Another musical one! I enjoy watching older films. I used to watch them al lot with my grandparents. I love ‘Singin in the Rain’, but I have a soft spot for anything starring Fred Astaire. The films are simple, feel good films, the music is catchy and the dancing is just so effortless.
There’s one particular song from one particular film that has stuck with me. In the film ‘Swing Time’, Fred Astaire plays a character who can dance, and who is trying to get to know a lady (played by Ginger Rogers) who teaches at a dance school. So Astaire’s character enrolls in the school pretending that he wants to learn to dance, and wants this lady to teach him. (There’s a lot more to it than that, I’m just getting to the point quickly)
He is a very clumsy student who falls over so much that his teacher declares that she can’t teach him anything. So he turns on the charm and sings a song about what to do when you fall. It’s called ‘Pick yourself up’ and uses the repeated phrase, ‘pick yourself up, dust yourself off, start all over again’. Its a song about being teachable and keeping trying.
This does have a biblical link (at least, it does in my head). Jesus travels around with 12 young men (and lots of others, but he particularly chooses the 12). They follow him and watch him and learn from him. As a teacher, I know that Jesus would never give up on them, but at times you can almost read the frustration on what Jesus says. You find him saying, “do you still not understand?” And many times has to explain himself more than once. But in particular, there’s Peter.
Peter often says the right thing, there’s no doubting his courage for speaking his mind, or his heart for trying to get it right. But equally as often, he says the wrong thing. He declares that Jesus won’t die, despite that being written in the old testament prophesies, and being Jesus’ reason for coming. He suggests building tents for Moses, Elijah and Jesus on the mountaon during the transfigura – as if heavenly beings need a permanent residence on earth. He impulsively cuts off a soldiers ear in the garden when Jesus is arrested (probably, there is some conflict about whether it was Peter or not…). He denies Jesus three times around the fire while Jesus is being tried…
And yet, each time he accepts the knock, accepts he’s got it wrong (again) and keeps going. Although he does often speak without necessarily thinking, he doesn’t make the same mistake twice – he learns. And at the end, he is one of the most influential people in the spread of the early church. Whe he got rebuked or knocked down, he didn’t stay down but tried again and eventually became a teacher in his own right.
So God is a patient teacher (not quite like Ginger in the film…) and we need to be good students. Not perfect students who never make mistakes (that’s not what being a studenteans!) But students who, when we do make mistakes and get knocked down, are able to get up, brush off the mistake and try again.
The Reason for my Hope Blog 