The 1967 movie Camelot is one of my all-time favorites -- great story, wonderful acting, and oh, the music! I spent much of my childhood playing Lerner and Loewe’s original Broadway score on the piano, neglecting the exercises so meticulously prescribed by my piano teacher. Today, over a half century later, I still sing these numbers to myself regularly, forgetting not a word or a note or the raw emotion in every line.  
 
Lately, the song “What Do the Simple Folk Do?” has been haunting me. In case you’re not familiar with it, it’s sung by Queen Guinevere and King Arthur (Vanessa Redgrave and Richard Harris in the movie; Julie Andrews and Richard Burton on Broadway). The catalyst is Guinevere’s secret love for Sir Lancelot du Lac, and Arthur’s unspoken knowledge of their affair.
 
Alone together, both of them heartsick but not speaking of the cause, Guinevere asks Arthur in song:
 
What do the simple folk do
To help them escape when they're blue?
The shepherd who is ailing, the milkmaid who is glum,
The cobbler who is wailing from nailing his thumb?
When they're beset and besieged –
The folk not noblessly obliged –
However do they manage to shed their weary lot?
Oh, what do simple folk do we do not?
 
Arthur offers her several solutions: They whistle. They sing. They dance a fiery dance. Arthur and Guinevere try each one, but find no relief. He has only one more solution to offer: “They sit around and wonder what royal folk would do.”
 
It strikes me that this song is really a profound analysis of very common human behaviors – for these are among the things most of us do to try to mend our hearts, to bury our troubles, to silence our consciences.  
 
We mask our sadness with happy music.
 
Steep our fears in frenetic exercise, wild dancing, morning-to-night activity.
 
Saturate ourselves with ultimately futile obsessions, from celebrity worship to non-stop pursuit of entertainment, education, art, travel, clothes, home-decorating. 
 
Anything to avoid being alone with our thoughts. And with the truth.
 
No wonder none of it works for long. If our only hope is for this current life, we are hopeless indeed.
 
I find it interesting that Lerner and Loewe failed to offer one more possible cure for heartache in this song, the one cure that is both foolproof and permanent: turning to the Lord, asking for His help, and consulting His word for the keys to eternal peace and joy.
 
Just think: If Guinevere, Arthur and Lancelot had done that, there could actually have been a happy ending to this tragic tale. 

​Edvard Munch’s most famous painting was pretty ghastly, if you ask me. Memorable, arresting, haunting, yes indeedy, but in the end, just plain ugly. 
 
Entitled “The Scream,” it's reportedly a self-portrait Munch created during an “unstable” period of his life. No kidding.
 
What was his problem, exactly?
 
Maybe this quote gives us a clue:
 
“From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity.”
 
Or this one:
 
“To die is as if one’s eyes had been put out and one cannot see anything anymore. Perhaps it is like being shut in a cellar. One is abandoned by all. They have slammed the door and are gone. One does not see anything and notices only the damp smell of putrefaction.”
 
I guess one can understand how he might have found that prospect terrifying.
 
Fortunately, there’s no need for any of us living today to be confused about eternity or to fear death. I have it on infallible authority that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and that anyone who repents and trusts in Him will spend all eternity in glory with Him. If you doubt it, please don’t wait another day to examine the evidence. This will get you started.

​Every now and then, I hear an unbeliever say something along these lines: “Really? She gets horrible news and suddenly decides to believe in God? I’m supposed to think there’s anything to it?”
 
I guess I understand where such a comment comes from. To the outsider, it must look like the new believer is grasping at straws, desperately embracing God “just in case.”
 
And honestly, sometimes such an observation is right on. Look at all the Americans who flocked to churches in the wake of 9/11 – attending faithfully for six weeks or six months, maybe even listening attentively to the readings and sermons, until the lure of the world reclaimed their hearts and minds. They are the false converts of the world, the ones for whom the seeds of faith were planted in the stony or thorny soil described by Jesus in Matthew 13.  
 
But it’s not always the case. Some sin-hardened hearts are so brittle that tragedy is able to produce the crumbly, friable soil that invites rapid germination and deep root growth. In these cases, moderate setbacks won't do it; such hearts need to be literally pulverized before their owners will doggedly seek (and find!) the Lord in search of solace, hope, and, most important, eternal truth.
 
We see such cases reported in Scripture, from the story of Nebuchadnezzar recorded in Daniel 4 and 5 to the parable of the prodigal son told in Luke 15.
 
And, in a much less concise and profound way, we see it in stories like mine.
 
Those of us who’ve taken this difficult route to Christ are no doubt legion. Over the years I've talked with many born-again believers who turned to Christ only after their hearts had been shattered. Which is why when I pray for the salvation of unbelievers, my prayers so often include a petition along the lines of "Do whatever it takes, Lord God, to get this person's attention."
 
I ask this with trepidation, knowing full well that when it comes to saving us for all eternity, the Lord does not pussyfoot around with us. He knows precisely what it will take to get each individual's attention. And that is the course He pursues, according to His sovereign control over our circumstances, and in His perfect timing.
 
It is not always successful. Too many are busy dancing down the wide path to destruction, so absorbed in pleasure or pride that they’ll never notice the narrow gate to life. For them, the consequences are tragic for all eternity.
 
But in some instances, the result is rejoicing in heaven, as each once-lost soul is forever found.
 
And when that happens, the reward is so glorious even in this life that its catalyst – the heart-shattering event that led to repentance and belief – does not seem so tragic after all.  

Dear Atheist Mommy and Daddy,

I found fascinating your recent comment that you would never “force religion down” your children’s throats, that you were going to let them decide whether or not to follow such fables, and which ones to pursue.  

Congratulations. You are, it seems, true champions of religious tolerance. 

I find this attitude especially interesting in light of how careful you are with your kids about all the little things of life. You’ve taught them, for instance, to wash their hands with Adrian Monk-like enthusiasm whenever they’ve encountered potential germs, and never to share their toothbrushes with their little friends. You make sure that they’re protected by all the right stuff, from vaccinations to bike helmets to the warmest winter duds.  You have instructed them, just as your folks once instructed you, not to take candy from strangers – not to mention never ever getting into cars with them. And of course you resort to serious time-outs when they flirt with danger by, for example, wandering into the street when you’re not there to shepherd them.

And yet, when it comes to the important things – the things that can give them peace and purpose on this earth and a heavenly eternity – they’re apparently on their own.

I just don’t get that. Why would you not investigate the big questions of life just as diligently as you do the latest thought on nutrition and child safety? Isn’t “forever” a little more important than the 70 or 80 or 90 years we spend on this earth? 

Even if you don’t believe in an afterlife, or absolute truth, or a God, surely you understand that your subjective feelings on the subject have absolutely nothing to do with what’s true. 

Don’t you think that maybe you owe it to your children to pursue the truth of this matter just a fervently as you investigate next year’s vacation destinations? 
​
You may have given the subject passing consideration over the years. You may even have read a Mitch Albom novel or listened to Oprah expound on her version of universalism. But I know that you haven’t even begun to really research these questions. I know this because you could not possibly walk away from a sincere study of the Bible without being blown away by its content – especially by what its writers predicted, 2000+ years ago, about the destruction and restoration of the nation of Israel, or what they said about scientific truths that are only now being discovered by modern scientists. 

Won’t you invest a little time in researching this all-important topic, for your kids’ sake, if not your own?

You’ll find a starter list of suggested resources in my library, and what I hope is an entertaining presentation of eternal truth in my memoir. But there are scores of other resources out there. I pray that you’ll begin your own quest today. In the meantime, if you have any questions for me, fire away!

Sincerely,

Kitty Foth-Regner

Originally posted 10/8/14