Deja Reviewer

I want to share something near and dear to my heart this week. When I was a kid growing up in Washington state, I was very socially awkward and some of my classmates made fun of me mercilessly. Mocks became so commonplace to me that I just came to accept them as the background noise of my life. Sick days were a blessing to me. I tried to fight back and then just to ignore the torrent of teasing, but neither one of those strategies made life bearable. Finally, when I got to 6^th grade I couldn’t stand to go on. I decided to change my whole way of approaching people. I returned their taunts with compliments. When other kids hated me, I loved them back. At first, my bullies treated me with even more disdain. But over time they realized I meant it. I didn’t hate them for what they were doing to me. And I think they started to feel a little tugging at their hearts and they realized that what they were doing was wrong, without me having to call their attention to it.

Years later, right after I turned 21, I met one of my former tormentors – at my local church. He hadn’t been a member of my church when I had known him, but he had discovered it in the ensuing years and he had been converted and was now a completely new man. He had no trace of malice or flippancy in his face. He soberly approached me after I gave a talk in church, and he asked my forgiveness. Of course I forgave him, and I told him it was all water under the bridge. I assured him that we had just been silly kids doing what kids do. I was glad to see him enjoying so much happiness in his life. That’s all I want for everyone I meet. I want everyone to be happy.

These memories came flooding back recently when my wife shared a film with me that I had almost completely forgotten: 2002’s A Walk to Remember. The first time I watched that movie was not long after the encounter with my bully-turned-buddy. Seeing it again more than a decade later was an awesome experience. Continue reading →