Let Me Read You a Story

…might just contain the secret to life!

This past weekend I, like millions of others around the globe, read “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”. The entire series has, in my opinion, been outstanding, and let’s just say this last book really gave it a rousing conclusion.

I was struck often, during the reading of this particular tale, at how much wonderful philosophy comes out of the pages. Yes, it’s a work of fiction, a book to be purely enjoyed and with which to have fun. But, many times, to me at least, it was more than that.

There were more than a couple of times a sentence seemed to leap off the page at me, containing some kernel of real truth (the book’s only been out a little while, so I won’t include anything specific as to not give away any spoilers). This surprised me, as honestly, I was just reading it for fun. I really didn’t expect to have revealed to me so much about living one’s life well.

Yet, it was all there, including some passages where, quite literally, it seemed as if the author had been reading my mind all along. This has happened to me in the past too, where I’m reading a book solely for pleasure, and yet I’ll discover some nugget of wisdom I hadn’t anticipated uncovering, certainly not in a work of fiction.
And, many times it will seem as if this sentence, or this thought, was aimed directly at me, for my benefit alone. Yes, the words are of a specific author. But perhaps the fact that I read them at specifically the time I needed to hear them, that may in fact be the work of life’s Author.

I tend to believe, in my advancing age, that God speaks to us at precisely the right moment and with precisely the right vehicle. Sometimes we need to be hit over the head, as we may be in a dense fog or be unaware of what is truly happening in our lives. Other times, we may be really dialed in to life, and He gives us just a subtle message, a pat on the back or gentle encouragement along the way. For me, this past weekend, the words I needed to hear were in a work of fiction. Other times in my life, they’ve come from many other sources.

For a lot of my life, as I’ve already mentioned in my other messages, I wasn’t really paying attention. I did (pay attention) this past weekend, and because I did, I was blessed with a message from the best friend any of us could have. If nothing else, it reminded me to be constantly awake and alive, looking for the words of wisdom or messages that I need to hear.

And, if I pay attention, even good old Harry Potter might have something to teach me.

-The Minister