1994.
Two movies were released that year that matter to me: “Forrest Gump” and
“Shawshank Redemption.” I hear Forrest’s words each day when I run. “Momma said
sometimes we just have to outrun our problems.” And on those bad days when I
wonder if anything exists beyond this, I can hear Andy Dufresne tell Red and
the other inmates, “Hope is a good thing, maybe the only thing. And, hope never
dies.”
Hope never dies. I remember seeing
both movies at the theater. And, I laughed at the slow-witted Forrest and his
angry antagonist/friend Lt. Dan and I thought I already knew all about love and
heartache, failure and redemption and a movie couldn’t explain it to me. Then
there was August 2008, and arrest, prison, divorce, and loss. And I ran and
yelled at God and cursed my life and found my soul. And I realized Forrest was
the smartest protagonist ever written and Lt. Dan, well he proved Romans 8:28
is true.
And Andy and “hope” – hope is a
funny thing. At our best we think we understand it. At our worst we dig deep to
see if it’s really there. And, if we find it, we hold on to it tightly because
it’s the only thing that keeps us going.
Twenty years is a long time.
Sometimes it feels just like yesterday.
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