Have I mentioned my dad’s sage advice about movie credits? It was an early life lesson for me. My family always waited until the very end of the movie to honor all the names in the movie credits.
To be honest, I don’t think my folks do it all the time anymore. I know that I don’t. But every once in a while I do and it can be surprisingly profound. All of those hundreds of names! That wide assortment of jobs! All of that pooled talent and organized chaos of extreme specialization mixed with whoever happens to have the know-how and connections to get a gig and keep it!
Yesterday was our 10th wedding anniversary so I asked my husband if we could get a meal out and watch a movie in a theater. Anyway, we went and enjoyed our time together. And, as I watched the movie credits scroll by I thought about how I want to be among the hundreds and thousands of people who bear an impact on individuals. Not because they’d learn my name—let’s face it, people rarely do in our field—but I want to contribute to something larger than myself, something that reaches out to people, something . . . hopefully beautiful and meaningful.
I don’t know why you write. Or want to write. There’s a lot of work, a lot of specialization juxtaposed against the rough world of finding a way to spread your texts! But it encourages me to think that all of us nameless somebodies have an impact. We do. It may not be visible. It may not be conscious or knowable. But God weaves us together for the good of those who love Him. Ourselves included!
It comes down to vocation. Often nameless service, done in the humdrum activities of daily life. Yet there is beauty to it. Love. Excellence! Pleasure and even at times leisure. To the glory of God.
God’s blessings on your many relationships and vocations! And, if you happen to watch a movie with time to spare, watch those names. Genealogies of vocation and stations. Indeed, may God’s call by His Word come to and through them all!
We generally do still stay all the time to the end!
Lovely thoughts. Thank you.
As to staying at movies, since I was a teenager, I always felt the same way (though my parents didn’t necessarily). It seemed the least I could do to acknowledge those who’d worked on the movie. Fortunately, nowadays, the popularity of end-credits bonus scenes makes it a tad easier to justify it to those I’m with who don’t want to stay otherwise.
My parents still do this most of the time!
This is really helpful to remember with writing- the vocation of it, the nameless service of it.
Thank you!