Are you Jean Valjean or Inspector Javert?

    Have you seen Les Mis? Many of us were familiar with the story long before this most recent Hollywood version hit the theaters last month. There was a 1996 version of the movie which was well received, more than a couple of theatrical versions, and the Broadway rendition being the basis for this recent movie. The story was written by French playwright Victor Hugo, who first wrote it as a novel and then a play. It moved from France, to Great Britain, and then to the United States where it became a global phenomenon.
    This most recent movie was received with mixed reviews, both by critics and the public. And while I understand the producer’s desire to stick with the Broadway production of making the entire play a musical, I could have gone without the singing dialect. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the music...loved the songs and have downloaded a couple to my iPhone. But when the characters were talking with each other, why couldn’t they have just TALKED? I guess that’s just my lack of artistic appreciation.
    But the story...what a story! It so well illustrates the choice each of us must make in how we handle grace that is offered to us.
    Jean Valjean was given grace and in appreciation, he lived the rest of his life passing it on to others, becoming a conduit of God’s grace.
    Inspector Javert, on the other hand, lived his life with legalism, judgmentalism, and a strict commitment to the kind of justice that only God can meet. When he was offered grace, he didn’t know what to do with it and his rejection of it eventually drove him to self-destruction. How sad.
    Les Misérables is the story of us. You are either Jean Valjean or Javert. God offers you the same kind of forgiveness and restart that Jean Valjean and Javert were offered. Like them, you do not deserve it and you cannot earn it. But you can receive it. And if you do, or if you have, you will pass it on.
    So are you going through life as a conduit of God’s grace for others? Or are you going through life like Javert, eager to dole out your version of justice and holding everyone to a standard that even you cannot meet? How you honestly answer that is indicative of what you have done with the grace God offers you.
    So... are you Jean or Javert?