Gone With The Wind

Most everyone has at least heard of the Civil War movie ‘Gone With The Wind.’ But like most stories, there is a story behind and beyond the story. And sometimes, the truth is stranger and more exciting than fiction. Let me explain. 

Recently, I read a book by Zig Ziglar entitled Something to Smile About. One chapter tells what happened to the two main characters, Rhett and Scarlett, in the years after the movie ended. I’ll quote from Ziglar’s book. 

"Gone with the Wind is the classic. Scarlett is the follow-up to the book. However, the original story had more than just a kernel of truth. There was Rhett Butler, but his real name was Rhett Turnipseed. Scarlett O'Hara was Emelyn Louise Hannon. Yes, Rhett did walk out on her and join the Confederate Army. When the war was over, Rhett Turnipseed became a drifter and gambler. He ended up in Nashville, where his life turned around on Easter morning in 1871. He attended a Methodist revival meeting and became a committed Christian.

"Soon afterward, Rhett enrolled at Vanderbilt University and became a Methodist preacher. Reverend Rhett was worried about a young woman in his church who had run away and was working in a house of prostitution in St. Louis. Rhett rode off to look for her and found her. Incredibly enough, the madam was his former love, Emelyn Louise Hannon, or Scarlett. She refused to let Rhett see the young woman, so Rhett challenged her to a game of cards. If he won, the young girl would go free; if Scarlett won, she would remain. Rhett won. 

"Fortunately, the story ends well for everyone. The young girl married well and became the matriarch of a leading family in the state. Later, Emelyn, so impressed with the change in Rhett’s life, became a Christian and joined the Methodist church. Eventually, she opened an orphanage for Cherokee children. She died in 1903. Her grave is marked to this day. 

"The message is twofold: First, truth really is stranger than fiction, and second, people can change. Going from a gambler to a preacher, and from a madam to the operator of an orphanage for displaced children represents quite a change. So don’t give up. You can change.”

Some of you might think this account is too good to be true. Who told you that? Truth is often stranger than fiction. One thing is for sure: if you want to change, make a change for the better, like Rhett and Emelyn. To live is to grow, and to grow is to change. We don’t change to change to be cool; we change so we can grow in quality and quantity of life. In life, there are seasons. Every old season ends and the new season begins. We don’t change seasons; we adjust to new seasons. Rhett, Emelyn, and the young girl adjusted to the season, and they all catapulted into their purpose and destiny.   

Like Rhett, Emelyn, and the young girl, some people learn, change, and move on. So, don’t judge other people’s books of life based on the chapter of their life you walked in on. Their book of life is probably bigger, better, and greater than they are currently experiencing. But you need to close one chapter of your book of life and open the next chapter.

Think if you walked into Rhett’s life when he became a gambler and a drifter. Think if you walked into Scarlett’s life when she was a self-absorbed narcissist determined to get what she wanted by any means necessary. Think if you walked into the young woman’s life when she was a prostitute. You would have judged them wrongly. Why? It was just one chapter in the book of the lives of three flawed people. If you’re going to judge these people, start at the finish.   

Even though all three characters had freedom in the early chapters of their lives, they weren’t truly free. Freedom is not doing whatever you want to do. Freedom is the ability to do what God created you to do. Here’s what the characters discovered about being free. The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet. Rhett, Emelyn, and the young girl closed the old chapter of human power and fleshly reasoning and opened the new chapter of God's power and genuine love and concern for others.

These three changed people - changed other people, not for themselves but for the betterment of the person and society. Rhett was a changed person, and that change changed Emelyn. The ugly cocoon of the ground-crawling, limited caterpillar morphed into the butterfly with wings for flight. Don’t get me wrong; it is necessary to be a caterpillar to become a butterfly. There was a necessity for Rhett, Emelyn, and the young girl to go through the first chapters of their lives to get to the second chapters of their lives. They had to take step one to get to step two. That’s what makes up their stories and makes their stories amazing. Sound familiar?

Do you need to change? Hint: Ask three people if you need to change. Do you need to close one chapter and open another? If we resist turning to our next chapter and say “never, to the next chapter,” our “next” will not come, leaving us in a ‘Never-Never Land.’  That’s where Peter Pan lives, having ‘Peter panic attacks’ rather than a ‘plan of attack.’ That’s called going sideways. 

Rhett, Emelyn, and the young girl got unstuck. They are perfect examples of the Bible verse that says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creature; the old things passed away, and look, new things have come.” II Corinthians 5:17. The regrets, shame, and guilt of their old lives and chapters are ‘Gone with the Wind.’ 

This story is familiar. I've seen it happen thousands of times. If you don’t believe me, I double-dog dare you to go to a Teen Challenge meeting and see the Rhetts, Emelyns, and other young lost people of today's world. I minister at Teen Challenge and call them "New Chapter Openers."