A few months ago I watched an action movie called The Bourne Ultimatum, and soon after I was inspired to write about a specific scene in the movie that has huge spiritual parallels.

The scene, often called “Waterloo Station”, shows Jason Bourne leading reporter Simon Ross through the busy crowds as he tries to evade the CIA agents chasing them.

Now if you know anything about Jason Bourne, you know that his skills and judgement are not something to be questioned. He has incredible perception and insights, athletic agility, years of experience, physical strength… what else could you ask for in a protector?

Bourne tells Ross where to go, who to stand next to, what direction he needs to be facing,
everything he needs to know in order to stay safe and out of sight. But as he realizes the severity of his situation, Simon panics and deviates from Bourne’s instructions. Repeatedly. As a result of relying on his own judgment instead of Bourne’s, Ross quickly got himself gunned down in the middle of Waterloo Station and implicated Bourne in the process.

At the beginning of the race through the train station, Jason tells Simon, “You gotta do exactly as I say”. But Ross did no such thing, and even after he watched Bourne beat up at least five agents who were out to kill them, he did not trust Bourne’s judgement. When he realized Ross was going into panicked shock, Jason firmly told him, “You’ve gotta do exactly what I say. This isn’t some story in a newspaper. This is real.”

Ross agreed in the moment, but once again began to panic after having to wait for further
instructions from Jason. In his fear Ross said, “I can see the entrance from here, if I go now I can make it.” Bourne again told him to wait, but Ross would not wait. After exclaiming,
“I’m going for it”, with Jason loudly protesting, Ross had his life ended right outside the door at the hands of a CIA sniper.

Now we can clearly see Ross’ lack of wisdom — or quite honestly, common sense– in relying on his own supposed “good ideas” instead of Jason’s. After all, the guy who was leading him through Waterloo Station was not your average CIA agent, or even an average member of the Treadstone Program; it was Jason Bourne.

But immediately after watching these scene — it struck me that we do the same thing with God.

In our desperation to try and fix things immediately, we rely on our own insights and ideas
while ignoring God’s commands. We live in fear and anxiety over a situation that seems to
have no happy ending, while God commands us to rest in and patiently wait for Him
(Psalm 37:7). We try and do things in our own strength instead of trusting in God to be our
refuge and strength (Psalm 46:1). We get angry when our ideas and strategies cause
relationships and opportunities to fall apart before our eyes, when we should have waited on God until He brought peace and clarity to our situation.

Sounds just like Jason telling Ross to wait behind that locked door until he figured out
what was going on, doesn’t it?

God always has our best interests at heart, just like Jason had Ross’ best interests at heart
when he told him to be patient and wait — although that probably seemed foolish to Simon.
And just like Bourne, God has far more experience, wisdom and knowledge than we do in
every situation that could ever come upon us. We think we know what the answer should be, but oftentimes our solution is the complete opposite from what God would have us to do!

Just as Ross thought “I can make it, I can see the entrance from here” while not knowing that would put him directly in the sight of the assassin’s gun, we often do not know what’s best in our given scenario. But God does! Even if we feel in the dark, Jesus never is. Or in the words of the psalmist — “Even the darkness is not darkness to You.” (Psalm 139:12)

Jesus is so much more powerful and intelligent than Jason Bourne, but the same principle applies. If Ross had listened to Jason he most likely would have survived the entire Waterloo chase, and if we trusted Jesus by faith instead of sight, we would enjoy more peace and joy.

No one said it would be easy, and we might obey with fear and trembling just as Simon did. But as long as we obey, that’s the most important thing!

“I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.” – Psalm 3:5-6

P.S. — I’m at church camp this week so I scheduled this post for publishing last week!! Let me know if you’ve seen this movie and how you liked the post, and I’ll get back to you on Monday! <3