I watched the 12 Dates of Christmas, which may in fact be one of the cheesiest and most
unrealistic movies I've seen.
SPOILER ALERT...
The whole movie line is that Kate is dying to get married after having broken up with her boyfriend of two years, who she's never really gotten over. She is given a chance for a new relationship on Christmas Eve, but ends it quickly after the opportunity to see her ex-boyfriend again. However, she finds out that he's about to propose to his new girlfriend. Long story short, at the end of Christmas Eve, everything rewinds and she starts the day over. For the majority of the days, Kate tries to do everything she can to get back together with her ex-boyfriend. She encounters various people throughout her day, yet she is so focused on her one task that she never stops to get to know them.
On one of the days, someone tells her that "you can change every single thing about yourself, and it still wouldn't work, because you can't change 'fate'."
After that, Kate begins to quit focusing on getting back with her ex-boyfriend and decides to just "live in the moment." She begins to meet these people she sees throughout her daily life and finds ways to get to know them, listen to them, and make their lives better in any way she can.
And like any Christmas movie, everyone ends up happily ever after.
Although I believe it's the Lord's sovereignty, not fate, that brings things about, I couldn't help but be impacted by this cheesy, inspirational Christmas movie on two different notes.
The first one being that especially since being in college, I can often get this mentality that school should be my main priority at this time of my life. I spent my last year of college doing just that, and although making good grades is good, it is in no way fulfilling, and I found that out the hard way.
When I began my Sophomore year this fall, I decided to spend less time worrying about grades and assignments and more time developing lasting and genuine friendships. When I stopped going to class just to listen to a lecture and counting the hours until I could go home, I began to realize that there's so much more. I developed friendships with classmates that I spent time with outside of class, had conversations with people between classes, and discovered a whole slew of people who are all in very different places and have so many different things to offer.
I've begun to pray that I would see college as so much more than just classes and exams, but as people and opportunities, and the Lord has been so faithful to continue to answer that prayer.
"I shiver, thinking how easy it is to be totally wrong about people, to see one tiny part of them and confuse it for the whole." - Lauren Oliver
The second thing that impacted me was the quote in the movie: "You can change every single thing about yourself, and it still wouldn't work, because you can't change 'fate'."
On a less dramatic level and a more real level, I've gone through a big chunk of my life trying to become a certain thing in order to please people. Trying to be less sensitive, more funny, less emotional, more easy-going. I've tried to be what I think that people want or need, only to realize that I can never be everything someone wants or needs... And what a deep, deep relief that is. Not that there isn't room for change, as there definitely is, but being reminded that it's Christ who has changed and continues to change us, not anything that we can do on our own.
Although cliche, the Lord created each of us as who we are for a magnificent reason and purpose. There is such a lightness and freedom in discovering that and beginning to find delight, not dread, in the things that make us unique.
"I use to dislike being sensitive. I thought it made me weak. But take away that single trait, and you take away the very essense of who I am. You take away my conscience, my ability to emphasize, my intuition, my creativity, my deep apprecitation of the little things, my vivid inner life, my keen awareness to others pain and my passion for it all."
I'm thankful that the Lord loves us, desires us, teaches us, and uses the smallest of things to speak to us, even the cheesiest of Christmas movies on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
No comments:
Post a Comment