Movie Director

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By Heri Kurniawan, 21, Indonesia
(Original article is written in Bahasa Indonesia. Read it at WarungSateKamu)

If you love watching movies, especially those that were adapted from novels, you would have noticed that it is not uncommon for Hollywood to make sequels of certain box office hits. Whether it’s about the happy ending for the hero and heroine, retelling of the events before the hero attained his supernatural powers or even the rise of former enemies for revenge, anything can happen!

While some directors are able to bring the sequels to new heights, few have that finesse. God, the greatest film director of the universe, is peerless in this aspect. In fact, He is in a different league altogether. He is the One who created all the characters and placed them in the right time, place and environment with suitable roles to glorify Him in the process. Having said that, it doesn’t mean that God is a manipulative dictator or an arbitrary regulator. Instead, He gives us a role as well as improvisational freedom to live out our life scenarios.

God sets in eternity various chapters in our lives: first, the time that we start on something; then enjoying Him in the things we do; and finally the day will come when He moves us on to the next episode with new twists and turns as He work out His purposes in our life. In every stage, it’s important that we enjoy God and relate to other characters that play a role in the same scene.

In life, we will continue to venture from chapter to chapter, encountering situations and eventually leaving the situation. Sometimes I ask: What is the purpose of God creating all these changes that are sometimes fraught with mystery? Isn’t it good if people stay where they are now, undergoing the same things, relating to the same people; static? But an author once said that it is in the changes that God creates within us a longing for Him who never changes. We become increasingly expectant of the eternity with Him in heaven, not loving the comfort of this temporary world. For believers, our life on earth is but a short trailer of our eternal life with God.

How then should we live? As it says in Ephesians 5:15-17, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” Therefore, let us live life based on God’s Word so that our lives do not deviate from God’s story.