The Scarlet Pimpernel

Yesterday I took Eden and H. to the library to check out some books.  Eden was mostly interested in pulling all the books she could reach off of the shelf and then chewing on them, so she was mostly confined to my hip.  H. found a little stuffed raccoon on one of the children's shelves, and then spent the next twenty minutes in the armchair with it, deeply engrossed in the book "Pecos Bill."  I loved watching her face as she studied the Steven Kellogg illustrations!  While she was occupied, I spent a few minutes looking for some things for myself, and ended up selecting a movie my sisters highly recommended, "The Scarlet Pimpernel."
After getting Eden to bed later that night, Nate and I settled down on the couch to try it out.  I must admit, I wasn't sure we were going to make it through the whole movie for the first few minutes!  But as we went along, it drew us in and by the end I could only say that it was one of the best movies I have watched in quite a while. Its about an English secret agent in France during the French Revolution.  The secret agent plots are thrilling and engaging in themselves, but the twist is that, in order to keep his identity a secret and maintain his ability to access inner French society workings, Sir Percy Blakenell, aka. the Scarlet Pimpernel, acts the foppish fool.  (And he REALLY does.  His affectations almost made us turn off the movie before we understood what they were all about.)  No one can even entertain a suspicion of his involvement because he is all about fashion, society, and the silliest of empty-headed nonsense.  Only his cadre of close friends, who work with him in the undercover work, know the truth.  Even his wife, though she hopes and suspects there is more to him than appears, only sees the fashionable and handsome fool til almost the end.  It involves secrets and counter-secrets, intrigue and double-crossing, humor and pathos, and ultimately comes to a satisfying ending.  I HIGHLY recommend it!
It did spark some interesting thoughts, though.  I think that most people don't mind doing hard and exciting things, heroic things.  Not only don't mind, many of us even crave that opportunity to do important things and make a difference in some way.  And even if we don't want it, when we're called upon to do so most of us step up to the plate and do our part.  Of course, the natural desire in that is to be known for our contributions, to have our sacrifices recognized and lauded.  Sometimes we're also satisfied with just remaining behind the scenes, outwardly living sedate and normal lives while quietly accomplishing what must be done.  But how many times are we willing to be taken for the fool in order to do the Lord's work?  How many times are we willing to be seen as unrealistic, zealous, silly, and foolish in order to save others - however they need to be saved?  How often do we allow concern about the judgement that others may pass upon us and our actions to influence our decisions?  I'm not saying we should all don the mask of silly superficiality to cover our good works.  Just remembering...

"The foolishness of God is wiser than men... the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God."

1 Cor. 1:25, 3:19