The Wisdom of Matilda (and Charles Spurgeon)

                    Picture credit: BookTrust 

Did you catch any good movies over Christmas? My wife loves a classic, cheesy Christmas film... something easy-going, with a predictable plot and a happy ending to enjoy whilst presents get wrapped or cards written. Our standing joke is when I come in near the end and ask if everything turned out okay.

Is your life like a classic Christmas film? Do you just know the ups and downs of the coming year are going to turn into a happy ever after? If you do, then you sound like a pleasantly joyful kind of person who should start writing a festive script ASAP in time for next year. How about this for an outline?

    -     A writer (beautiful, obviously) sits at her desk as Yuletide beckons, delighted to pen the last word of her commissioned debut novel after years of unrewarded hard work and multiple rejections. It snows. Carol singers perform outside. Life is on the up. 

    - Whilst jigging around and singing merrily, she places the script in an envelope for her publisher just as the postman arrives, profusely apologising for the late delivery of a dog-eared letter that’s been astray for several months. He wishes her a happy Christmas and hopes it’s nothing important. Of course it’s not. Who sends letters these days?

    -  “Dearest unpublished, debut author... we regret to inform you... blah blah blah... analysis of market trends... blah blah blah... we now realise your proposal has no prospect of success.  Please tweak your contemporary romance into the latest niche historical-sci-fi-satire genre that’s about to explode and get it in by Christmas...”

    - Our writer (still beautiful but tear-stained and despondent) travels home for the holidays dreading the inevitable parental disapproval... ‘time for a proper job... your brother and sister are doing so well... your body clock is ticking... oh, the mysterious man from next door is lonely and single...’

    - The ending? You really want to know? Come on... not everything can be written for you!  

One film I saw over Christmas was ‘Matilda’. Here’s an extract from ‘When I Grow Up’.

Just because I find myself in this story

It doesn’t mean everything is written for me

If I think the ending is fixed already

I might as well be saying

I think that it’s okay

And that’s not right

Christmas films tend towards predictably happy endings, and that’s fine – it’s the expectation of the genre. Our own lives? Not so much! Unless you’re an alien from another planet, I predict you will face challenges this year, maybe with your writing or some other aspect of your life. Do you ever slip into a frame of mind that suggests we humans are helpless – that the end of your story is already written? If that were the case, I’m not sure praying would ever have featured as part of our faith. Here’s what Charles Spurgeon has to say.

“Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the kingdom. ‘Ask and you shall receive.’ It is a rule that never will be altered in anyone’s case... If the royal and divine Son of God cannot be exempted from the rule of asking that He may have, you and I cannot expect the rule to be relaxed in our favour. Why should it be?... If you may have everything by asking, and nothing without asking... I beseech you to abound in it.”

Maybe you’re wondering what lies ahead of you this year? How this chapter might end? I cannot tell you, but commit your wonderings, hopes, worries, requests, wild dreams, and lofty ambitions to God in prayer. Be bold, and ask Him for what you want, what you need, and for what you long. Like it or not, it is the rule of the kingdom.

How would you like my unfinished story to end? More importantly, what about yours? Classic ending or a genre-busting twist in the tale?