MacDonald's Secret of Life

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 耶和华说，我知道我向你们所怀的意念是赐平安的意念，不是降灾祸的意念，要叫你们末后有指望。 耶利米书29:11

"The one secret of life and development is ..." George MacDonald (the rest is below)

When a Beijing radio station interviewed me a few months ago about my favorite book, movie and song, I easily picked "Lord of the Rings," (read the blog to see why). I could even narrow the movie down to my favorite line.

I was only nine when I first read the Lord of the Rings, and being one of the smallest kids in 3rd grade, I was heartened that the fellow chosen to save the day was an insignificant member of the smallest people of Middle-Earth, the Hobbits. Elrond said of these diminutive, peace-loving Hobbits, "This is the hour of the Shire-folk, when they arise from their quiet fields, to shake the towers and counsels of the Great. Who of all the Wise could have foreseen it?"

But of course my favorite part from the Rings film was:
Frodo: "I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened."
Gandalf: "So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring. In which case, you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought."

Over a century before Lord of the Rings was filmed, George MacDonald, whose writings most influenced C.S. Lewis, wrote something quite similar to Gandalf's speech:

"No man can order his life, for it comes flowing over him from behind...The one secret of life and development is not to devise and plan but to fall in with the forces at work--to do every moment's duty aright--that being the part in the process allotted to us: and let come--not what will, for there is no such thing--but what the eternal thought wills for each of us, has intended in each of us from the first." George MacDonald [327]

Ring Bearers We, like Frodo, have not only been Chosen for a 70-year Quest, but also Equipped to carry it out. Our Father asks but one thing of us, and no other--to never give up. Our only task is to accept the Ring handed to us and to bear it, in His strength and wisdom, not ours, to the end--which for those who complete the quest is but the Beginning.

Refusing the Quest Of course, we are not made to accept the ring, but if we do not, someone else will. And if we refuse to carry out the sole purpose for our brief life on this spinning little planet, we may well share the fate of the fig tree in the vineyard (Luke 13:6-9). But that is for another day.

Note: The George MacDonald quotes above are from C.S. Lewis' George MacDonald Anthology (365 daily quotes).

http://ourdailynoodles.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-favorite-book-movie-song.html

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