Journeying to Grace

Not long ago while on the treadmill at my neighborhood rec center, I found entertaining programs on the two televisions in front of me. On one was a movie I had just seen again. On the other was my team not doing very well after two innings. (Later, I saw they ended up winning!) As I stepped to the beat of my playlist, I kept my focus on the movie. For a couple of reasons, it was okay that I couldn’t actually hear it. 1) From having already seen the movie more than once, I knew what was happening. And 2) I think I absorbed more in just watching and thinking about it. I understood more, related more, and felt more—beyond the initial plot.

The movie is Creed II. On its surface, it’s about boxing and training to win the title match. But for the characters, it’s about successes and relationships and failures and legacies and wounds and consequences and joys and heartaches. And in its own way, it’s about love and faith. The love around us even when we miss it, and the faith in ourselves (or not) and faith others have in us (or not). And that got me thinking…and relating.

The many emotions expressed, and the processes gone through in the movie were very real. Striving for something can be joyful yet can also be challenging, even discouraging. Maybe to the point that we ask, ‘Is this worth it?’ Our doubts and questions can come in the form of others we encounter as well as in our wounds. The wounds of our disappointment, hardships, loss, and so much more. Though she’d love nothing more than to ‘fix’ her son’s emotional and physical wounds, the main character’s mother lovingly, knowingly, and wisely states, “He needs to heal from the inside out.”

Heal. That is a word we relate to. And that is where we especially encounter love and faith. The movie depicts love (and healing) in various settings, and from these, I found the most impactful message was that it’s never too late to show or offer love. And that love is the common ground for new ‘footing’ and new beginnings. God is love. Love one another. We will hear these powerful, life-giving words in our readings this Sunday.

Perhaps it is a lesson in choice. Choosing to live in the love we are shown. Choosing to have faith in ourselves and in God even though we do not know the outcome. There are several obvious boxing analogies (God is in our corner, stand up after being knocked down, etc.), but they all remind us that we only journey through our successes, relationships, failures, legacies, wounds, consequences, joys, and heartaches when we live in faith and our hearts are open and welcoming of God’s healing and complete love.