Movie Metaphors

Sometimes I feel like my life is one big movie metaphor. Do you know what I mean? I've been looking at my life in the framework of a couple of movies lately. OK, I might be the only wacky one out here that thinks this way, but bear with me.

One of the movies that has seemed to frame my life lately is the third movie from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, "The Return of the King." It has felt a bit like the scene where the "good guys," led by Aragorn are standing in front of the black gate of the enemy. In response to their challenge, the gate opens and the horrible army of nasty creatures pours out and completely surrounds them. For a few moments they are just standing there, a much smaller circle of good within a huge mass of evil. Frightening.

Do you ever feel that? It seems like more and more we are surrounded by enemies and by plain old bad things. Church planting puts us all right in the thick of the battle. Satan surrounds us with his ugly army and bombards us with his worst (including really bad exchange rates, stress, team struggles, worries about our kids, etc.) You know the drill. You can write your own list!

But the good news for us is that we already know how this "movie" ends! We already know that good triumphs over that evil army. Thank God that we know we are on His winning side. That gives me lots of hope!

We recently watched this movie again with my Dad when he was visiting, and something else struck me. Towards the end of the movie, Bilbo asks Frodo if he still has the ring. When Frodo says no, Bilbo sighs that he "would have liked to hold it just one last time" or something along those lines. That line really smacked me in the face this time for some reason. How much like Bilbo I am, wanting to hold on to the things I should be letting go of. It's like I hold onto my sins, wanting to "hold them one more time before letting go." Hmmmm.

Hang in there, I'm almost done with my movie ranting :) Here's the other movie that fits my life right now: Spiderman 2. It just hit DVD, so I won't ruin the plot in case you still want to see it. But awhile back when Troy was having a really bad day, a friend of ours told him to watch Spiderman 2 because it was really good for "missionaries struggling to stay in Spain." HUH? Go figure. But we watched it last night and I could see his point. Themes of not giving up, doing the right thing, making sacrifices. After you watch it, let me know what you think!

Reading over this, it seems pretty lame :) but take it for what it's worth!

Hugs to all of you,
Heather