Have you seen the Movie, "The Help?"

Last night, my daughters and I went to see the movie, "The Help."  It's a wonderful story about a young college graduate from Jackson, Mississippi, who ended up convincing a black maid to tell her the stories of what it is like to work for white women.  Of course, this maid works for one of Skeeter;s, as the author is nicknamed, friends.


The story speaks of courage on both ends of the spectrum.  The first is, of course, the first maid and the many others who follows her lead.  The risk they took involved losing their job, getting arrested, and having their reputation disparaged.  But, they took those risks because the pain of living life the same way as they had been, seemed more painful than walking through persecution to a life of freedom.


Interestingly, Skeeter, also needed courage. She was basically going against every social and cultural norm to befriend the maids, and to tell their stories.  She had to open her eyes to the injustice that was all around her, in blinding red lights, even though for much of her life she had accepted it as normal.  She lost much in the process, even losing the love of her life because he couldn't accept her choice to write the book.  In the end, however, what she in her awakening became such a part of her that she was willing to stay in Jackson to live out the persecution with the maids. 


She had to go against the wishes of her friends and even make an "accidental error" in the society newsletter that created a yard full of "commodes" in her childhood best friend's yard.  This is quite humorous because her friend was pressuring her to highlight the initiative to get everyone to put a "colored" bathroom in their homes. Skeeter was so appalled by this initiative that she found many ways to go around putting it in the newsletter.


This movie profoundly affected me last night because I see parallels to my own life in this story.  I have also written a book on Identity, and know that the publication of it will be life changing to me.  I know that I will receive criticism about it as it challenges some of the social and cultural norms of the Church, things that I always took for granted as being right, but as I've gone deeper in my study of the Scripture and deeper in my spirit life with Christ, I am being awakened, like Skeeter, to a whole reality that I didn't know existed.


It's taking courage for me to open my eyes and walk this new lifestyle that the Lord has called me to walk with him; and it will take courage, like the black maids, for those who read it to make the pivotal changes that the book will awaken within them.  My hope is that the reader's choice of living status quo seems much more painful than the choice to join the journey of discovering the truth about our identity and walking it out.


Keep your eyes posted for the publication of the book, whose working title is Identity Crisis:  It's Time to Reclaim the Truth of Who We Are!  Hopefully, it will be coming out around the first of the year....and together we can courageously walk in the new awareness of what it means to be a beloved child of the King of the Universe!