How is a simpleton the ultimate hero?

     One of my favorite movies is "Forrest Gump" from 1994, starring Tom Hanks.  You may think
that is a strange movie to have as a favorite, but it is full of wisdom. Stranger still. Because Forrest is a man born in the 1950's who by society's standards, would be considered "simple," a dullard.  Though they don't specifically say it in the movie, he has a low IQ.  Hardly the hero we would hold up in our Western Society, so concerned are we with achievement and being the best and the brightest.  But buried in the movie is a wonderful message.  Forrest, though born with this deficit, is encouraged by his mother who focuses on the good in him and teaches him not to dwell on his limitations.  Only to accept life as "a box of chocolates - you never know what you're gonna get," as he famously repeats over and over.  So our dull hero, not knowing his limitations, perhaps too dull to comprehend that he has any, goes from one amazing success to another throughout the course of his life.  He becomes a war hero, a ping pong champion that goes to red China in the 50's as a sports ambassador, a speaker at "the" war rally in Washington.  He inspires hundreds of people and makes the national news as he decides one day to go running and ends up running the entire length of the United States, back and forth, repeatedly, though as a child he could barely walk.  He has a son, falls in love, goes to college on a football scholarship and comes to know a true friend.

     His life was more full and more notable than any one of us could hope for.  Why?  Because he didn't know any better. He didn't know his limitations.

     Conversely, in our society we are taught that we can be anything we want to be if we try hard enough, work long enough, become "smart" enough - whatever that means.  Like we should envision some goal for ourselves and work towards it under our own power, and the measure that we achieve it is the measure we apply to ourselves: a measure of how successful we are.

     God's kingdom doesn't work like this.  In fact, completely flips this logic on its head. Jesus says we are to be like little children if we are to enter into the kingdom of God.  Young children, like Forrest, don't know their limitations.  They don't anticipate the failures that they will have in their future and resign themselves to some "realistic" goal for their lives.  They are a blank slate.  And they trust in God if their parents know him and teach them properly.

     Like Forrest, inhabitants of the Kingdom of God don't expect how things are going to turn out with respect to their destiny on this Earth.  They trust in their Father.  And God lovingly guides them, through happenstance, through prayer, based on their God-given talents, to be more than they could ever have possibly envisioned for themselves.

     I am a Database Administrator at a large university.  I fell into the job, not because I knew that's where I wanted to end up, not because I wanted to define myself by my future vocation, but because I knew that I wanted to go to college, and it led to better things. While in school I decided I liked the Computer Science classes and found that I was good at them.  That was in my power to do:try my best at something that I enjoy.  In the midst of it I was struck with a debilitating, life-long illness. I had no choice but to start turning my life over to God.  Despite the debilitating illness that still limits me, I finished school in the Honors College at my university, graduating Magna Cum Laude. Not because I was smart, but because I enjoyed what I was doing. While doing this, God opened a door to a part time job in my field.  It was a really simple, low-on-the-ladder computer support job, but it felt right and I followed it.  This progressed to better things, opening better doors, and quickly to a full time job in my field that provided for my entire college education and living expenses.  It is amazing to me how, though my faith was still so tentative, God provided all that I needed. And just exactly what I needed, no more, no less. I did not know of trust yet, but he was teaching me.  I never said I wanted to be a Database Administrator, I just followed my God given desires and did my best, putting one foot in front of the other and trust in God, and eventually ended up somewhere where I could exercise those skills. I did not have a goal for who I should be and worked hard to make myself into him.  I just followed my talents and did my best.  God did the rest.

     It happened with my writing too. I was good at writing in school and also very good a reading comprehension.  But, though I enjoyed it, I never had any particular goal of being a writer.  God, I think, has other plans. I don't have to be a great writer. (Anyone who practices any sort of art knows you have to be willing to make bad art.) My spelling and editing are atrocious. But I began writing for fun in my downtime and started a blog. I got readers and just kept at it because I enjoyed it - the ever-growing ability was a gift given to me by my Father in heaven. And I never knew that I couldn't be a writer.  If I am to pursue this with an attitude like the children of the Kingdom of Heaven, I will just do what I love doing and check in with God once in a while for ideas.  And he always gives me ideas when I am doing what I love to do. I think it was an idea from God to devote the proceeds for my first book to my church for their ministries there. As one of my favorite authors, Thomas Merton, said, 

“If you write for God you will reach many men and bring them joy. If you write for men--you may make some money and you may give someone a little joy and you may make a noise in the world, for a little while. If you write for yourself, you can read what you yourself have written and after ten minutes you will be so disgusted that you will wish that you were dead."

     I read a lot. I read constantly because I enjoy it. But I don't consider myself "well-read."  I think that particular phrase is more Western nonsense: to be elegant, well read, cultured, and of course consequently attractive to the opposite sex - who must be elegant and beautiful by some nonsense Western standard herself. Remember we are under the rules of the Kingdom of Heaven, not the rules of Western Society, or any society of origin.  The rules of the Kingdom are flipped upside down. (It is quite simply scandalous.) 

  

     I used to be consumed - totally consumed - by what I thought was my extreme deficit in intelligence. I wanted to be "smart" and I did not think I was, so I was a failure - again by faulty Western ideal.  But there is no such thing as "smart" - it is an unachievable smokescreen because "smart" is so nebulous (and relative) a term.  We are all collections of skills and deficits.  Not one of us is the same.  Smart means completely different things to different people and it is an impossible standard when applied to one's self. What I really was was lacking confidence in my abilities.  Not able to see my God-given gifts.  There are no smart and successful people in the Kingdom. Conversely, there are no stupid or failed people. Just happy ones. Just redeemed sinners putting one foot in front of the other, following their God-given talents and checking in with their good and wonderful parent in Heaven.  You want a "revolution?"  It has already happened.  It happened 2000 years ago. You want to be happy? Pursue your God-given talents without a care for where they will lead. It is a simple thing to just decide to live in the revolution of the Kingdom of Heaven - just accept it as the truth.