If life was a movie

What if life was a movie?

We could edit, do retakes, have a stand in for the scary parts, and leave the worst of the film on the cutting room floor.

Phew.

But wait! Wait!

I have this creeping suspicion that the very best of life has its roots in the stuff I'd rather dispose of…on the cutting room floor.

Strength. Hope. Confidence. Development. Peace…all come from those places – are exercised in those places where we are driven to our knees either by our own hands or by the latest unwelcome hurricane.

Our mettle is tested in the painful seasons.

A friend – one of Madi's grade school teachers – handed a piece of paper to me during the worst season of my adult life. It read "Any idiot can handle a crisis–it's this day-to-day living that wears you out." Anton Chekhov

A hard good word for a weary drowning soul.

I think of this often and realize how much good stuff I'd have missed if God had plucked me from the worst times. He was gracious to let me walk through those things. Those horrible days and nights have taught me that God is faithful and cares so much for my family and me. He brought us the Isotopes, the Mayeses, and more during the worst hard  time. And he's added so many more loved faces around the table.

So all of those failures that I'd like to trim from my life story? Keeping them.

Character flaws and poor decision-making? Doggone it, I will keep them, too.

Hurricanes? Weathering through the cutting process.

Forgetting to change from running shorts and into the skirt for work a few weeks ago?…that day get's punted to the cutting room floor.

If life were a movie, I'd want mine to be epic and chock full of drama, humor, celebration, twists and turns…joy.  So the hard days, sleepless nights, missteps, and wrong words need to stay in the show. Their sum is becoming the freedom story that I've longed for…always.