Can I Get a Witness?
I’ve been watching the movie RENT again lately. A lot. I think the music from that play ties with my #1 favorite, Les Miserables. I’ve never seen a movie that brings me to tears as constantly and consistently as RENT does. I see so much redemption and love and so much of living the Gospel through this story about a rag-tag group of friends living a rough life in New York, many of them living with HIV, many with various sexual orientations. And in their stories, I see a lot of my Jesus.
One of my favorite choruses that is sung a couple of times in the movie goes like this:
“Will I lose my dignity
will someone care
will i wake tomorrow
from this nightmare”
These are people facing the fact that AIDS was not a well-known or understood disease at the time. Many were shunned from society because of it. It was the ‘outcast’ disease of its day: the leprosy, if you will. And they are scared that their life will pass by without witness, without meaning…that they will die an undignified death, and one without love or care.
Isn’t that what we all want? Someone to bear witness to our life? To say ‘you matter. You are important. To me. To us. To your maker.’
I know that is one of my core desires. I feel the saddest state of affairs is when a life gets lived unnoticed.
-Every homeless person on the streets that we walk by every day, not caring that this is their life and it shouldn’t have to be this way. We don’t see their stories, only the statistic.
-The recovering alcoholic/bulimic/self-injurer. Instead of seeing their life, we see their problems and the darkness they were living in. We don’t see how we can help bring light to a hurting place.
-The son or daughter whose parents don’t see them for who they are: but rather see them and try to make into who they want them to be. The life they want to see is their focus, but they miss out on the life that is being lived.
We only have one life. Don’t isolate yourself from others. Community is so important. And for those of us in community, let’s stop judging others for things, but instead bear witness to the life they are living and be a light when they don’t see any, be enough hope for when they have none, and encourage when they reach a new place. Believe me, this is a rally cry for me as much as you. I want to live my life knowing this day, this moment, this breath could be my last. As another RENT song says:
“There is no future
There is no past
I live this moment as my last
There's only us
There's only this
Forget regret
Or life is yours to miss
No other road
No other way
No day but today”
No day but today. Don’t wait to bear witness to others’ lives until it’s too late. And don’t be afirad to let others’ bear witness to your life.
And ultimately, don’t forget, we have our Father, our Maker, who is always bearing witness to our lives. Whose very existence is Love, and it is this Love that gives us the ability to know our lives are not in vain, that we are not living purposeless or meaningless lives, and that we are seen and loved for exactly who he created us to be.
That is hope enough for me.
One of my favorite choruses that is sung a couple of times in the movie goes like this:
“Will I lose my dignity
will someone care
will i wake tomorrow
from this nightmare”
These are people facing the fact that AIDS was not a well-known or understood disease at the time. Many were shunned from society because of it. It was the ‘outcast’ disease of its day: the leprosy, if you will. And they are scared that their life will pass by without witness, without meaning…that they will die an undignified death, and one without love or care.
Isn’t that what we all want? Someone to bear witness to our life? To say ‘you matter. You are important. To me. To us. To your maker.’
I know that is one of my core desires. I feel the saddest state of affairs is when a life gets lived unnoticed.
-Every homeless person on the streets that we walk by every day, not caring that this is their life and it shouldn’t have to be this way. We don’t see their stories, only the statistic.
-The recovering alcoholic/bulimic/self-injurer. Instead of seeing their life, we see their problems and the darkness they were living in. We don’t see how we can help bring light to a hurting place.
-The son or daughter whose parents don’t see them for who they are: but rather see them and try to make into who they want them to be. The life they want to see is their focus, but they miss out on the life that is being lived.
We only have one life. Don’t isolate yourself from others. Community is so important. And for those of us in community, let’s stop judging others for things, but instead bear witness to the life they are living and be a light when they don’t see any, be enough hope for when they have none, and encourage when they reach a new place. Believe me, this is a rally cry for me as much as you. I want to live my life knowing this day, this moment, this breath could be my last. As another RENT song says:
“There is no future
There is no past
I live this moment as my last
There's only us
There's only this
Forget regret
Or life is yours to miss
No other road
No other way
No day but today”
No day but today. Don’t wait to bear witness to others’ lives until it’s too late. And don’t be afirad to let others’ bear witness to your life.
And ultimately, don’t forget, we have our Father, our Maker, who is always bearing witness to our lives. Whose very existence is Love, and it is this Love that gives us the ability to know our lives are not in vain, that we are not living purposeless or meaningless lives, and that we are seen and loved for exactly who he created us to be.
That is hope enough for me.
posted by Melinda @ 12:54 PM
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