God Won’t Waste Your Struggles

God Won’t Waste Your Struggles

We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

Romans 8:28

A surprise favorite for Best Picture Oscar, The King’s Speech is a movie about the stammering King of England, George VI, and his struggle to find his voice prior to World War II. Though the movie far exceeded box office hopes, what most people don’t know is that the man who wrote the screenplay didn’t overcome his own stuttering problem until the age of sixteen.

Born in Britain just seven months after George VI was crowned king, David Seidler explains what it was like to stammer: “Adolescence had hit,” he says. “Hormones were raging. I couldn’t ask girls out for a date, and even if I could and even if they said yes, what was the point? I couldn’t talk to them on a date.”^a

In the early 1980s, Seidler wrote to the king’s elderly widow, telling her of his desire to write about her husband’s struggles. But she replied, “Please, Mr. Seidler, not during my lifetime.” Thinking he wouldn’t have long to wait, he set the project aside. But the Queen Mother surprised him by living to be 101. Seidler began writing the story in 2005.

Tom Hooper, the movie’s director, has praised Seidler, saying, “It’s clearly the best script of his life. He’s really writing about his own childhood experiences through the guise of these two characters.”^b

What does this popular movie’s backstory have to do with experiencing more of God’s peace? It highlights the link that exists between human weakness and human triumph, a link that usually takes time to emerge. Often it’s the struggles we dislike most that have the greatest potential to produce something good in the future.

Whatever your weakness or difficulty, ask God to do what only he can, turning it toward a good purpose. Trusting him daily to make sense out of the story you are living will bring you a deeper measure of the peace he promises.

God, I trust you to make something good out of my struggles. Thank you for loving me and using your power on my behalf.

^a David Germain, “‘King’s Speech’ Writer Has His Own Stutter Story,” Associated Press, February 16, 2011, accessed February 24, 2011, http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/41619818/ns/today-entertainment.

^b Ibid.