Now with guests

I recently saw the movie, "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel." I won't spoil the experience for those who haven't seen it with too many details. If you haven't seen it because you heard it's just a movie about a bunch of old people, go see it anyway. It's about so much more and appropriate for younger folks too.

Granted, I had delayed seeing it in part because I didn't know anyone under 70 who had seen it. But Judi Dench, Maggie Smith ... how could you go wrong? It even has Matthew's mother from Downton Abbey. But I digress.

In addition to the older Brits who seek a new lease on life in India, we also get to meet the young Indian proprietor of the eponymous hotel. He is optimistic and joyful, if a bit unrealistic and impractical.

One of the sayings that he repeats several times in the film is something to the effect of: "It will all be fine in the end, and if it is not fine that is because it is not yet the end."

I have been thinking about that since seeing the movie. It reminds me of one of my favorite passages in scripture from Habakuk.

"Then the LORD answered me and said: Write down the vision; Make it plain upon tablets, so that the one who reads it may run. For the vision is a witness for the appointed time, a testimony to the end; it will not disappoint. If it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late. "

When we look around our troubled world, from civil war in Syria to gun violence at the movies, we can be forgiven for thinking things are far from fine. Because they're not fine. But maybe that's because it is not yet the end.

Does that mean we just sit in lawn chairs and watch the world fall apart around us? Of course not. It means we recommit to the vision, recognize we are not God, and work together.

In the movie there is a sign outside the hotel declaring it the best exotic marigold hotel.  At one point, shortly after the first guests arrive,  the sign is amended with this note at the bottom: "Now with guests."

It is only together,  in community recognizing our interdependence that we can truly glimpse the vision and work for it together.

If it delays, wait for it. It will surely come.