Originally published August 9, 2018
We saw Mission Impossible Monday night. There is never a moment in that movie when the crisis doesn't get worse. It's one catastrophe after another. But, as Tom Cruise aficionados, (of his movie personas, not his odd real persona!) we know that in the end his character, Ethan Hunt, will persevere, that the bad guy will either die or be put away (until the next movie, anyway, which is true in real life, too, sometimes) and that Ethan will be beat up and lying in a hospital bed, but will share a laugh with his compatriots at the ridiculousness of it all. It's an exhausting movie to watch. One crisis happening right after another.
But then, as I thought about it, maybe crises are good, in that they indicate forward movement in life - though sometimes it feels backward. When Ethan's helicopter crashed into the bad guy's copter and they went careening to the ground (which was actually on the side of a mountain), that was a crisis, but it brought him closer to the detonator that the bad guy in the other helicopter was carrying. Then they had to fight, of course, which was another crisis, especially when they both went flying off the side of the mountain. What a crisis! But that fall put the bad guy on the bottom, which meant Ethan could jerk the cable which caught the bad guy and sent him crashing to his death. But then, of course, he had to climb up the side of the mountain to get the detonator before it was too late. Which, (spoiler alert) he did, and which we KNEW he would do, because he's Ethan Hunt and he always gets the bad guy and saves the world from nuclear destruction.
While it doesn't follow real life, it does reflect it. When you think one crisis about to be resolved, another one pops up. So it's go and stop, go and stop. My work, which is my major crisis producer, is just like that. Things are great today because we've signed two new clients, renewed 5, and made payroll. So I can breathe. But I fully expect to lose a client and have to put two in collections because they won't pay their invoices, and then spend two weeks worrying about making payroll again and trying to sign a new client, again.
When we were waiting to go to seminary there was a meeting that seemed like a final step, but in which another piece of paperwork or test was mandated. When Michael was looking for a job as graduation loomed, there would be an interview that went well, but a followup of "you're not quite what we're looking for." Resolution came, of course in attending seminary and getting a great job in a beautiful place. Our children are suffering the crises and resolutions of young adulthood, which range from college rejections that lead to the right college, job loss that leads to the right job, relationships that end so others can begin, and even horrific overdose deaths of friends that lead to self actualization and healthy choices.
Making payroll, getting into college, and the deaths of friends aren't nuclear destruction, but they sure feel like it at the time, don't they?
I like predictable movies, where good triumphs over evil. Michael and Isabel give me a hard time about that. I like them, I always said, because in real life, there often isn't a happy ending. But as I was writing a friend about it recently, I came to realize that I enjoy them because of my faith, that my faith makes life predictable. It's not always as cut and dried as it is in a two-hour Tom Cruise movie, and it doesn't always happen (ok - almost never happens) in my prescribed timeline, but because I know God is my father, and Jesus died for my awful sins and loves me, that he will save me from this time of trial.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Matthew 6:13
There's lots of discussion about that verse, which, of course, is part of the Lord's prayer. There are even religious bodies discussing it now to determine whether it should actually remain in the Lord's prayer. We all say it, every Sunday, so you may not think about asking God not to lead us into temptation. Would he? Really? Would God lead us into temptation? As Jesus instructed his disciples to pray that prayer, perhaps he meant that as a note to self: don't get in trouble; instead ask your Father to deliver you from it. Trouble is there and crises will happen because we are human, and because God has given us free will to do what we will. Free will is tricky, because it puts the burden of behavior on us. God has put his trust in us to be kind and love one another, and Him. But if we don't, which we won't, He will deliver us, and through His sufficient grace forgives us and then gives us the unearned opportunity to try again.
The sun rises each day. This is what we see from our new home each morning, sunrise over the Indian River Lagoon. This is where God put us, in his time.
One crisis, one resolution. Sometimes the crises are big, like a death, or a job loss, or a rejection. And the resolution, or the trying again part comes later, years later. And sometimes the crises are small, like when the plumbing doesn't work, or the car breaks down, and we're able to recover in a day or so. Because of my faith, I know that those crises, whether caused by me or forces beyond my control, will result in deliverance and a "happy ending."
End of the day in San Diego, California. God put me there last week, where we committed my dad's ashes to the sea he loved as a Navy man, and where we reunited with my mom's family.
Go see Mission Impossible. As my friend said, "We know what happens, so why don't they call it Mission Possible?"
Because it really isn't impossible, is it?
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