Frankly, My Dear...

I’ve always loved “Gone with the Wind.”   It’s an amazing movie and a great story.  I love watching Scarlet’s antics, and for as many times as I’ve seen the story, I still find myself urging her to get over her foolish infatuation with Ashley and to see Rhett for the good and desirable man that he is.  And I am always disturbed that when she FINALLY can see Rhett for who he is – when she finally realizes that he’s the man she should have been pursuing all along – it’s then that Rhett has had enough.  

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

Just when Scarlet finally realizes she loves him, Rhett no longer cares – he no longer loves her, his patience has run out, her callous disregard has hurt his heart one too many times.  "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."   It just kills me every time.

I realized that our romance with God has much in common with the story of Scarlett and Rhett.  We, fickle people, are like Scarlett.  We run after all sorts of inappropriate lovers, sometimes for reasons we think are love, sometimes for purely self-serving motives to keep pain (or the bill-collector) at bay. 

We have our Charles Hamiltons that we use to mask our disappointments and keep our desired lover close.  We have our Frank Kennedys that we cling to for expediency – for support, for money, to keep us out of the poor house.  And of course we have our Ashley Wilkes, the lover we place on a pedestal, the one we long for most earnestly, and yet who is so dreadfully wrong for us.  These mis-guided loves represent all the idols we chase after in life: power, money, sex, status – you name it!

And all the while we’re chasing about after these other lovers, Rhett Butler – God – is pursuing us.  Gently.  Patiently.  Biding His time.  Laughing at our foolishness and loving us anyway.  Confident that eventually we’ll come to our senses, that eventually we’ll realize our folly and turn to Him at last. 

The notable difference, of course, is that God, unlike Rhett, will never give up on us.  Rhett is just a man, after all, and reaches a point where the continued hurt and rejection is just too painful to bear.  But there is NOTHING we can do to alienate God.  No matter how misguided, how foolish, how selfish, how hurtful we behave toward God, He is always there waiting for us to finally figure out that He’s the one we should have been pursuing all along.:

All day long I have held out my hands 
   to an obstinate people, 
who walk in ways not good, 
   pursuing their own imaginations— 

                                         (Isaiah 65:2)

To consider the amount of hurt and pain that God must surely endure in order to wait for us to quit our foolish infatuations and turn to Him at last – well, I find it quite astonishing.  Even the extraordinary Rhett Butler reached the end of his patience, but not God.  Think about it!