The King's Speech - A Date with Fear

Without outside intervention, none of us can conquer our fears.  Willpower, hard work, self-discipline isn't enough.  It just doesn't work.  We must be led.  We must be "fathered" into it.  We need to hear the words "You have what it takes - you can do it" from someone we look up to before we can believe it ourselves. 

So, in the movie, a stuttering king is terrified of public speaking, and he finds someone to help him.  Sound interesting?  Probably not - and yet I couldn't look away for 2 hours this evening.  The king isn't really scared of public speaking - that's a triviality that his fear attaches itself to - he's really terrified of letting down his family, his people, his nation, and ultimately, his father.  He is convinced that he doesn't have what it takes, and so all his attempts to improve himself fall short.  He doesn't believe, and none of those trying to help him really believe, either. 

And then he meets a quack - an Australian speech therapist unintimidated by his persona and title.  But this man is different - he believes that the king has what it takes, and just needs to be awoken to that fact.  And like a father, he leads this fatherless man down the path to facing his fear and becoming the man and the leader that he was always meant to be. 

This is the way that it always happens.  You don't just wake up one morning, decide you have to overcome a fear, and then grit your teeth until the job is done.  You must find someone who can lead you down that path.  You must look for a father, and you must trust him enough to submit yourself to the training, to the grueling process of transformation. 

The great tragedy of our time is that we have so few fathers to lead us.  To make matters worse, we fearful sons don't trust the ones that we do have.  Whenever we actually ARE called to manhood by one of these rare fathers, we're often unwilling to submit ourselves to the necessary training that manhood requires.  It's too strenuous, too demanding - and we still don't believe it will work.

We all need fathers.  I think we know that.  The challenge to me and my generation is this:  it is time to stop bemoaning the fact that we don't have fathers and we need to become fathers.  We must undergo the training, however we can, as best we can, and then dare to offer whatever we have gained and learned to others - to our friends, and our sons, and our friends' sons.  Maybe the greatest gift that we can give the next generation of men is to look into their eyes as boys and believe in them.  And then tell them - over and over again - as often as we would have liked to have heard it ourselves.  And then offer them training they will need to seize their moments and win their battles. 

Maybe then we can put the Enemy on his heels and push back the darkness.