Unveiling My Inner Scarlett

Scarlett O'Hara once said, “ I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow.”
Our pastor was doing a series of sermons on one single passage. I call it “The Anxiety Passage", Matthew 6:25-34. When I first became a Christian, this passage spoke to me loud and clear. I am a first child. I am a worry wart. I like carefully laid out plans. I have control issues. Don’t know about control issues? Lucky you.

Anyway, have you watched Gone With the Wind lately? I love classic literature, but I’ll be honest, I’ve never read the book. I love the movie, but not for the reasons you may think. I love, love, love those costumes. I can spend hours watching beautiful ladies float by in beautiful gowns in beautiful sets around beautiful props and beautiful scenery. Ashley Wilkes looks like a leprechaun (no offense to my Irish friends). Mustaches bug me so ogling over Clark Gable isn’t an option. Nope. It’s those amazing dresses and let’s face it, do you ever get tired of looking at Vivien Leigh as Scarlett? I don’t. She’s beautiful. I’d love to grow up and look like her, a young Liz Taylor or most recently, Catherine Zeta Jones... but I digress.

Scarlett is perhaps one of the most narcissistic of characters in all of movies and what’s interesting is that as villainous as she is, she is also the heroine. I can’t help but like her. How does that work? I have a theory.

Are you familiar with the serenity prayer? A lot of people take it as holy scripture but it is not. Even so, it’s marketed its way into the Christian jewelry scene just like WWJD did many years ago. It’s provoking.

Scarlett needed to get a grip.... through the whole dang movie! She lives in this “other world” of trying to control everyone and everything. She goes into denial of all kinds at different times and for different reasons. Her stubborness is as brutal as her beauty. She is the quintessential toddler in a woman’s body. She is ever ready to throw a tantrum and look cute doing it. However, when the rubber meets the road, she ultimately addresses what she can change and what she can’t. Letting go. Moving on. Taking control of what she can. Mastering the moment. That’s heroic.

Jesus said in Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I am learning that there is only so much I can do in an hour, a day, a week or a month. I am learning the stewardship of my time. If, in this moment, my child needs me to listen, then I must embrace every word. If, in this moment, I need to scrub the sink, then I must do it with all my heart. There are times to rest. There are times to engage. There are seasons of life (Ecclesiastes 3) It is up to me to determine what I am going to do, to decide to do it well and how I will respond to the unexpected and uncontrollable parts of my life. I am choosing to live each moment intentionally. I am choosing to do what I can when I can and not worry about what I can do nothing about. I may choose to enjoy some down time just to savor Hollywood’s Epic Costume Drama with Vivien Leigh. I know I won’t have time today, yet ... tomorrow is another day.