Seeing without Believing

I love television and movies...particularly drama-based series...anything that involves scripted lives inter-mingling with unpredictable and sometimes catastrophic events. I've been thinking a lot about it, only because after watching such a program, I'm almost always left with a sense of inspiration.

Here's what does it for me. These people in their make believe lives always seem to be able to say exactly what they mean...even if they don't say it at first, they say it eventually. They're always so brave in their actions and more often than not, end up throwing caution to the wind in pursuit of those actions. Additionally, we, the viewers, are always optimistic that the beloved characters' lives will end up well, no matter how hard they get hit with the bad...no matter what unsurmountable mountain they must climb to get there...we believe...because of one thing...

HOPE. Hope that the survivors of Oceanic flight 815 will be rescued...hope that Meredith and Derek will live happily ever after......tear-provoking, adrenaline-pumping hope!

So, all that being said, here's what I've been thinking about. Why is it that in our own lives, especially as believers, we can set aside time every week to guzzle up all the hope we can in more than one television show or even a movie and yet not believe what we see? What I mean is, how are our lives not so much more hope-filled than these fictional characters' lives?

Why can't we see that hope for us has illuminated infinitely into faith? I've been more than a little convicted about this and hear me when I say that I'm not going to stop watching television...it's too fantastic. But, also hear me when I say that from now on I'll be watching it with my very own UN-FICTIONAL hope in mind.

So, the next time you see something that is of this world and it manages to move you in some way, believe...believe that what you feel at that moment is immeasurably smaller than what we we can feel when we simply cling to the fact that we believe in what cannot be seen!!