Let’s Cut to the Chase
February 1 2025
This term from movie production and editing means let’s cut film until we get to the exciting part.
In written novels, there are settings and introductions, there is a story leading to a climax, and there is a denouement which unravels any mystery, revealing the purposes and outcomes of the story.
Some people read the Bible like the movie editors and rush to cut to the chase. Leaving all the cut film on the floor is maybe not the best approach since many of those outtakes add clarity of purpose.
Some read the Bible like a “dime store novel” and perhaps quickly skip pages to get to the climax and not to bother with the denouement.
There is an entire Library Catalogue of “proofs” online, piles of documents and opinions, giving evidence of a plethora, a tabletop menagerie, a whole heap of reasons to give any credence to, let alone belief in God, or Jesus, or the Bible.
Well, go ahead, and jump into that pile of leaves, finding all the answers you need to live a happy and productive life. It will even give a wonderful fragrance to your clothes…
Whee! Lots of fun. Yet, sooner or later, you will have to actually do something with that pile…
Now the word “existential” has been bandied about mercilessly, and I am not sure people using it know what it means. You can spend a lot of reading time at EncyclopediaBritannica.com to learn the whole story, but let me save you some time…
The basis of this philosophy — it is a way of looking at life — is that we do exist. It says that we should do something with that existence. Well it then becomes like fine pieces of ceramic art smashed in a thousand pieces by a group of rowdy children…
What we do with our existence leads to a thousand different outcomes of human choices.
After my encounter with existentialism, I concluded that it is not important where we start in life, but it is essential where we end up… and I am not talking about material possessions but behavioral attainment which transcends basic survival skills and outcomes, that is, such difficult and apparently unattainable goals as loving one another.
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16–17, New Living Translation (NLT)
“So now,” Jesus told His disciples, “I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.” — John 13:34, NLT.
That is the chase we all need to cut to.
Knowing Jesus, God, and the Bible in a personal and intimate way made all the difference in our lives, and we’re no different from you.