My favorite movie of all time is You've Got Mail. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan act so well together (hence, they have more than one movie of acting together!). This movie has heavily influenced my life. It is a movie that makes me think about my mom, as it is one of her favorite movies, and we have spent many hours together watching Kathleen Kelly and Joe Fox fall in love over a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils and a plethora of quirky remarks. I think my favorite part of You've Got Mail has changed over time, however. Originally, I just loved the dog, Brinkley. Eventually, I realized what a good reasoning for having daisies as a favorite flower (it's the "friendliest" flower!). I later truly appreciated the ending when I realized how romantic (and cheesy) it was. Now I watch the movie and see so much more than characters and a story line, though. I see concepts and symbolism and so much more than just a movie with a job well done in character creation and plot twisting.
In You've Got Mail, Joe Fox is the co-owner, along with his father, of a newly opening bookstore equivalent to a Barnes and Noble in New York City. A small, locally owned bookstore, the Shop Around the Corner, has been around for many years, its business passed down to Kathleen Kelly from her mother. Kathleen and Joe meet on a chat room, which they both claim they wandered into only as a joke (coincidentally at the same time). Never having met in person, they begin a cyber romance that causes them to want to meet. However, unknowingly each other's chat-life love, they are enemies in the business world and refuse to talk to each other outside of AOL. The two online lovers decide to meet, and when Joe finds out the girl of his dreams is Kathleen, he decides to play a "no-show" and comes in as her run-her-out-of-business foe. From this point on in the movie, Joe falls for Kathleen not only online, but in person, too. He does not reveal who he really is to her until the end of the movie, but I have come to see it as something so deep and so beautiful. It is a romantic comedy that accurately reflects so much of life aside from the perfect love and the living happily ever after scenario that every typical romantic comedy envelopes.
Anywho, I love the story and its irony. However, the bigger spark that has recently caught my attention in the film is this: there is a man and there is a woman. The man pursues the woman. He does not reveal his identity as her true love until the end, when the time is right and he was proved himself to her. He has waited for her to come to terms with who she is, what her purpose in life is, and how strong of a woman she is on her own. He has allowed her space to grow before he ever showed himself to be her prince charming.
So, to all my single ladies out there, be encouraged. There is a man who is waiting for the perfect time to show himself to you and to sweep you off your feet. In the mean time, you just work on being you and becoming the strong, capable woman God has called you to be. How can one be swept off their feet if they are not first employed by something worthwhile? If we were always on the prowl, paying attention and sitting, waiting...We wouldn't be doing. We wouldn't be on our feet to even be swept off of them.
Yes, I did just make a silly devotional out of a cheesy chick flick. However, I think it is important that single women waiting for their Mr. Right to come not forget that they have so much more purpose than to be someone's wife, girlfriend, or fiance. Each of us is called to change the world beyond "behind every great man is a great woman." We can be the great woman that just is a great woman. Singleness is a gift, and it is something special that we won't all have forever. In the mean time, for those who do hope and dream of being swept off their feet, remember to continue doing whatever you are called to right now. Otherwise....How can you be pursued and swept off your feet if you are sitting and waiting?
"Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for You."
-Psalm 25:21
Further recommended reading:
I encourage you to read Matthew 25- please understand that I don't want to take this passage out of context, as it is referring to the end times and the preparedness we must have for Jesus' coming back. However, the literal meaning still stands. Those who were working and prepared were the ones who reaped the benefits and joys of the wedding.
Galatians 6:9
I Peter 5:6-7
Psalm 130:5-6
No comments:
Post a Comment