Trusting the Storyteller

Ya know who I really don’t want to be? I don’t want to be that annoying “movie guy” who asks a question every 5 minutes. Nobody wants to watch a movie with him because he ruins the entire experience. Every time I watch a movie with “movie guy” and he keeps asking “why would they do that” or “why did she say that,” I’m always tempted to scream at him, “hang in there, I promise the movie will explain itself. I promise the writers knew what they were doing and if you just watch the whole movie, it’ll make sense.” But he never listens…he just keeps asking.

Here’s the problem though – As I watch my life unfurl before my feet, I am that “movie guy”.

The problem with “movie guy” is that he isn’t willing to look at the story as a whole, but instead looks at small isolated events within story and freaks out when he cannot understand them. He wants and needs every second of the movie to make sense because he isn’t willing to trust the storytellers. So when something hard or confusing happens, he can’t handle it. He isn’t willing to wait and trust that the movie will explain itself, so he feels the need to ask questions every 5 minutes to attempt to understand. When we watch a movie we should trust that the story will be cohesive and makes sense as a whole even if there are confusing aspects, but “movie guy” doesn’t do that. If he is confused by a part of the story he immediately doubts the legitimacy of the story and begins to question the plot. However, while you may not be “movie guy”, we can all at least partially relate to this problem. Check out the clip I video and you'll begin to understand what I mean.

When you watch Lion King and you see Scar kill Mufasa, you’ve got begin to question the movie. That moment of the movie doesn’t make much sense – why would the good and noble king get killed by his weak and wretched brother? You love Mufasa, and you hate Scar, but Scar is the one who comes out on top. It doesn’t make any sense…until you watch the rest of the movie. The death of Mufasa never ceases to be painful, but if you watch rest of the movie you see that in the end, the story makes sense and is a good story. Simba journeys through his pain to become a noble king himself and goes back to defeat Scar. (Sorry to over analyze a Disney movie, but I’m a big Lion King fan, and I can't think of anything more awful than Mufasa's death)

I live life like “movie guy”. Every time something difficult or confusing arises in life, I quickly turn to doubt rather than trust. “Why is this happening God? Why would you do this? It doesn’t make sense. You’re supposed to be good, but this doesn’t make any sense.” But here’s the thing, God is a good storyteller, and if history is a movie, it’s a good movie (like Lion King). Even though there are hard parts to His story, it is a good story, in fact, it is a great story. Sure there are deaths, and there are bad guys, and there is pain and struggle, but doesn’t every good story have those things? We question and question and question…but God has written and is writing a good story, and while certain events are confusing and painful, in the end the story makes sense and is a really good story. The good guys win, the bad guys lose, and the journey through pain and strife is beautifully redeemed. All things are redeemed.

So let’s trust. Let’s live life as characters in God’s story trusting that He is the Great Storyteller and He knows what He is doing. This doesn’t mean we don’t grieve in trials or weep in sorrow; we do, because those hardships are real parts of the story. It doesn’t mean we should pretend pain isn’t real – because it is real. It doesn’t mean we don’t wrestle with God in confusion, plead with Him in our desperation and pray to Him in struggle. It doesn’t mean we pretend everything is “fine” or that we never get angry, frustrated, or confused. It simply means we trust. We trust, because He is the Great Storyteller. We trust, amidst the pain, the tears, the sorrow and the frustration - we trust. We trust because God is the storyteller and in the end, His story, which we are characters in, is a good story. So endure the pain with faith, enjoy the laughter with gratitude and look forward to the ending with joy.