Watching “Batman: The Dark Knight” I saw how we have a God of the eleventh hour. I know, that could be controversial because of all the negative press the movie got about violence, etc. I don’t know details, but I remember hearing how the movie was affecting people in negative ways.
Nonetheless, that movie made something click for me about God.
In the movie, Bruce Wayne had “retired” from being Batman for eight years. Put lightly, he wasn’t very popular in Gotham as Batman. Everyone wanted to kill him because he was framed for a crime he didn’t commit.
Spoiler alert: If you haven’t seen the movie, you might not want to read the next paragraph.
Long story short, there’s a bomb that’s about to go off. It has 12 or so minutes left, and Batman is back on the scene. He wants to save these people who hate him. He wants to let live those who want him dead. At the very last moment, he makes a decision to fly the bomb away from the city, thereby sacrificing himself. The bomb has less than a minute left as he flies away. The whole city thinks they’re going to be destroyed by the bomb, but then… Batman saves them again!
He saves them in the eleventh hour.
As I was watching this movie and getting an epiphany about this, other movies started flashing through my head. You know the movies. Something bad is going to happen if a certain person doesn’t do a certain thing in a certain amount of time. It usually involves self-sacrifice and a lot of bold-faced courage.
How striking it is to me the similarities to our faith. Jesus died to save people who wanted him dead. And so often I struggle with trusting God to come through, when all the while he was waiting until the bomb got to just one minute left. I’m learning to embrace the eleventh hour, because when we wait and put full trust in God, that’s when he comes through. That’s when He shows his power and glory. Why would I want to get myself in the way with all my worries and insecurities when I know that he could do so much more if I just put my trust in Him?
