I am so very glad that I got to see this last night.
Seriously.
My heart wouldn't be where it is today if I hadn't.
It made me laugh. It made me cry. It gave me goosebumps...more than once.
Mostly, though...it simply made me think.
I know that it is a fictional story, but it was written based on real events happening in our nations schools.
this truth breaks my heart.
I want to believe that if I am ever challenged as Josh is, I won't back down. I will share my faith in the Lord with as much conviction as he does. With so much passion, and determination and strength.
As deeply as the film touched me, it was what happened while the credits rolled and the theater emptied that has inspired me. Shaken me to my core.
We were on the very top row of an almost-sold-out showing and as we were gathering our things, I glanced past my friends and saw a girl, in her late teens, maybe early twenties, barefoot, on her knees and with her hands outstretched in prayer.
I'm not usually one to approach a stranger, especially when they are right smack in the middle of a very personal moment...but I was pulled to her.
I knelt beside her and without a word, put my arm around her shoulders. Startled, she opened her eyes and looked over at me. Without even asking who I was or what I was doing, she wrapped her own arm around my back and simply explained that she wanted to thank the Lord for His anointing on that film.For it's message and for it's truth.
We knelt like that for a few minutes while she prayed aloud to Jesus.
We said "amen" and gave eachother a gentle squeeze. I whispered for her to have a good night and stood to rejoin my friends (who were patiently waiting for me at the end of our row.)
I never got her name, but my soul got so much more.
Everyday of my life, I will aspire to live with her amazing, unabashed, simply beautiful love for my Lord and Savior.
God is alive.
