Tuesday, July 15, 2014

scary freaky wierd way to intimacy



“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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