The Day Your Destiny Changed

Disney has a new, must-see movie coming to our local Cinema Centre and to theaters everywhere starting April 17. And guess what? It was filmed right here in Manitoba, some scenes on Portage la Prairie’s own Crescent Lake, in the spring of 2018. It features some well-known actors like Chrissy Metz from This is Us, Josh Lucas, whom you’ll recognize from numerous movies, and Topher Grace, best known as Eric on That 70’s Show.

The movie is called Breakthrough. I love movies based on true stories, don’t you? Apparently, we’re not alone. When the trailer for Breakthrough released last December, it broke records by receiving thirty million views in two days. You can check it out yourself online (watch for familiar sights on the shore of Crescent Lake!) as well as interviews with the real-life Smiths.

When Joyce Smith’s fourteen-year-old son John fell through an icy Missouri lake one winter morning in 2015, she and her family had seemingly lost their precious son. At the hospital, John lay lifeless for more than sixty minutes. But Joyce was not ready to give up on her son. She mustered all her faith and strength into one force and cried out to God in a loud voice to save him.

Miraculously, her son’s heart immediately started beating again.

In the coming days, John would defy every expert, every case history, and every scientific prediction. Sixteen days after falling through the ice and being clinically dead for an hour, he walked out of the hospital under his own power, completely healed.

It’s the kind of movie you want to see even though you already know how it ends.

Joyce, in cooperation with author Ginger Kolbaba, told the story in a book originally titled The Impossible. Based on the book, the movie is about a profound truth: prayer really does work. God uses it to show us he is always with us, and with him, the impossible is nothing.

John Smith is now nineteen years old and is devoting his life to telling his miraculous story everywhere he goes. You could say the day he fell through the ice was the day his destiny changed.

The producers timed the release of the movie to coincide with Easter, the day destiny changed for us all. While John Smith’s resurrection story is inspiring, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the one event in history that truly changed everything for you and me. It’s what sets Christianity apart from every other faith. It’s what fills our hearts with hope each day. It’s what makes us sing, “if you left the grave behind you, so will I.”

I plan to experience this faith-lifting movie as part of my Easter preparations. I hope you will, too.