The Gospel According to Gump

Not having TV (I do have a TV, just not one that is anything more than an awkward paper weight, since I don’t have cable), the Lord has me all to Himself when I get home. It’s usually an uncomfortable stillness at first, not so much on account of the silence but because of what emerges from my mind and heart in the midst of it. That is why He meets me this way. “Be still … ”

I also don’t doubt it’s because He recalls that He fashioned me with a wicked case of … oh look, squirrel! … and He’s got some things He really wants to say to me before they leak out of my head so I will at least get them down on paper. And, thankfully, I have.

One of those great Scriptural precepts scrawled on one of many orphaned pieces of notepad is that of sanctification, a facet of God’s love toward us and His working in us to bring His pre-ordained will to pass: that we would be conformed to the likeness of His Son. [Romans 8:29]

“It is placing such a high value on something, just for what it inherently is, that you go to any lengths to salvage it from it’s own wretchedness and restore it so it can reflect its true beauty … so it can be what it was created by its Maker to be.”

Being a firm believer that all of life’s scenarios have already been catalogued somewhere cinematically (ok, maybe just in "Shawn World"), I immediately thought of a scene from Forrest Gump.

Jenny’s got a dream. She wants to be a folk singer, and she has found a stage where someone will let her perform. The problem is the audience doesn’t care about her song, let alone what’s in her soul. She can just drop the guitar and give them what they came for. She's living half a dream that is no dream at all, and no matter how big her guitar, she can't hide her shame behind it.

Inevitably, because she is always on his mind, Forrest is there. He had read that Jenny was going to be making her musical debut, and he wouldn’t miss it for the world. But when he sees where her dream has taken her, he rushes to cover her with his coat, picks her up and carries her out, against the protests of the crowd and Jenny as well.

"You can't keep doing this all the time," she tells him.
"I can't help it," Forrest explains ... He reminds us. "I love you."