to return to your place in the text.To read endnotes, click on the the note number, then click on the
The hero of the piece is a slightly slow-witted young man whose life we follow from
boyhood through about age 40. We learn that he got his first name from a distant relative,
Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate General who, once the War between the States was over,
used to dress up in bed sheets and tear around the country with his similarly-dressed friends in
their club called the Ku Klux Klan. The name Forrest was to be a reminder that even normal
people sometimes do inexplicable things.
According to the story, young Forrest Gump with an IQ of only 75 was not just as good as
other young men, but better. He had to learn to run fast to escape the local bullies; he learned so
well that he became an All-America running back for the University of Alabama, and was
invited to the White House to meet President Kennedy. More fast running helped him save the
lives of his comrades in Vietnam; he was a genuine hero and was awarded the Congressional
Medal of Honor after another invitation to the White House to meet President Johnson. Advice
to "keep your eye on the ball" taught him a new game...Ping Pong...and he became so proficient
that he was made a member of the American team that helped open the US relationship with
Red China, invited to the White House again, this time to meet President Nixon. After all that,
Gump fulfills his deceased best Army buddy's dream of buying a shrimp boat in Alabama - when
Hurricane Camille reduces every other boat to rubble, the business takes off. Finally, Forrest
becomes, in his word, a "go-zillionaire" after investing in what he thought was a little fruit
company...Apple Computer. Along the way he teaches an unknown named Elvis a new way to
move his hips, becomes the inspiration for the "Have-A-Nice-Day" Smiley face, gives John
Lennon the lyrics to the hit song, "Imagine" and, while an overnight guest at the Watergate Hotel
in June, 1972, alerts security to a problem in a neighboring suite where folks are wandering
about with flash lights apparently looking for a fuse box. As I say, incredible...not to mention,
regularly hilarious.
The recurring theme in the film is DESTINY. One of the characters whose life Forrest
saves in the jungles of Vietnam is his Army Lieutenant Dan Taylor who was introduced as
having had relatives who had died in every war America ever fought - a great tradition to live up
to (or DIE up to, as the case may be). Forrest carries Lt. Dan to safety despite his protests. Both
end up in an army hospital, Forrest there due to a bullet wound in, as he says, the ButTOCKS,
the Lieutenant with legs so damaged that they required amputation, and with psyche so scarred
that he eventually screams at this young man who saved his life, "We all have a destiny.
Everything's part of a plan. I had a destiny. I was supposed to die in the field with my
men...with HONOR. I had a destiny. I was Lt. Dan Taylor."
"I had a destiny." What about that? Did he? Do I? Do you? Perhaps an unusual
question from the pulpit of a Presbyterian church, the folks uniquely known for a belief in
PREdestination (more about that in a few minutes).
In this week's Sports Illustrated, the article on the final game of the World Cup reports
that the Brazilian and Italian goalkeepers, prior to the series of penalty kicks which would decide
the tournament last Sunday, told each other that the winner was going to be the team that was
predestined to win.(1) Do you believe that? In another article in the issue, this one on the British
Open, Australian golf commentator Jack Newton, at one time a fine competitor himself and the
loser by one stroke to Tom Watson in the 1983 Open, reminisced about that tournament, gave a
rueful smile, and said, "My wife and I have talked about it a lot, and we just decided it wasn't
meant to be."(2) Do you believe that?
In our Old Testament lesson, Jeremiah believed something like that. He reports a
conversation with Yahweh: God says, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before
you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah believed
he had a destiny, and despite some reluctance, he was ready to follow it.
Is there some inexorable fate or some divine plan that charts our lives, that says where
we will be born, which school to attend, what we will do, who we will marry, who will win the
World Cup or British Open, when we will die? Some folks believe so.
Lots of folks are closet fatalists. They believe that when it is your time, it is your time -
no avoiding it. Soldiers head into battle with the conviction that, if there is a bullet "with my
name on it," that's it. I heard of a fellow who was afraid of flying. A friend said, "Hey, why
worry? When your number's up, you're gonna go, no matter where." To which the `fraidy flyer
replied, "Yeah, but I don't want to go when the number of the guy sitting NEXT to me is up."
Hmm.
I realize that many people find comfort in believing that our lives are mapped out
according to divine plan. I used to feel that way, but no longer. If I believed that I would have
to say then that it was God's plan that Ashley die at age 14 before she ever really had the chance
to live [a young St. Paul member killed in an auto accident several weeks ago]. I would have to say that it was God's plan for Mildred to spend the last years of her life
in and out of hospitals 25 times, in fairly constant pain as she battled her cancer [another St. Paul member recently deceased]. I would have to
say that it is God's plan for millions to die in history's regular demonstrations of man's
inhumanity to man - the holocaust, Bosnia, Rwanda. How could I avoid saying that if I insisted
that things happen according to God's plan?
I could be more positive. I might say that it was God's plan that led the Prince family to
St. Paul Presbyterian so that, at the appropriate time, Elsie might be provided a bone marrow
transplant; but to say that would require me to say God first planned for Elsie to have cancer.
What kind of God would it be who would plan such things? That would not be a God, but rather
some kind of devil.
One more scenario, a situation of what is called "special providence." A lady in
Columbia, SC a couple of weeks ago, for some reason, had to miss that USAir flight that crashed
in Charlotte. Wow! She saw God's hand in that. But what about the 37 who DID die, plus all
the rest who were injured. Did God care less for them than for her? And what about all those
others through the years who have missed planes that crashed or boats that sank or buildings that
blew up? Were their lives spared because they were people of unique promise who would leave
an indelible mark on human society? I don't think so. Can you name anyone like that?
No. Forrest Gump's mother was right: "Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know
what you're gonna get."
In years past, that would have upset me. I grew up convinced that NOTHING happened
by chance - it was not by chance that I was born into a Christian home, it was not by chance that
I married Christie, it was not by chance that we are the parents of David and Erin, it is not by
chance that we are at St. Paul. I would have happily argued that a sovereign God, the God of all
the universe, the God who hung the sun, the moon and stars, the God who built the mountains
and carved out the oceans, is surely powerful enough to arrange the events of my piddly life. No
question. But I have come to realize that that great God loves me more than that. Like a loving
Father, God trusts me, gives me freedom, allows me choices, gives me the chance to work things
out for myself. I try to raise my own children the same way - teach them, offer them guidance,
then trust them to make proper decisions. And when they DON'T, be there for them to help
them up when they need a hand...just as God is there for me when I need a hand.
What does the Bible say? Any thoughtful reading would note that God allows humanity
incredible freedom, from the Garden of Eden, through the lives of the patriarchs and the
prophets, on to the time of Jesus and the early church. Rather than mapping out every
individual's destiny or plan of life which must be followed, instead God allows circumstances to
occur, choices to be made, and then makes a way for those circumstances and choices to be used
for good for his children - Romans 8:28: "ALL things work together for good to those who love
God, to those who are called according to God's purpose."
Why? Our brief lesson from Matthew's gospel notes that sparrows are not worth very
much as the world views worth - you could buy two for a penny and, according to the parallel
passage in Luke's gospel (12:6), you could buy FIVE for TWO pennies (buy four, get one free).
But God cares enough about even the sparrows, that not one lights on the ground, EVEN THE
FREE ONE - the one with seemingly no value at all - without divine notice. Jesus says, "you are
of more value than many sparrows...even the hairs of your head are all counted" (and for some of
us that requires a daily inventory). Wow. God must really care. God does not need to plan my
life to prove love for me; all I ask is that God be WITH me and offer guidance for the choices
offered me.
Now, about that Presbyterian doctrine of predestination. Properly understood, it has
nothing whatsoever to do with some divinely-ordained plan for the day-to-day events of your
life. Predestination has to do with salvation. It was the term chosen by John Calvin and other
reformers to explain that our salvation is not simply the result of our choice - God acts first in
extending the invitation and providing us an opportunity to respond. For Calvin, this doctrine
was a source of comfort in that "salvation does not depend upon our faltering human efforts but
upon the mercy and power of God."(3)
To go one step further, listen to Dr. John Leith, long-time professor of theology at Union
Seminary in Richmond: "Calvin located the doctrine of predestination in the ordering of his
theology after his discussion of the Christian life. This suggests that predestination can best be
understood not at the beginning but at the conclusion of the life of faith. It is the testimony of
the believer that what has happened in the life of faith has not been the result of one's own
efforts about which one can boast but of the grace of God."(4) In other words, predestination,
from a human point of view, is simply 20/20 hindsight about how you and I came to Christ.
Back to the movie. Do you remember that screaming scene I described with Lt. Dan
bitterly complaining, "I had a destiny. I was supposed to die in the field with my men...with
HONOR. I had a destiny. I was Lt. Dan Taylor." The scene did not end there. You see Forrest
Gump had a reply. With far more wisdom than he realized, Forrest answered, "You're STILL Lt.
Dan Taylor."
Forrest believed that, yes, your identity is handed to you, but there is more to a person
than that. On her deathbed he heard his mother say, "I was destined to be your Mama. I hope I
did a good job." Forrest replies, "What's my destiny, Mama?" and she responds, "I happen to
believe you make your own destiny. Do the best with what God gave you."
Others through the years have said the same. William Jennings Bryan, one of America's
best-known politicians of a century ago said, "Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of
choice: it is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved."
Forrest Gump came to that conclusion. Here was a slow-witted young man from whom,
under normal circumstances, we might have expected a life of little or no accomplishment, lived
on the periphery of polite society, probably at the edges of poverty. Ha! As the film draws to a
close, Forrest stands at the grave of his childhood sweetheart whom he had just recently been
able to marry and with tears streaming down his cheeks said, "Mama always said dyin' was a part
of life. I wish it wasn't." (I agree, Forrest.) Then he says, "I don't know if we each have a destiny
or if we're all just floatin' around, accidental like, like on a breeze. Maybe its both."
Maybe it is. To tell you the truth, even though I might have wanted to believe in God's
moment-to-moment control at one point, I no longer need that. Instead, I am content to affirm
with the writers of the Heidelberg Catechism in our Presbyterian Book of Confessions question
and answer #1 drawn from our New Testament lesson: "What is your only comfort in life and in
death?" The answer:
Do I have a destiny? I guess. I belong to Jesus.
Amen!
1. "World Beaters," Alexander Wolff, Sports Illustrated, 7/25/94, p. 25 2. "Aye, `Tis Beautiful," Jaime Diaz, ibid., p. G6 3. John Leith, An Introduction to the Reformed Tradition, (Atlanta: John Knox, 1981), p.
105 4. ibid., pp. 105-106
That I belong - body and soul, in life and in death - not to myself, but to my
faithful Savior Jesus Christ who, at the cost of His own blood has fully paid for
all my sins...that he protects me so well that, without the will of my Father in
heaven, not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that everything must fit His
purpose for my salvation. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He assures me of eternal
life, and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for
Him.
click and send us mail