Grace to change

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Love, commitment, responsibility – there is nothing that Dennis Doyle can’t run away from. Run Fat Boy Run tells the tale of a man who, having made countless mistakes in life, now faces the loss of the one thing he values most: the love of his life, Libby, and as such is challenged to change once and for all.

Dennis Doyle (Simon Pegg) ran away from Libby (Thandie Newton) at the altar, while she was pregnant with their son Jake. Now, five years on, Libby is moving on from Dennis for good. With the entrance of Libby’s charming new boyfriend, Whit (Hank Azaria), Dennis is forced to acknowledge a few home truths. He’s still in love with Libby, he wishes he’d had the guts to marry her, and he has no idea how to make things right. He needs to change. Ironically, Whit provides a possible answer. The ‘handsome, well off, friendly’ rival is running the 26 mile Nike River Run for charity, and Dennis decides to compete against him to prove a few things to Libby.

Dennis: Look Libby, I can change ok, I have changed, I can prove it.
Man in shop: How?
Dennis: I’ll tell you how, I will run the marathon.
Libby: What?
Dennis: The one that Whit’s doing, I’ll run that, and I’ll finish it.
Libby: Come on, you’ve never finished anything in your entire life, Dennis.

This time, though, Dennis is determined. He is ‘sick of being a nearly man’ and recognises that, ‘running this marathon could be my last chance to show Libby that I can change’. But how does he do it, how can he change?

Change is something we either want and strive for, or fear and avoid. It poses challenges, pushing us out of our comfort zones. Dennis wants to change to prove to Libby that he is not the same man he was five years ago, that he can now offer her a degree of responsibility and commitment. But Libby’s new man seems so together and set in life. How is Dennis, an insecure, self-confessed loser and a serial underachiever, ever to compete? Whit is, in the world’s eyes, successful: he is a fit hedge fund manager for a big London firm. Dennis is an unfit security guard who lives alone in a dingy basement flat. The contrast is striking and Dennis knows it. So he clings on to the only hope he has: that he can change. He’s determined to train for and finish the marathon to show Libby that he is worthy of her respect, even if not her love:

I know it’s the height of hypocrisy, and I know doing this isn’t going to change anything or make anything better, but umm, I just, I’d settle for your respect, I’d settle for you smiling when you thought about the time that we had together and not think about it as a waste of time.

Shortly after this plea to Libby, however, she accepts a marriage proposal from Whit and as a result, Dennis hits rock bottom. Libby, it seems, is lost; she’s agreed to spend her life with another man. So for Dennis, what’s the point of carrying on? Why run? Why change? But while advising his son Jake about a problem at school, Dennis discovers he already knows the answer.

Dennis: You can’t just run away.
Jake: Why not?
Dennis: Because it doesn’t just solve the problem, you know. When you stop running, the problem is still there. You’ve got to stick at it, and then figure out a way to solve the problem, even if it’s really, really hard.
Jake: Is that what you do, Dad?

At this moment Dennis realises that to change he needs to take his own advice and keep going. Even though in practice the run will hurt and the woman he loves seems out of reach, he refuses to do what he always does and run away. So his motivation changes: he doesn’t run to win Libby back, nor just to compete with Whit, but to prove to himself that he can, to show himself that he is more than just a nearly man and that he can become a better person. Having made this decision, though, he can’t do it alone. Dennis is faced with a gruelling 26-mile run and when circumstances worsen, his perseverance and stamina is challenged more than ever before.

Dennis runs for his own reasons, but is only able to run because of the support and, most of all, the grace of his friends. Despite having alienated and disappointed them, in his best mate Gordon (Dylan Moran) and his crazy, spatula-wielding, Asian landlord Mr Ghoshdashtidar (Harish Patel), Dennis finds the encouragement and belief he needs to keep running. The movie here shows us something important. We can change, but very rarely can we do it alone. We require the help and gracious support of those around us if we are to succeed and not give up when we hit the pain barrier. Most often, we can’t go the distance without help.

Grace is receiving something we don’t deserve. For Dennis Doyle this was the support of his friends when he had let them down, and the possibility of a second chance with the women of his dreams. Grace is something we can’t work for; it’s given independently of ourselves, most often when we least deserve it. It expresses itself in a huge variety of ways, from the smallest of kind words to the biggest gestures of sacrifice. It is by nature selfless. Dennis experiences grace in action as he is encouraged to keep going, and given the support and belief he needs to run his race, and most importantly, to change. The supreme example of grace is the example of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Despite humanity rebelling against the creator and being totally undeserving of even a kind word, Jesus sacrificed his life so as to make us right with God.

This is true grace. The totally undeserved riches of God given to us at the willing expense of Jesus Christ. Grace does more than simply change us, it transforms us. For Dennis Doyle, when those around him showed him grace, he found the strength to change. The grace we can receive through belief in Jesus Christ brings a transformation that goes further than simply finishing a race and winning a medal, it brings eternal life and the totally underserved grace to change.

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