Spoiler Alert! Don't read this if you haven't seen the movie Megamind. Also, you should definitely listen to this sermon from Northland chapel yesterday. Coach Wehry's last preaching opportunity here at NIU was a huge blessing. http://www.sermonaudio.com/playpopup.asp?SID=329131237384
When I first asked Emma if she wanted to watch Megamind with me, she lit up and grabbed some snacks for the occasion. I had no idea what I was about to see, but I had been told that it was "hilarious." It was. Megamind is an endearing villain with giant green eyes and the quirky habit of mispronouncing common words like "school" and "revenge." Halfway through, I was going to get really frustrated with the postmodern worldview of the film, but it actually straightened itself out. Good and evil remain within clear boundaries the whole movie, but the main characters switch allegiances several times throughout. The plot line is super creative, complex, and unpredictable. Yes. Unpredictable is the right word. I know this because I tried....
Me: Wow...they killed off the good guy within the first ten minutes of the movie...now what? OH! I get it! Megamind becomes the new good guy! Or a new good guy comes along???
Emma: Mysterious smile
Several minutes later
Me: Oh...so he's going to make a new good guy instead. That will for sure be the girl. She's the only one good enough in this movie. Then she and Megamind will fight it out for the city and Megamind loses because he's the bad guy...
Emma: Hmm.....
Another several minutes later...
Me: Well then, I guess she'll fall for Titan, and then things will return to normal with Titan as the new good guy!
Emma: Hahahaha!
After a little bit...Nicole joins us for the second half of the movie.
Me: Good grief! What is this! So now the good guy is bad...huh. OH! I get it now! The good guy will become the new bad guy and the bad guy will become the new good guy and then things will return to normal. Perfect!
Nicole: EmJ, maybe you should stop guessing...
Emma: HAHAHAHA!
Me: Sigh....
Another twist in plot...
Me: Argh! So Metro Man isn't dead! So Metro Man comes back and gets rid of Titan and then Megamind returns to being bad and everything is back to normal!
Nicole and Emma: Heehee....
A cup of tea and some snacks later...
Me: WHAT!? That's incredible!!! The bad guy became the good guy to get rid of the bad guy that he created to be a good guy when he was a bad guy who'd just gotten rid of a good guy. And this former bad guy gets the girl. TOTALLY DID NOT SEE THAT COMING!
Nicole: You kept guessing wrong....
This is how an enjoyable night watching a movie with friends got me thinking about my walk with God. I have no idea what I'm doing after graduation. No clue. Six weeks from now, I'm stepping off a platform with a degree and into a black hole. Until this week, that really bothered me. I was actually losing sleep and spending afternoons in anxious worry and searching the internet for grad degree ideas and job openings all over the planet. I was basically stepping back from the story to try to guess the ending. Okay...it looks like God might do this if I make this decision.....(doesn't turn out how I expect)..God! What are you doing!? That was NOT the plan! I kept guessing wrongly. My frantic searching yielded nothing but more ideas and more confusion in my soul. I was spending all my free time as Coach Wehry says, "flippin' digits" trying to make things work out how I wanted them to work out and not even praying through it. And then the Lord put some friends in my life who saw the spiral and stopped it by speaking truth to me. Time in prayer and the Word has been used by the Spirit to change my thinking. And, I heard Coach's message from Matthew 6.
The point of my life is not a career or a plan or marriage or even missions. The point of my life is to bring glory to God by becoming more like Jesus. It means that every trial has at least one good answer to the "why" question: Sanctification. So I don't have to sit around feeling like a martyr because I'm dealing with trails. It means the trial is a treasure that makes me more like Christ. It means that I already know God's will for my life: "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness..." And as I do that, He takes care of the details. I love that this passage in Matthew is put in the context of trusting God for everything down to the nitty gritty of food and clothes. Will my decisions affect the future in a big and irreversible way? Um...of course! But He is sovereign over that. I can't make a "wrong" decision if I'm following Him and submitting to Him every day. He uses everything for His glory. And I can express trust in Him as I walk with Him instead of freaking out about everything. My delight is to stay in the Word and in prayer, meditating on the gospel and intentionally pursuing Christ. That's all I have to do.
Sometimes it looks like the bad guy is about to become a good guy and that the girl in the story is going to become the new bad guy while the new good guy turns evil as well. But the middle of the story is the wrong place to start predicting the ending (unless you're reading Lori Wick or Janette Oke, in which case you can predict the ending from the back cover...but the story of our lives is FAR more interesting and complex than that.) I have the promise of scripture that it'll all turn out right according to the glory of God in the end. But I can't predict the process. It's my job to follow step by step. Today. Worry for today and trust God with everything.
So the next step is this 1 Corinthians paper I have to write...simple enough.
When I first asked Emma if she wanted to watch Megamind with me, she lit up and grabbed some snacks for the occasion. I had no idea what I was about to see, but I had been told that it was "hilarious." It was. Megamind is an endearing villain with giant green eyes and the quirky habit of mispronouncing common words like "school" and "revenge." Halfway through, I was going to get really frustrated with the postmodern worldview of the film, but it actually straightened itself out. Good and evil remain within clear boundaries the whole movie, but the main characters switch allegiances several times throughout. The plot line is super creative, complex, and unpredictable. Yes. Unpredictable is the right word. I know this because I tried....
Me: Wow...they killed off the good guy within the first ten minutes of the movie...now what? OH! I get it! Megamind becomes the new good guy! Or a new good guy comes along???
Emma: Mysterious smile
Several minutes later
Me: Oh...so he's going to make a new good guy instead. That will for sure be the girl. She's the only one good enough in this movie. Then she and Megamind will fight it out for the city and Megamind loses because he's the bad guy...
Emma: Hmm.....
Another several minutes later...
Me: Well then, I guess she'll fall for Titan, and then things will return to normal with Titan as the new good guy!
Emma: Hahahaha!
After a little bit...Nicole joins us for the second half of the movie.
Me: Good grief! What is this! So now the good guy is bad...huh. OH! I get it now! The good guy will become the new bad guy and the bad guy will become the new good guy and then things will return to normal. Perfect!
Nicole: EmJ, maybe you should stop guessing...
Emma: HAHAHAHA!
Me: Sigh....
Another twist in plot...
Me: Argh! So Metro Man isn't dead! So Metro Man comes back and gets rid of Titan and then Megamind returns to being bad and everything is back to normal!
Nicole and Emma: Heehee....
A cup of tea and some snacks later...
Me: WHAT!? That's incredible!!! The bad guy became the good guy to get rid of the bad guy that he created to be a good guy when he was a bad guy who'd just gotten rid of a good guy. And this former bad guy gets the girl. TOTALLY DID NOT SEE THAT COMING!
Nicole: You kept guessing wrong....
This is how an enjoyable night watching a movie with friends got me thinking about my walk with God. I have no idea what I'm doing after graduation. No clue. Six weeks from now, I'm stepping off a platform with a degree and into a black hole. Until this week, that really bothered me. I was actually losing sleep and spending afternoons in anxious worry and searching the internet for grad degree ideas and job openings all over the planet. I was basically stepping back from the story to try to guess the ending. Okay...it looks like God might do this if I make this decision.....(doesn't turn out how I expect)..God! What are you doing!? That was NOT the plan! I kept guessing wrongly. My frantic searching yielded nothing but more ideas and more confusion in my soul. I was spending all my free time as Coach Wehry says, "flippin' digits" trying to make things work out how I wanted them to work out and not even praying through it. And then the Lord put some friends in my life who saw the spiral and stopped it by speaking truth to me. Time in prayer and the Word has been used by the Spirit to change my thinking. And, I heard Coach's message from Matthew 6.
The point of my life is not a career or a plan or marriage or even missions. The point of my life is to bring glory to God by becoming more like Jesus. It means that every trial has at least one good answer to the "why" question: Sanctification. So I don't have to sit around feeling like a martyr because I'm dealing with trails. It means the trial is a treasure that makes me more like Christ. It means that I already know God's will for my life: "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness..." And as I do that, He takes care of the details. I love that this passage in Matthew is put in the context of trusting God for everything down to the nitty gritty of food and clothes. Will my decisions affect the future in a big and irreversible way? Um...of course! But He is sovereign over that. I can't make a "wrong" decision if I'm following Him and submitting to Him every day. He uses everything for His glory. And I can express trust in Him as I walk with Him instead of freaking out about everything. My delight is to stay in the Word and in prayer, meditating on the gospel and intentionally pursuing Christ. That's all I have to do.
Sometimes it looks like the bad guy is about to become a good guy and that the girl in the story is going to become the new bad guy while the new good guy turns evil as well. But the middle of the story is the wrong place to start predicting the ending (unless you're reading Lori Wick or Janette Oke, in which case you can predict the ending from the back cover...but the story of our lives is FAR more interesting and complex than that.) I have the promise of scripture that it'll all turn out right according to the glory of God in the end. But I can't predict the process. It's my job to follow step by step. Today. Worry for today and trust God with everything.
So the next step is this 1 Corinthians paper I have to write...simple enough.
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