We absorb watching the movie move from one moment to many moments. We press the pause button and notice there are 34:50 seconds left.

We are intrigued and perhaps identified with some characters but are happy that the others are simply villains. We carefully watch and weigh every scene as the plot unfolds, thickens, and then seems to also slowly un-thicken as those remaining 34:50 seconds are shown.

Whether it’s popping the popcorn or needing to pee, we love our remote’s pause button. We’re able to stand and stretch after watching this long, future film recommended to us by our friends.

While popping or peeing, we have that pause to guess or figure out the end of the movie. We’re confident who the villains are and we’re winning for the winners. Smiling to ourselves we think, “It’s only a movie.”

Returning to our favorite “movie chair,” we watch those remaining minutes. Entranced now. Involved now. Included now even if our names are not listed in the closing credits.

It’s the movie of our lives. It’s the movie we Christians call the beginning of “Holy Week.”