REJOICING AT BEING ORDINARY

Tonight Carol and I watched "The Soloist," a true story about Nathaniel Ayers, a gifted musician who lived on the streets of Los Angeles due to his mental condition of schizophrenia. He loved Beethoven and played the cello well, although the imagined voices he heard held him prisoner and kept him from using his talent as he wished. It is a touching movie that dealt sensitively with the difficult issues of mental illness, gifts and wanting to help others in need.  

The principal actor, Jamie Foxx, depicted Mr. Ayers incredibly well. After seeing him here and also in "Ray," his movie about musician Ray Charles, I can only hope he continues to use his gifts to make movies that honor people and God. 

Just prior to the movie Carol and I had watched with much frustration our Rockies baseball team end its season with a loss in their divisional series. This movie was a good way to get back to reality. There's nothing like genuine troubles to make imagined ones go away. 

One thing the movie showed was the fragility of the human soul. Seeing the hundreds of street people depicted in their personal and often distorted worlds was sobering. With our common human weaknesses and frailties, none of us are all not that far from mental confusion. Sometimes only a thin line separates the "sane" from the "insane." We'd all do well to give thanks for being ordinary people who usually know what reality is.

In His day Jesus saw people with both physical and mental troubles, and saw them without judgment. Whether it was the demon-possessed man who lived among the tombs or the young man who loved his riches; whether it was the woman caught in adultery or the Pharisee certain of his purity; whether it was the humble and lowly or the high and mighty, Jesus knew their needs. And He loved them despite their sins. He knew they needed a rescuer, a life preserver, someone who could hold them up and keep them from drowning.

Jesus knew what they needed because He was that Savior, that Man among men, the true Son of God who takes away the sins of the world. He died on the cross of Calvary that we the broken might be made whole. It was His prophet who wisely said, "Blessed is the one that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is." (Jeremiah 17:7)

May we all rejoice in being ordinary!