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What's Your Redemption?

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One of my favorite movies is the Shawshank Redemption.

Here's the plot:

In 1967, Red is finally released on parole after serving 40 years at Shawshank. Red is afraid of "the outside", dreading living in fear, worried that he would end up committing suicide once outside of the prison's strict regime. Red recalls his promise to Andy, his friend who had been paroled earlier, and heads to a place Andy told him about. He finds a small metal box containing money and a letter from Andy. In the letter, Andy reminds Red: "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies". Red then violates his parole and travels to Mexico, eventually reuniting with Andy on the Pacific coast. Both of them are elated and hug each other when they meet.

While redemption in your life doesn’t have to be nearly as dramatic, if you’re human and alive, you’ve had opportunities for redemption. Whether or not you’ve chosen to act upon them is another story.

Here’s a redemption example from my past. When I was 18, I made a poor choice that included drinking and driving. After a party, I drove on a desolate highway over 200 miles into Northern Michigan and dimly remember the honking of an oncoming car when I drifted across the divider line. The car swerved and drove on and I parked and exited my car. I remember the snow flakes floating around me as if to say, “I cover the living and dead alike.” I walked in the countryside for several hours until the sun rose and I was reasonably sober. I promised myself then and there that I would never again find myself in a similar situation in the future, and I haven’t since. That was over 30 years ago and it still rings as fresh as Traverse City cherries in July.

Perhaps I haven’t earned the credit, but my kids have turned out – so far into their teens -- as decent citizens and wonderful people. They have been exposed to the same risky behaviors as I was, but have chosen to make their own, healthier choices.

That’s my redemption.

What’s yours?

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