Author Archives: Rebekah Roper

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09/13/2010

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Fairytale Fallacies

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Bippity, Boppity, Boo

When I say the word “fairytale,” what story pops into your mind? For me, it’s Cinderella. I think that one is the most epic fairytale of all time. There’s just something about that girl who rises from servitude to royalty because of one glorious night at the ball. And we all know where that moment of magic began…

Follow me to a scene in the Walt Disney movie, Cinderella. Her dress has been torn, her dreams have been crushed. We find her sobbing in the garden when her fairy godmother appears. With a few encouraging words, a cheerful tune, and a wave of a wand, Cinderella’s entire world is transformed. For Cinderella, this was the beginning of her happily ever after, and the start of a brand new once-upon-a-time. For the rest of us, it began the fairy godmother fallacy.   

“Where’s my fairy godmother? Wouldn’t it be great if some lady with a wand would come out of the woodwork and help me out a little?” This question is pondered by fairytale characters too.  Have you ever watched the musical Once Upon a Mattress? Princess Winifred stews over the idea of living “happily, happily, happily ever after” while exclaiming that Cinderella had outside help and Snow White had “practically a legion” of dwarves. I think we can all relate with Princess Winifred when she sings, “I wish that happily ever after would happen to me.”  

I just want to take a minute to point out that Cinderella wasn’t looking for her fairy godmother; she was sobbing over a pile of broken dreams. The fairy godmother appeared when the timing was right. Likewise, you don’t have to search for happily ever after. When the timing is right, and only when the timing is right, your dream of Prince Charming will be realized.

It probably won’t come in the form of a fairy godmother, but the fairy godmother from the story is nothing but a personification of a turning in Cinderella’s life. Perhaps it won’t be that blatantly obvious that this is the start of happily ever after, but that point in your life will come nonetheless.

You don’t have to look for it, and you don’t have to spend your life trying to find Prince Charming. When the timing is right, it will suddenly become perfectly clear that happily ever after is happening to you.

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09/10/2010

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Sing-Along Scriptures

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The Still, Small Voice

Recognizing God’s Voice is something most of us tend to struggle with. “How do I know it’s God and not just my own thoughts?” we wonder. Sometimes that is an easy question to answer. I know I’ve heard God’s Voice before because there is no way I would have just thought the thing that came to my mind. Other times, it is harder to distinguish whether the desire in your heart is your own will or what God is calling you toward. When it comes to distinguishing God’s Voice in the Bible, my thoughts instantly turn to the story in 1 Kings 19.

In this story, God tells Elijah to go stand on a mountain and wait for God to pass by. So Elijah waits on the mountain. While he is waiting, a strong wind sweeps through the mountains and shatters the rocks, but God wasn’t in the wind. So Elijah waits until an earthquake shakes the mountain on which he was standing, but God was not in the earthquake. As Elijah waits there came a fire, but God was not in the fire. But after the wind, and the earthquake, and the fire are gone, Elijah hears a still, small Voice… and it was the Lord speaking to him.

Elijah was waiting to hear God’s Voice in all these huge things. That’s where we naturally would expect God to be, but He wasn’t in the wind, or the earthquake, or the fire (although He has been known to appear in all of those things before). God spoke to Elijah in a still, small Voice. God speaks to you in a still, small Voice. Are you prepared to hear Him? Is your heart open to receive Him?

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09/06/2010

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Fairytale Fallacies

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The Facts Behind the Fairytales

“Okay, Rebekah,” you may be thinking. “Why the obsession with fairytales? Why can’t you just let them go and accept that they are simply bedtime stories that have no relevance in real life?” Well, it’s because I do think they have relevance. Perhaps they are not entirely fantasy. Perhaps there is something more to them. Just as Aesop’s fables were meant to teach us something, perhaps fairytales are more of an allegory than a fantasy.

Am I the only one who finds it interesting that Snow White’s ultimate demise was taking a bite of a poison apple? Doesn’t that remind you of a story found in the third chapter of Genesis? Or how about Beauty and the Beast where the heroine couldn’t see that the Prince of her dreams was standing before her because he didn’t come in the form she had always imagined him to be? Doesn’t that make you think about a people who didn’t recognize their Messiah when He came to rescue them? And why does Prince Charming have to fight through a thicket of thorns in order to save the Princess? Could it be that this fictitious Prince is a reflection of the Prince who wore a crown of thorns on behalf of his beloved? I think there are too many coincidences to be accidental. And even if they were accidental, I think there is still so much we can learn from the fairytales. I think that if you look a little harder and dig a little deeper, you’ll find many hidden messages in places you never would have dreamed they would be.

I believe in finding God in the everyday ordinary – in butterflies and beaches, sand and storms, flowers and fairytales. Close your eyes, open your heart, and allow yourself to see the facts behind the fairytales.

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09/03/2010

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Sing-Along Scriptures

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I Will Be With You

When I think of the changes life brings and making Jesus home even in the midst of the turmoil, my thoughts immediately turn to Moses and the burning bush in Exodus 3. It’s probably one of my favorite Bible stories. I love the way God just shows up and confronts Moses, and I love seeing this great saint struggle with his calling. It makes me realize that I am not the only one who sometimes doesn’t like where God is leading me. It makes me wonder if maybe there is hope for me and my stubbornness. After all, look at what God did with Moses.

Here’s Moses. He has fled the country of his birth and is living in the desert with a foreign people. Suddenly, God appears on the scene in the form of a burning bush. Moses is a little curious as to how the bush is on fire but not burning up, so he goes over to check it out. God calls his name, reveals his great plan for Moses’ life, and commands him to go where He has destined.

If I were Moses, I would be a little concerned too. He begins an argument with God that lasts over halfway through chapter four. Only after exhausting every excuse (which God is easily able to combat) does Moses venture back to Egypt to save his people. And while Moses argued long and hard, I gave in after God’s first answer. Moses said, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you.”

That promise has carried me through most of my life.

“God, who am I that You would ask me to organize a conference for the girls in my youth group?”

And God said, “I will be with you.”

“God, who am I that I can move 450 miles away from everything I’ve ever known to work with the missions organization I’ve supported since I was a child?”

And God said, “I will be with you.”

“Who am I that I can write a book, take it along to some writer’s conference, and present it to a publisher?”

And God said, “I will be with you.”

It’s the promise that keeps me alive. No matter how old I get, no matter how far I travel from the place I was born and raised, God will go with me. He will be the home that I had thought I left behind.

You may be asking God, “Who am I…?” Rest assured that God will always answer, “I will be with you.”

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08/30/2010

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Fairytale Fallacies

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You’re My Home

Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite fairytales. I always loved the Disney cartoon, then I watched a local high school perform the Broadway version. Why couldn’t all the songs from Broadway have been incorporated into the cartoon? For nearly eighteen years of my life, I didn’t know what I was missing. Me!, No Matter What, Maison des Lunes… and I found myself particularly drawn to the song Home. (Maybe that stems from the fact that I’m a notorious homebody who doesn’t know why her dreams had to carry her 450 miles away from the place where she grew up.)

Here’s a story that takes a horrible situation and gives it a happy ending. This is a girl’s nightmare turned fairytale. It’s a twist in Belle’s perspective that makes this story spectacular. It’s her willingness to change her views that brings the happy ending. She could have spent the rest of her life “shut away from the world until who knows when,” but instead she chose to open herself up to this monster who held her captive. And in the end she discovered he wasn’t truly a monster at all. As the story reaches the climax and the Beast lies dying, Belle confesses the thing she has learned throughout her time of captivity with these words: “Don’t you know how you’ve changed me? Strange how I finally see… I’ve found home – you’re my home. Stay with me.”

I guess the Beast ended up being what Belle sang about in her first rendition of Home – where the heart is. I’ve found that to be the only way of coping with being so far away from my biological home. I simply focus my heart on where I am and who I’m with. Better yet, I’ve invited Jesus to be my Home. That way I never have to leave it.  Now if I stumble upon an enchanted castle in a deep woods, I won’t have to sing a song of mourning. My song will always be one of joy because I’ve been changed, and I’ve found home. God is my home, and He will forever stay with me.

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08/27/2010

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Sing-Along Scriptures

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God-Breathed Dreams

The words God speaks to the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5 have always touched my heart. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Before I was even born, God had me all figured out. He knew the things about me that I have only begun to realize. He knew the things about you, too. From the very beginning, He placed dreams in your heart and allowed them to grow along with you. So here’s the question: Dreams God breathed into my soul before I was even conceived, or this guy I recently met and fancy myself in love with? I think I’ll stick with the God-breathed dreams.

God appointed me to write. He purposed for me to share my heart with young women across the globe who desperately need to hear His truth. If someone tries to pull me away from that calling, he isn’t even worth my time.

Some things weren’t meant to be. Some dreams simply don’t line up. There is no worse fate than unrealized or abandoned dreams. So I’m not going to spend my life chasing after someone else’s dreams; I’m too busy walking in the ones God placed on my heart from the beginning of eternity.

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08/23/2010

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Fairytale Fallacies

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Part of that World

Maybe it’s because I’ve been at the ocean for the past week, but lately, I’ve been having these Little Mermaid flashbacks. There’s something super mysterious about the sea. When I try to imagine what lies beneath the cresting waves, I get a headache. It’s that mind-boggling. That must be how the Little Mermaid felt about dry land. There was so much world waiting to be explored – so many things that needed to be discovered… And she discovered it, all right. According to Disney, she left everything, sacrificed her voice, and landed the prince. Life is good for the Little Mermaid, right? Not the way Hans Christian Andersen tells it. But since you can’t tell a little kid that the fairytale heroine sacrificed greatly, felt tremendous pain, and eventually died without ever achieving her intended goal, Disney decided to give “Ariel” a happy ending. And while I have a few things to say about Hans Christian Andersen’s version, I’ll save that for a later date. Today, we are talking about Ariel and the way she took the wrong approach to love.

Ariel pops up to the surface, takes a look around, and sees something she likes: Prince Eric. That, in itself, is not bad. The bad stuff happens when she starts obsessing over it. As Sebastian would say, “Ariel thinks the seaweed is greener in somebody else’s lake.” Her entire mind becomes wrapped around the fantasy of what it would be like to become a “part of that world.” Then she does the unthinkable. She contacts the sea witch, sacrifices her voice and risks everything for one chance at becoming “part of that world.” Luckily for her, it worked out in the end. Not only did she land the prince (pardon the pun), but she frees the merpeople from the influence of the evil sea witch by vanquishing her forever. But what if she hadn’t fared so well? What if her story had kept the ending of Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid? What would she have gained for all her sacrifice? Would the sacrifice have been worth it?

I can hear you now: “Heck no!” Why? Because the Little Mermaid had an entire ocean to explore. Surely she hadn’t ventured to every single corner of it, just as you and I have never covered every single square inch of the earth (and the ocean is twice as large as the land, just saying). The chances of her making a prince fall in love with her when she couldn’t even communicate the depths of her heart with him are slim to none. Had she failed, she probably would have spent the rest of her life thinking about how wrong she had been.

I feel like we are doing the same thing the Little Mermaid did. Here we are, swimming in the sea of singleness and not seeing how vast and beautiful it is. We are prematurely thrusting ourselves onto the shore of marriage and relationships. And we are more closely resembling the Hans Christian Andersen story than the Disney version we all long for. We deeply desire to become a “part of that world” when we were meant for the world we are swimming in here and now. Whether you were meant for the ocean or the shore is not for me to decide, but I want to leave you with this final question:

Is your final destination worth the sacrifice you are making? And would the pain be worth it if you didn’t get what you are seeking in the end?