My apologies... and "Ratatouille" too

To whom it may concern (also known as: those who read my blog),
I wanted to apologize for my lack of blogs in the past two weeks; I just came back from a lovely vacation with my family visiting relatives. We had a great time being with everyone and doing such activities as going to tea (and pretending to be Southern Belles), digging up old pictures of great grandparents and other relatives, and seeing "Ratatouille". Thanks to the education of my philosophy teacher, however, I experienced severe difficulty in giving my full attention to the storyline. Instead, I spent my time in the theater pulling apart everything said by the characters and applying it to a walk with Christ. In fact, I even took a notebook in with me and wrote out exact quotes so I could think about the ideas that were expressed. I don't know that "Ratatouille" was created with deep philosophy in mind or that the directors/story-makers even thought of Christianity with it, but I, personally, saw many analogies and implications to life. And now, thanks to the peculiarity of a certain Mr. L and the habits he has ingrained within me, I have decided to blog on a few of my thoughts. (What is happening to me?!)

For those who have yet to see it, the basic storyline of "Ratatouille" has to do with a rat that not only loves to cook, but can do it well. The story gets complicated when the rat finds himself in a topnotch, classy restaurant in Paris and, through a series of events, helps a previous restaurant garbage-boy to become a five-star chef.

Perhaps my favorite quote of the whole movie was said at the end when Linguini, the x-garbage boy, finally admits to the "little chef" rat who was the one that was really doing the cooking. See, previously, Linguini had tried to make it appear that he was the excellent cook and that he had all the talent. He never said a word about Remy (the rat), but instead, took all the glory for himself while Remy knuckled down and put his nose to the grindstone. At long last, Linguini confessed his secret and admitted,

"I have no talent at all... He's the reason I can cook the food. You've been giving me credit for his gift."

All I could think about when he confessed was us, well, more more specifically me, and my relationship with God. How often do I take all the credit and glory for the gifts He's given me or is allowing me to hold? And I do it without even thinking about it! Everything I have on this earth, everything I am and everything I can do, are all gifts from God; it's all His to begin with but He freely allows us to hold some of His things or to use some of His abilities to do something great with them. He has put each and every person in such a place and time and with such gifts and abilities for the distinct purpose that they can reach others for Him and make a difference for the better. And yet, we take those gifts and attempt to possess them as our own, and no one else's. We use our gifts, talents, and abilities, sure. But we take the credit for having them and for using them as if we gave them to ourselves or somehow invented them out of thin air. That's all wrong! Everything is God's gift and perhaps it's time to start giving Him the credit for them... Therefore, in Linguini's words, I confess,

"I have no talent at all... He's the reason I can live, excell as a student, play piano, have fun in soccer... He's the reason I exist. You've been giving me credit for His gifts." -Lizzie

*For anyone wondering, I wanted to affirm that yes, Ratatouille is a real French dish. You can find a recipe here.