actor? The different locations I scouted and selected to shoot in? The camera angles I had in mind? The season of year the movie was supposed to occur in? I mean, I’m flabbergasted here!” you retort, your voice getting louder with each question. “Well boss”, yet another actress chides in, “we saw the title of the script and kinda figured out the rest for ourselves”. “That doesn’t make any sense Abby”, you reply…”the title was only one word! What if the word was shrouded in symbolism? What if there is a plot twist that turns everything around? Why didn’t anyone call me to ask if and how you should proceed?” “Well, we just assumed you were busy with your own plans, plus we are all experts in our field so we just went with the flow”, Abby responds.

As the meeting carries on, your headache increasingly worsens because you find out that the film is nothing remotely close to the vision you had in mind, obviously. On top of that, they used their own money to produce the movie; money they now want you to refund to them.

Inconceivable, right? Ridiculous, no?

But how many times do we do this with God. If we feel like He’s taking too long to come through, or if we catch even a tiny glimpse (if that) of what He wants us to do, we leave Him mid-sentence and immediately take off running. We write our own script, we fill in the blanks, we do our own thing, and then we expect Him to stamp His approval on our production, foot the bill while He’s at it, oh, and bail us out if when we get ourselves in trouble. Whose plot is it anyway? Like Abby, sometimes we think we are “experts” on our own lives…I mean, who knows us better than we do? We spend 24/7 with ourselves – surely we are experts on us, right? But the only ‘expertise’ we have is of our past. We don’t know what awaits us – not even one millisecond away. So then are we really experts when it comes to our lives?

When God opens a door for us, His desire and pleasure is to walk through it with us, and stay with us until the journey is over. Have you stopped to ask Him why He opened the door to that job, that relationship, that friendship, that ministry, that opportunity? Have you stopped to seek His will in all areas of your life? Have I?

God is the Multi talented Writer, Director and Producer of this movie called ‘My Life’. Don’t proceed without Him because not only will you not know the best way to go, you’ll also miss out on the perfect masterpiece He’s been putting together from before the beginning of time; a masterpiece He carefully crafted for you to star in. Jeremiah 29:11-13; Psalms 139.

When you find yourself in a holding pattern for what seems like an eternity, it can get challenging and difficult to hold on and wait for God to reveal His plan and to give His green light. But in those moments, it’s good to remind ourselves that God owns time. A thousand years are but a day to Him and a day is like a thousand years (2 Peter 3:8).  Sometimes the reasons why things are delayed is so that they can fit into the right time-frame. Remember Joseph who went through a series of “unfortunate” events like slavery and imprisonment so as to set him up, at the right time, for a cushy job in Egypt that ended up saving Israelites from starvation? What about Elizabeth who remained barren for a long time because her son John the Baptist had to wait to be born at the same time as Jesus. One source says Elizabeth was 88 years old when she gave birth to John.

If your delay is God-ordained, then by His supernatural powers He can, and will, by-pass all natural limitations to bring His perfect will to pass. And in the meantime, in the in-between time, He will sustain you and renew your strength – provided you wait on Him (Isaiah 40:31).

Let’s not force our “coming soon” into a “now playing”. Let’s strive to not run ahead of God or lag behind Him – but rather let’s endeavour to walk step by step with Him.

Have a hopeful, faith-filled, perseverance-filled kinda day, won’t you? 🙂

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