I have to really watch my time investment in watching movies, tv, documentaries, etc. I guess is is partially because I love a good plot and especially when it ends well with success in a love relationship, victory for an underdog, or some heroic benefit for those who were previously downtrodden. (Do they still use the word ” downtrodden”?)
In the choosing of what to watch or where to allow my mind to travel, the entertainment I choose is key to success or failure for me. For example, i have to keep the remote handy so that if a scene emerges that pulls me back to my old temptations, I pause it – skip it or kill it. It is not always easy to find something I can watch all the way through. But I have alternatives. I read, listen to books on Audible, choose YouTube documentaries, or choose other movies (but always with the remote handy.)
Here is a conclusion after a lifetime of loving to watch movies: Most of them aren’t real. Are you shocked? 🙂 Someone wrote a script, a poem, or a book and turned the story into a movie or a play. Some wrote about a story that had a happy ending with victories, love, and riches. The love stories have interested me greatly. Oh, I love the adventures, battles, and conquest, but in the end I hope couples will live “(married) happily ever after”, and families will find peace and happiness in the home.
Ultimately, each plot conveys a struggle leading to some type of conclusion. Even history with its twists and turns reveals the same – plots that aren’t scripted by a playwright or author. Real life is not always the same as “reel life”. Whether or not your life has been one with happy endings at every turn, I know how real life can be better than reel life. Our Lord Jesus, and I hope He is your Lord too, promises an abundant life here and eternal life in heaven with Him and the family of His followers. Jesus came and lived a real life that no one else would want. Jesus suffered rejection, isolation, persecution and crucifixion. His real life certainly had it joys as He loved and gave Himself for others. But it ended painfully at the cross. I have never seen anyone come back from the dead after 3 days in a tomb, but Jesus did. Now He can give us the power to live forever, forgiven, and free.
If someone made a movie of my life, I doubt that many would pay to see it; however, I am thrilled to live it knowing I am forgiven and destined for real life in heaven where “eye has not seen nor has ear heard nor has yet entered into the heart of man what God has in store for those who love Him”! I don’t think even the most creative of movie companies could capture on a movie reel how amazing it will be.