What do you do if you lose your destiny?
In the movie Forest Gump (1994), Lieutenant Dan loses his legs and his destiny in the Vietnam war. His role portrays the unbearable agony brought on by the loss of one’s perceived purpose in life.
In sharp contrast, Forest Gump cannot avoid random encounters with destiny and though he is slow-witted, we envy him because he has the one thing that’s more important than anything else that we all need, a higher purpose that’s bigger than ourselves; destiny.
Lieutenant Dan’s subsequent self destructive lifestyle then frames the human inability to handle the hopelessness of your life calling being destroyed. In one scene he climbs atop the mast of a ship at sea in the midst of a horrendous hurricane to defiantly curse God and challenge Him with his bitterness.
Scripture is a parade of lost destiny’s followed by God’s response to them. The Garden of Eden, the Flood, Moses, the Old Testament, the ups and downs of the Judges and Kings, Samson, the story of Job, the captivity of Israel, Christ’s Crucifixion, Peter’s denial etc. These are all characteristic of the forfeiture of one plan followed by the replacing of it with another. That is, “a new beginning,” a new destiny.
The answer then to the question, “what if you lose your destiny?” or even worse “what if I just plain blow it?” is clear. God can give you another one.
It’s the seeming impossibility of this outcome that dead ends hope and breeds slow suicide. A new beginning however is a greatly inspiring. Everyone is inspired by a “comeback” because a true comeback always overrides what we thought couldn’t happen.
In the end Christ says “behold I make all things new”. He is the God of another chance and not just of a “second chance” because some of us need more than one. This is what resurrection is all about. Paul said “if Christ be not raised we are of all men most miserable”. In other words, Lieutenant Dan’s.
In the end, Lieutenant Dan finds his new beginning and Forest Gump notes his “magic legs”.
New beginnings from God are miraculous and they always thrill the heart with an extraordinary joy and inspiration.
Our designer knows more than anyone how vital purpose is to the heart of man. It’s the engine of motivation. It’s the core of our identity that fuels our sense of worth like the enriched uranium in the core of a nuclear reactor. We die without a sense of purpose. God said, “where there is no vision, the people perish”.
Our destiny is even more important to God than it is to us. It is after all, HIS purpose. And according to HIS promise , he never ever gives up on us to see it fulfilled in our lives Phil.1:6. We then must never give up either and make sure that we are still around when He begins the next chapter of our lives. He’s the author and the finisher of our faith, that means there’s another chapter on the way..
His new beginning awaits. He says, “ask and it shall be given unto you .” No matter how impossible it may seem, He can even supply “magic legs,” if need be.