Speak...

"...then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being." -Genesis 2:7

"Look around you. There is not a life in this room that you have not touched, and each of us is a better person because of you. We are your symphony Mr. Holland. We are the melodies and the notes of your opus." -Mr. Holland's Opus

There are certain movies that bring me to tears every time. No matter how many times I see them or how prepared I am for what is coming next, my tear ducts are activated.

Mr. Holland's Opus is one of those movies.

Yesterday afternoon I laid down for a lazy afternoon on the couch and plugged in the movie in hopes of a little nap. No such luck.

In case you've never seen it, Mr. Holland's Opus chronicles the life of Glenn Holland, a high school music teacher who always dreamed of bigger things. He wanted to compose and conduct. He wanted to be famous and never imagined teaching was the route to that dream, but only an obstacle.

And yet, by the end of the movie there are 40 years worth of students who have been shaped and molded and inspired to become something more than they were. There are knuckleheads, stoners, flunkers, hopeless cases, and more. Whether it had been his life goal or not, teaching had been Mr. Holland's greatest success.

The movie closes with the school board deciding that budget restrictions necessitate the closing of the music program. All those years. All those students. All those lives changed. Done, without a glimmer of appreciation. Until he is cleaning out his office and walking out of the school for the final time.

Hearing a murmur from the auditorium, he curiously walks in to investigate, where he is met with a full room and a raucous ovation. After taking his seat, his very first student walks in to deliver a final note of appreciation.

"Rumor had it he was always working on this symphony of his," she begins. "And this was going to make him famous, rich, probably both. But Mr. Holland isn't rich and he isn't famous, at least not outside of our little town. So it might be easy for him to think himself a failure. And he would be wrong, because I think he has achieved a success far beyond riches and fame. Look around you. There is not a life in this room that you have not touched, and each of us is a better person because of you. We are you symphony Mr. Holland. We are the melodies and the notes of your opus. We are the music of your life."

We all have the capacity to be what Mr. Holland was to his students. We all have the potential to unleash the potential in others, recognizing in them what they may not recognize in themselves.

The book of Genesis begins with a story of creation. Seeing a dark and formless void, God creates the heaven and the earth. And how does God create? God speaks. "Let there be... and it was good." God speaks things into being.

In Genesis 2, the writers tell a story of creation a little different than in Genesis 1. God gets God's hands dirty in the mud forming the garden. And when the garden is done, it's time to create people. So God takes some of the dust and creates man's form. But it's not finished. Yes, it looks like a person and probably smells like a person, but there's no life in him. There's no inspiration. So God breathes into his nostrils and fills his lungs with God's breath. The same breath that spoke the world into being in Genesis 1. And the man comes alive.

We still have that same breath in our lungs. We still have the breath that can bring life out of nothing and speak hope into darkness.

Our words have the ability to tell people who they are, to recognize in them the potential they don't recognize in themselves. This isn't about self-esteem or unwarranted praise. No, this is about seeing the dust the same way God did (ready to be unleashed with possibility) and breathing into it the same life God did. This is taking the breath that sparks our imagination and our joy and sharing it with others.

Think about it. How much more do you respond to encouragement than critique? How much more do you aspire when people recognize your gifts and your possibilities instead of your limitations? How could a life be re-shaped if we were willing to tell a teenage girl of her infinite worth rather than call her a slut for choices she'd made? How could a life be transformed if we were willing to tell a young man of the immense potential he carried within him instead of drawing attention to all the times he had failed to meet expectations?

Our voices carry weight, so may we take the breath that fills our lungs with life and breathe it into our neighbors. May we animate others with the same spark of inspiration and possibility that brought life out of the dust. May we speak something into nothing, writing a new chapter in a story that felt complete. May we pass on the breath of God.

forever unfinished...