Recently I was watching Rogers and Hamerstiens Cinderella with my little sister, and being a mindful big brother, I decided to teach a little dicernment. I asked the question we all need to ask whatever the media we consume “What does this teach us?” I am sure this was quite anoying to my sweet 9 year old sister who had just enjoyed a good movie and was already dreaming about being swept away by her prince charming.
But it is important to not be fools so I began to think to myself. And you know my sister wasn't too far off. It teaches us to dream of a better life. Cinderella is trapped in dire circumstances, her father has died and there is no one around her that has any love toward her. All she has is a dream. Her dream was that one day her chance would come, she whould escape her souroundings and live a happy life.
Almost everyone of us is given great difficulties to overcome and we can either be bitter and grumpy, or we can have hope that this to shall pass. Even more so as a Christian because we have a blessed hope that one day the bridegroom (Jesus), will come for his bride.(us)
John Eldredge and Brent Curtis describe this as The Sacred Romance. It is a wonderful true story. Christ seeking and pursuing us and his church responding to his advances and accepting him. But there is a part of the romance that we shy away from. We forget that the romance takes place in real life. We are forced to wait for our beloved and waiting is hard.
In every good story there is a time of waiting. We go on a bit of a roller coaster as concern and aprehension take over. We as observers however never take the full brunt of the trial, because we know in the end it will all work out. We enjoy it to some degree because that is what makes the story. In fact the story is very much defined by how the characters react to difficulty. This is how we are defined in real life. We all have roughly the same problems, we just react differently.
Cinderella made it to the ball and returns with a twinkle in her eye, and she is mocked by her step mother and sisters. She doesn't always act the way she should. There are a lot of times when she begins to forget about her dream.Yet overall,we fall in love with Cinderella for her graciousness and loath her step sisters for their bitterness.
Paul told Timothy, “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” (1 Timothy 6:6) Yet this contentment is a contentment that comes from yarning for the more. We must agree with Paul about the material world and yet say with the psalmist in “I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy(God's) likeness.” (psalm 17:15)
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
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