Philippians 3:13 ~ keeping fit

(A dramatisation of another of my favourite children’s stories.  Most acting is done by mime although there are one or two spoken lines for some characters)

Narrator: Once there was a king, who used to be a prince, who, as a boy got everything he wanted.  Whatever he had wished for he was given it immediately.

(mime) Toy steam engines, hunting dogs, Arabian stallions and the like

Now that he had become king he was no different.  He got everything he wanted.  Whatever he wished for he was given it, only by this time his passion was FOOD!

(The king is sat at a table issuing orders, each order echoes down the corridor four times, getting quieter and quieter, and then returns with the cry from the cook getting louder and louder)

King: I want a Knickerbocker Glory!

Servants: Knickerbocker Glory for the king…Knickerbocker Glory for the king…. Knickerbocker Glory for the king…Knickerbocker Glory for the king!

Cook: Coming up….. coming up….. coming up….. coming up!

King: I want a fresh cream strawberry tart from the hypermarket!

Servants: Fresh cream strawberry tart from the hypermarket for the king etc. x 4

Cook: Coming up etc. x 4

King: I want a fresh roast chicken leg!

Servants: A fresh roast chicken leg for the king etc. x 4

Cook: Coming up etc. x 4

King: I think I’ll wash it all down with a glass of clear cool water from the mountain stream.

Servants: A glass of clear cool water from the mountain stream for the king etc. x 4.

Cook: Coming up etc. x 4 (as the last servant approaches the king he trips and throws the water all over him.  He is lead off by the executioner)

King: Off with his head!

Narrator: But there was one wish that was quite out of reach for the king, one thing he craved more that anything else in the whole world!  He wished and wished and wished again, but nothing happened and no-one else could help him.  For he wanted more than anything else to be THIN!  He had looked at himself in the mirror one day and discovered how very “podgy” he looked.  He offered half of his kingdom to the one that could grant his dearest wish, but everyone feared what he would do if they offered advice!

However one day a man came to court and requested to see the king.  He offered to help him.

Stranger: I can help you, your majesty.

King: As long as we don’t have to go to Weightwatchers.  I would just die if I had to get on the scales in front of all of those people.

Stranger: No your majesty, we will set out each day together and go in search of the magic wishing mirror!  Once we find it your wish will be granted.

Narrator: So the king and the stranger went out each day to find the magic wishing mirror.  They jogged out towards the southern moors, and sped along the woods of the north.  They raced along the eastern ridges and along the western shores.  Every day without fail off they went (at this point they leave the assembly hall and run around the school, entering the other door, all the while the narrator is still speaking).  They went up hills and down dales, along valleys, walking, jogging and sprinting.  The next day they travelled along the country lanes, past country parks, along the dunes and back over the white cliffs on the central plains.  Day after day they went along leafy avenues shaded by larch trees, across meadows wet with dew …. Morning, noon and evening in search of the mirror which could bring the king what he most desired in the world.  (by this time the pillows which have made the king fat have been removed.They enter) until they returned one evening after a very tiring day.

The king felt very fit and was so delighted when his friend, the stranger, declared that he had as last found the mirror.  It had been in the palace all the time!  The king made his wish and looked in the mirror.  The magic had worked!  He was no longer the king he had been.  He was half the size.  His friend went on his way, a wealthy man!

The moral of this story is - We can’t always have what we wish for in life, but there’s nothing to stop us TRYING to reach our goals.

Philippians 3:13… but this one thing I do; forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal…