No Spoilers

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

-James 4:14

 

"I can't believe that Kylo Ren burst into that creepy rendition of 'Let It Go' at the end of the movie!" Sam shouted.

Yesterday I saw The Force Awakens. If you haven't seen it yet, don't worry, I'll abide by the title of this post. Except to assure you that Elsa's song did NOT make an appearance.

As we left the theater, Sam loudly pronounced his shock over laughably untrue spoilers, just to confuse movie goers who were already filling the seats for the next showing.

Which got me thinking, why do we hate spoilers so much? Why don't we want someone to tell us the outcome, good or bad, in an upcoming movie? Why do we avoid Facebook on the release date of a big film we haven't seen? Don't we want to know what happens?

Of course we want to know, but even more than that, we want to see. To experience the emotion of the characters, to cry when Wallace sacrifices himself, to cheer tragically when Gaston slips, to rejoice when Aslan resurrects.

Why then, do we take the opposite approach to life?

God, who will I marry? How long will I live in this city? Will my children follow you when they grow up? When are you coming back? And could you please give me a detailed timeline of important events between now and then?

God is not fooled by our begging. He tells no one the day or the hour, their number of hairs, or the weather tomorrow. And deep down, we don't want him to. It would ruin the surprise. So today, let us live life as it comes, rejoicing and weeping as God directs, trusting him to weave an even better story than The Force Awakens.