Music Mondays

We continue to let the music of Les Mis guide us and open us to truths around/within us.  The above is sung by the character Javert.  There is a bit of a background to this character that will be help before you listen to the song above.  Javert is born in a prison.  There is a warm and fuzzy feeling for you today.  And this past pain in Javert's life forever haunts him.  For Javert life is black and white, right and wrong, either or.  There is very little gray in his life.  Whether he does this because of the past pain in his life or a deep desire to have order in a time of disorder, the truth is, we all know people like this.  We know folks to cling to a point of view and perspective.  I have empathy for those who are in this place.  Often they are a reminder that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link and that if you give an inch some will take a mile.  There can be a slippery slope that if you allow something for this person, you will have to work harder to justify why another person shouldn't be given the same treatment.  Certainly if we are talking about love being given to all or that grace can never be earned, but when someone has hurt or harmed another that is where it is messy.  Or I am reminded of Dietrich Bonhoeffer who cautioned against "cheap grace" where we forgive or forget too quickly.  Where we brush off an offense that has really hurt people.  I think here of ways we we try to put "cheap grace" upon sexism or racism or treatment of LGBTQ.  We try to pretend that everything is equal now, when economic realities tell us that women are paid less than men.  Or that since we had an African-American president, racism is solved, even as African-American are targeted while simply out for a run or suffering more from the Coronavirus.  Or how we turn a blind eye to legislation passed rolling back rights for those who love someone of the same gender or look with contempt upon someone who has transition from one gender to another or is gender fluid.

There are those who are like Javert and want to sing about order and rules.  Of course, we all want mercy for ourselves and our family/friends...justice for everyone else.  As Les Mis unfolds, Javert is shown grace and kindness by Valjean which he simply cannot comprehend or accept.  Here is the song at the end of the musical where Javert wrestles with grace and kindness.

I invite you to hear the complexity of Javert as a character.  It reminds me that it is easy to judge people based on what is surface level.  We know so little about each other, we know so little about ourselves and what motivates us.

Let this music continue to wash over and invite you to enter into the mystery of life ~ of why we and others do what we do.  I pray that there will be more than a trace of God's grace that works and wiggles in your life today.