{"id":987,"date":"2018-01-18T20:56:19","date_gmt":"2018-01-19T04:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/?p=987"},"modified":"2018-01-19T17:37:08","modified_gmt":"2018-01-20T01:37:08","slug":"the-greatest-showman-the-power-of-story-and-gods-circus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/?p=987","title":{"rendered":"The Greatest Showman, the Power of Story, and God’s Circus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two intellectually challenged adults were in front of Teckla and I when we went to buy tickets for the movie The Greatest Showman.<\/em> The young man looked like he had Down\u2019s Syndrome. The young woman seemed to have some speech impediments. The lady they had come with was buying tickets and popcorn.<\/p>\n

It turned out we were in the same theater. They weren\u2019t noisy, but we could tell they liked the movie. The movie, a musical version of P. T. Barnum and his circus, tells a story of man who made a place for \u201cfreaks\u201d. He gave jobs to contortionists, tattooed men, a bearded lady, a little person. In this musical he also gives them dignity and family. Of course, this is probably a more politically correct celebration of diversity and inclusiveness than historically existed in Barnum\u2019s circus, but I loved the movie\u2014especially the big song and dance scenes. All dance scenes need elephants and lions!<\/p>\n

But what happened at the end of the movie made me love it even more. As the credits rolled, we could hear the intellectually challenged woman gently sobbing. As we walked by them, we heard the young man saying, \u201cIt\u2019s okay. I\u2019m your wingman. I\u2019m your wingman.\u201d It moved me that she was so moved by the movie, and that he was so kind.<\/p>\n

We headed to the restroom. While waiting for me, Teckla heard the young lady saying excitedly, \u201cThere is a place for us! There\u2019s a place a for us!\u201d She then walked up to Teckla and said, \u201cMarch, March, March.\u201d Her escort gathered her in and said, \u201cYes, the DVD comes out in March. I will get it for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

When I came out of the restroom, Teckla was in tears\u2014moved by the woman\u2019s declaration that there was a place for her. I was moved too and amazed at the ability of a story to create a place where we belong\u2014where we have value. I have always believed in the power of stories, but this punched me in the heart. Here story-telling had the power to give a home to the wounded and excluded.<\/p>\n

I also could not help thinking of church. I am part of motley crew at my little church\u2014broken, breaking, healed, and healing. But at the end of each service, I hope we can say, \u201cThere is a place for us!\u201d We are all God\u2019s circus. We are all Jesus freaks. This is the power of God’s story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two intellectually challenged adults were in front of Teckla and I when we went to buy tickets for the movie The Greatest Showman. The young man looked like he had Down\u2019s Syndrome. The young woman seemed to have some speech … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,4,6],"tags":[145,144,146],"class_list":["post-987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-john317","category-oyan","tag-jesus-freaks","tag-the-greatest-showman","tag-the-power-of-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6y6Br-fV","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marksletters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/cropped-cropped-cropped-cropped-Teckla-Mark-Mill-Creek-Falls-June-2011-3123.jpg?fit=1000%2C287&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}