"The King's Speech" and the King's ear

On Saturday night, I went to see The King’s Speech. It was wonderful. The English landscapes, the swelling of the classical crescendos, the gorgeous hats and dresses, the nostalgia for a time I never knew. The whole movie was an enjoyable, inspirational, sobering, enlightening experience that swept the audience up into one’s man’s struggle, into a family, into a nation, into a moral conflict such that the world has rarely seen. I could probably wax on about many aspects of the movie, but one stood out to me throughout the car ride home and throughout the night: friendship.

My friend Lane pointed out to me that while there are innumerable movies both good and bad about love, it is rare to find one where friendship is lauded. We tend, in our culture, to forsake the enduring, subtle nature of friendship for the more dazzling, explosive ethos of romantic love. But friendship has simple, unmatched virtue.

Without giving too much away, the protagonist in the The King’s Speech is about man named Bertie, later known as King George VI, who has suffered his entire life with a stammer. Usually content to read and study out of the public eye, with the death of his father and abdication of his brother, Bertie is suddenly forced to assume a rather public persona of King of England, a prospect that terrifies him. At the root of his speech impediment is fear, which the quirky and audacious speech therapist, Lionel, who becomes his one true friend, soon identifies. A deep and unshakable insecurity about his own inadequacy and incompetence plagues Bertie as he has, throughout his life, withstood intimidation by his disapproving father and mockery by his selfish brother. But, as the scenes go on and the speech lessons continue, something remarkable happens. Not only does Bertie’s articulation improve, but he actually discovers his own voice. Because he had a friend, someone to care and to listen, he was able to speak. He was able to overcome his psychological demons and deliver a message of courage and hope to a people facing the destruction and devastation of a just war.

The support and encouragement of friendship is staggering and endlessly confirmed by human experience. If we have just one—one person who understands our plight, one who hears our troubles, one who sits beside us—we can endure almost anything. Bertie had Lionel. We have Jesus. This is the most incredibly humbling idea, so audacious that it is either insane or true. The King of Kings, the Author of Life, the Word who spoke all things into existence calls Himself our Friend. He listens to our sorrows and bears them with us. He asks us to come to Him when we are weary or frightened or overwhelmed. He “soothes our sorrows, heals our wounds and drives away our fears” as the hymn goes. He is our Advocate, the One who appeals to Justice on our behalf. “Jesus, what a friend for sinner! Jesus, lover of my soul! Friends may fail me, foes assail me, He my Savior, make me whole.” If Jesus is our Friend, what then can we fear? If He goes with us, where then shall we not go? If His name is on our lips, how then should we stammer?

While Bertie had his friend Lionel to listen to and help him, we have the ear and aid of God Almighty who deigns to consider us His friends. What a friend we have in Jesus!