Rent

Geary and I saw the movie Rent on Friday. I had never seen the Broadway show but I had heard about it and I had heard songs from the show so I was pretty excited to experience it for myself. Let me first say that the movie was incredible--but it was NOT what I thought it would be.

I thought it would be a comedy about struggling-just-out-of-college-looking-for-our-first-jobs-how-are-we-gonna-pay-the-rent-and-what's-up-with-all-these-relationship-mishaps story. Instead it was about a group of artists, drug addicts, transvestites, homosexuals, and strippers living in extreme poverty, about to face eviction, and surrounded by disease. AIDS to be specific.

I was enraptured by the story and the music and I kept thinking about what type of review Focus of the Family would give this movie. They would probably say to avoid this movie at all costs because of what I just listed above. But even as I watched this group of friends living "la vie bohem" I was impressed with how christian they were. More christian than most christians I know.

The word "rent" doesn't simply mean the money you pay each month so that you can have a place to live. It can also mean broken. And the characters in this show are very broken people. And yet it was these broken people that loved each other unconditionally until "death do they part." They struggled together through sickness, AIDS, addictions, relationships, eviction, death, and love. The shared everything, thought nothing of paying each other's way, and protected one another with respect and tenderness. And somehow, in their dark dark world, they had hope.

And I was reminded of another definition of the word "rent"--torn or split. And how when someone was crucified to save sinners just like these people, and just like me, the veil in the temple, the veil that was supposed to separate God from the common people was rent.

Personal Application: I want the veil that separates me from addicts, transvestites, etc. to be rent. As much I try to not be judgemental, I know I wouldn't love as unconditionally as the characters in the movie. Obviously the world view behind the show isn't a christian one, but I hope I can learn to love like Jesus and to see with new eyes what brokeness, love, and hope really look like.