Lessons from Forest Gump

A few years ago, one of the year's biggest movies was "Forest Gump." Actor Tom Hanks played the role of a handicapped man whose mother believed in him to the extent that he was willing to try anything. He would often quote one of his mother’s favourite lines. "My mother says,  ‘Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get.’”

Today, I suggest that life is like a box of chocolates, not because we never know what we will get, though that may be true, but for another reason altogether. We have all noticed that foods that no one likes in the family do not get eaten quickly. When we open sweets around my house, they will be gone quickly. However, we could open a jar of marmite, and it would last a long time because no one is eager to eat it. That is the lesson that I want us to focus on today. Life is like a box of chocolates; it never lasts very long.

I wonder if we only live for what we can see - most people are. Its motivations can often be commendable: 'I live for my wife, I live for my children, I live for my whole family, I want to be with them - they are the meaning of my life'. Then, all of a sudden, those people die, or are taken away, or deserted, and the meaning is lost in their lives. People sometimes live only for material personal possessions, and they want to get money, as much as they can, to buy things: houses, cars, clothes. So many, whether for relationships, money, or things, are living, existing for the tangible - things we can touch and feel; for the sensual, things we can experience in the realm of pleasure; but we are not living for the spiritual! What are you living for?

One of the best illustrations of this must be the tragedy of the Titanic sinking in the Atlantic. We had all seen films about it and read books about how it left the shores of Southampton with all its passengers on its way to the States. Everybody was just intoxicated with the wonder of technology and engineering and the pleasure of what it was to wine and dine and enjoy the company of aristocrats - but suddenly, something happened! They hit an iceberg. They were turned from singing party songs to striking up in the band, 'Nearer my God to Thee, Nearer to Thee'. What happened? The unseen broke into the seen. They began to see that everything that appeared to be was not necessarily what things were.

“What is your life?” The Bible says, It is a vapour, it appears for a little time and then vanishes away. How do we provide for the unseen? How do we prepare for eternity? The good news is that Jesus, on the cross, has done all the preparation for us. All that is left for us is that we repent of our sin, be willing to turn from it, and in turning from it, turn to the Saviour Himself and embrace Him by faith for our whole salvation. All we have to say in repentance and faith is: 'Wash me, Lord Jesus, in Your precious blood, and take my sins away'. We need to do it today.

DAILY MESSAGES WITH MEANING (09/09/24)

Written by PETER FRANCIS

All photos courtesy of Unsplash