A Lesson from Walter

Disclaimer: If you read this entire post, it will ruin the ending if you intend to see this movie. My family and I have been somewhat disappointed with the movies that have been released over this holiday season. There just hasn't been that one that grabbed us from the first time we saw the preview so we have sat idle and thought we were just gonna settle on a movie on New Year's Day because we can't go through this time of season without seeing at least one movie right? I think it says that in the Bible somewhere!
Anyways, I did some reading and reviewing (pluggedin.com) and decided to take the family to see this new movie out titled: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. I will not bore you with all the details of the movie because I am not at all a movie critic but what I do want to do is to share with you just the idea of this simple movie and how it relates to you and I.
Walter is just an average worker who has given much of his life to LIFE magazine as a basement dweller who developes film negatives for camera prints to be placed in the magazine. Day after day, he walks the hallways of the company that are lined with enlarged, framed LIFE magazine covers of famous people that over the years did something of significance that warranted this honor. Walter's life is totally opposite, simple and ordinary but he wants so much more. In the midst of all of this, the magazine has changed direction to be an online based magazine and because of that, it will no longer be printed and Walter will be losing his job. He often day dreams of how things could be different and he even sets out to find the one thing he has been looking for. Once he returns home, Walter sees that he has been fired from his job along with many of his friends and feels as useless as ever.
Here is the ending so BEWARE! Near the end of the movie, Walter is seen walking down the street with a coworker that was also fired and there they notice a magazine stand that happens to have the last issue of LIFE magazine. As they look at the cover, Walter sees a picture of himself, simply sitting outside the LIFE magazine building holding up a film negative and words of gratitude to all of those that helped make LIFE magazine through the years! Walter had made the cover of the magazine without any great accomplishment or feat...all he did was do his job!
It is the beginning of a new year and even with a new calendar, new goals and new dreams, it can often times seem like we are just going through the motions while everyone else is getting the recognition and praise. Our life can be much like Walter's, searching for something that we forgot we already have. The Bible tells us in Galatians 6:9 that we are to not grow weary or tired in doing good because in due season, or in the right time, we will reap the benefits if we don't give up (JIV...John International Version). So no matter what it is that God has you doing in 2014, do it! Let everyone else get the praise. Let everyone else's pictures be hung on the hallways of life for people to gawk at and stare. Do what God has called you to do and I promise that you will be known for far more than just making the cover!
See You @the River...Pastor John