“So, chosen by God for this
new life of love,
dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you:
compassion,
kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline."
-Colossians 3:12 (the Message)
Yesterday one of the library aides dropped a
couple of CD’s onto my desk for reclassification. One of them was the
soundtrack for Les Miserables by Alain Boublil & Claude-Michel Schonberg. I
corrected the library record & then checked the CD out to myself. I’ve been
listening to it ever since. For those of you that aren’t familiar with the
story, Les Mis, ‘follows of former prisoner Jean Valjean, who, after being
released from the watchful eye of police officer Javert, is unable to find work
because of his status as an ex-convict. He eventually steals from a local
church, but when apprehended, the priest claims that Valjean was given the
valuables. This triggers a change in Valjean, & he constructs a new identity
for himself as a pillar of society & a local businessman. Years later, he
adopts a young girl named Cosette, whose mother Fantin, a former employee of
his, became a prostitute & died a horrible death in the gutters after being
fired. As the years progress & the French Revolution begins to foment, a
grown Cosette falls for a passionate revolutionary named Marius, while Javert
begins to close in again on Valjean's secret past.’ (a)
It’s easy to be swept away by the beautiful music
& by Victor Hugo’s soul-moving story of the power of forgiveness, love
& redemption. There are so many profound moments that lead you to the
final realization that one act of human kindness can change the course of a life so
much that that person can become virtually unrecognizable from who they once
were.
Ohmygoodnesspeople! Don’t you see the fingerprints of
God all over this one?
So where is the fear here you might be asking? Um... hello? It can
be super scary to open ourselves up to love... & even scarier to love the least of these, the marginalized or those that society & sometimes we see as irredeemable. It’s counter
cultural really. It’s easier to not notice them, to walk right on by, to screen
our calls, & make excuses to how we don’t have the time, why we are so much
better than them & why they are too, strange, awkward, complicated, stinky,
dirty, annoying, frustrating, ____________ whatever to deal with. I’m not suggesting we become doormats to those
that would take advantage of us, but I am exhorting us to really think about how
we deal with the challenging people God has put in our scope of influence. Because no one is irredeemable & if we
truly took a look at ourselves before Christ, it’s pretty obvious that we weren’t
so very different from them. To be honest, sometimes even now, I don’t like having
to deal with my own self. I can be so stinkin' obnoxious. Seriously.
But here’s the thing, if we chose to live our
lives with an extra measure of humility & compassion… if we stopped all the
things we are ‘doing’ & asked God to show us those around us who are
hurting… if we chose to stoop down to take that someone’s face in our hands,
look them deep in the eye & speak the Truth of Jesus into their lives… the
power of that moment could change them.
Oh, & I can promise it will change us. Why? Because we don't ever look into each others eyes. It's too intimate. Scary. Because when you truly look into the soul
of another, you will see in them, the One who created them. & that might actually compel us to DO something. Do you get my drift?
That is what
our savior Jesus is all about. He is humble. He is forgiving. He is
compassionate. He is loving. He is Truth. He is life. He is a take your face in His hands, look you in the eye kind of guy. He has created us
for this kind of intimacy. This scary, freaky, weird, kind of reaching out.
& because to experience
Him in His fullness we must be brave beyond ourselves.
To love another person is to see the face of
God.
–Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
a) Barnes & Noble Movie Reviews
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