The Ending...

Though I've watched the movie several times before, "Castaway" was being shown last night and I had to view it yet again.  I've always been fascinated by the uniqueness of the story-line and that for long stretches of time there is no dialogue.  Much of the story is told, not in conversational tones, but in pictures & imagery of a man isolated on an island.  (If you're not familiar with the movie, it debuted during Christmas of 2000.  Tom Hanks' character works for Fed Ex, and during an overseas flight his plane crashes.  He is the lone survivor of a very small crew and finds himself marooned on a deserted island.  More than 4 years later he finally is rescued after creating a crude raft, having nearly given up.  He now must begin the process of assimilating himself back into society when everyone believed he was dead.  The woman he loved has moved on in life, having married & started a family.  It creates an added struggle within the context of the plot.)

But here is what's interesting: Fox Movie Channel had someone providing background information of the "behind the scenes" elements of the movie.  He spoke of how the scenes were shot, how there was no music for the large majority of time (a unique approach to music scoring), and the emotional tie created between the main character (Hanks) and a volleyball affectionately named "Wilson."  Following the movie he spoke of the ambiguous ending - and - how a certain scene was removed during the editing process because, it was believed, it would create the emotion too soon.  The removed scene would be replaced...
  

That led to a unique twist in creating the final cut: a scene was shot ONE YEAR later, after the entire movie had been completed, that would create the single-most important emotional aspect of the movie.  Tom Hanks was sitting alone with a friend, speaking of the love he had lost in his life.  It's THIS scene that ties the whole movie together...and it was added well after it was believed the finished product had been completed.

Our lives are sometimes a parallel story...  We make our plans, trusting in both God's leading and our discernment.  The outcomes are always unknown: true love is found...  a potential unhealthy relationship is averted...  destinations lead to desired arrivals...  or plans fail...  Times when we are marooned on an island, feeling isolated from others...  It's a wide array of things.

There are no guarantees in life, and sometimes the ending is ambiguous, emotional, lonely or uncertain.  Sometimes good; sometimes bad.  And as the scenes of your life are unfolding, you might be in a confused state right now...  The plans that YOU would have chosen didn't quite pan out: a career change...  a relationship that ended on a sour note...  a child with physical or mental disabilities...  circumstances that just don't quite seem to add up...

Here's my hope: GOD knows the outcome...  He sees all this from beginning to end, and He knows what He's doing.  It happened with Job & his pain and losses...  With Noah's ark & flood, and the many unrepentant in between the hammers & sermons...  With Moses, from burning bush to parted sea & complaining people unhappy with his leadership...  With Ezekiel & the sudden death of his wife, and God's temple object lesson...  With Stephen's selection to his stoning, and a persecuted & saddened church witnessing his martyrdom... 

In the midst of these stories are emotional & relational conflicts, joy & pain, happiness & heartache...  The same is true with your story...  But there is that one scene in life where we MUST come to grips with our present reality.  We have to understand that a relationship with Christ doesn't remove all the bad things from life.  But it gives us an anchor of hope...  And sometimes it's not until the ending that it makes sense...

If this is where you are, take some time to meditate on Romans 8:18-39...  Read it slowly, measuring each verse.  And then pray about the way these words impact your story, no matter what scene is currently unfolding...

¹⁸ I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹ The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. ²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰ And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son,but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life — is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Mike