Rent

On Monday night, Shanta and I went to see the movie, Rent. We saw the musical on Broadway back in 2000 (on that fun trip to NYC after Kelly and Trav's wedding).

OK, so here's the thing. I don't condone the lifestyle choices made by the characters in this movie. I'm not going to list them all, because that's not the point of this post. I'm just going to leave it at that.

BUT, I absolutely echo, applaud, endorse, and approve the overall message from Rent to "measure your life in love." The group of friends in this movie accept each other for who they are, love each other, celebrate victories, share their possessions, share their trials, and a lot of times, try and make the best of the crappy parts of life. They do this without pretense or without question. They are real with each other. In short, they treat each other with a lot more love than our churches often do.

When I first saw this show, I went in thinking that I wouldn't like it because it wasn't like my life. Instead, it touched my heart and opened my eyes. It made me want to be more compassionate and more caring. The musical is way better than the movie, in my opinion, but if you're not headed to New York anytime soon, then stop by your local movie theater. Hopefully, you'll enter a new "season of love."

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure -- measure a year?
In daylights -- In sunsets
In midnights -- In cups of coffee
In inches -- In miles
In laughter -- In strife
In -- Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure a year in the life?

How about love?

It's time now - to sing out
Tho' the story never ends
Let's celebrate
Remember a year in the life of friends

Oh and if you go see the show, I highly recommend staying through the ending credits. It's the perfect time to sing along! Let's just say that if you put a powerful song on in an empty theater with Shanta and me standing around, well, the man in the Cinemark booth certainly got an earful!