The Blind Side: A Redemption Story
Last night I watched The Blind Side with a bunch of dormers and it was so good. We had to convince a couple of people to come but they were very glad they saw it. It’s a rather predictable movie but made all the better since it is an actual real-life story. The character portrayals are great. However, what made the movie awesome was that it is not just a story about Michael Oher, but about me.
Michael is troubled teenager. He was taken from his drug addicted mother at a young age and bounced around from foster home to foster home. Eventually his guardian enrolls him in a Christian school but he is soon kicked out of his home. With no place to stay, eating left over popcorn found in the gym, the Tuohy’s take him in. They give him a place to sleep and eventually adopt him as part of their family. They give him help in school, clothes to wear, and teach him how to play football. Eventually, he becomes All-State and recruited by a D-I school. He was drafted in the first round of the NFL and currently plays for the Baltimore Ravens. Michael was given a shot at succeeding in this life by people who learned to care for him. His teachers went out of their way to educate him and turn him from a D student to receiving A’s and B’s. He was taken out of the Memphis projects and given a safe environment to mature and grow as a person.
This is my story – in a spiritual sense. I was born into a world of drugs, crime, sex, and violence. If left there, I would waste away and die. But Jesus rescued me. I was homeless and he gave me a home. I was naked and he clothed me with white linen. I was abandoned and he gave me a spiritual family. He took what would have been a wasted life and transformed it. He poured himself out for me, changing my life and transforming me. He took me from obscurity and worked with me to the point where I was recruited and a first round draft pick for his Team. I’ve just begun starting to play; there is so much more to be done. This is just the beginning of The Story. It’s not just Michael’s story, or my story, but it can be your story too.