What kind of stories do you enjoy the most? Are they comedy, romance, thrillers or suspense? Over the span of human history, I wager that the stories humans have most enjoyed are stories of redemption.
The word redemption itself is an ancient one. Originally, redemption meant the freeing of a slave. Think of the powerful story of Joseph in the Hebrew Bible/Christian Old Testament. In our day, with that form of slavery thankfully no longer existing, we use the term redemption to describe the rescuing of someone from a misdirected life.
We love stories where people are offered a chance and take that opportunity to radically change the path they’re on. Movies like “A Field of Dreams,” “Hoosiers,” and “Dead Man Walking” leave many of us with a lump in our throats and reaching for tissues.
But telling a good redemption story is tricky. Redemption stories run the risk of falling into sentimentality. When a redemption story is too sentimental, many readers and moviegoers turn away, feeling manipulated. Life isn’t a Hallmark movie, after all.
But when redemption is portrayed with sensitivity instead of sentimentality, we readers and moviegoers can be genuinely moved.
For me, the best redemption stories are those based on fact, not fiction. And one of the best redemption stories I know began not too far from here in Indiana.
Those of us of a certain age remember Ryan White, the Kokomo boy who contracted AIDS by transfusion back in the mid-1980s and who became the first poster child for AIDS awareness.
Ryan White’s story is one of bravery and forgiveness. Out of fear of the new epidemic of AIDS, other parents of children in Ryan’s school and even people in the White family’s church shunned Ryan. Tires of the family car were slashed; a bullet was shot through their home window. The White family responded with kindness and compassion, Ryan famously saying that people should be forgiven for their ignorance about AIDS.
Ryan White’s story is both heartwarming and tragic, but the redemption part didn’t come into play until Elton John became aware of Ryan White’s case. Elton and Ryan became close friends, with Elton being at Ryan’s bedside as he was dying. What Elton John revealed later was that he was heavily into drugs and alcohol at the time. He credits the bravery and the faith of Ryan White and his family with changing his life and saving him from being destroyed by addiction.
That’s a powerful story of redemption, but the story doesn’t end there. Fast forward nearly 25 years, and Elton John, in a reflective mood, remembered the rocker from the 70s and 80s, Leon Russell, who had been so kind and supportive when he was just starting. Recalling his great debt to the singer-songwriter, Elton John wondered if Leon Russell was still alive.
Not only did Elton John find Leon Russell, but the two began to collaborate, a partnership that produced a terrific album and even some tour dates together.
In 2011, Elton John inducted Leon Russell into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Where’s the redemption part in this story? That was revealed in Leon Russell’s acceptance speech at the ceremony, when he credits Elton John with finding him in the ditch of life and pulling him out. In the background of that moment, still viewable on YouTube, we can see Elton John join Leon Russell in tears.
That’s the great power of redemption stories. Yes, such stories move us, but they also plant the seeds of redemption and change in others who hear about them. I doubt that Ryan White and his family ever heard of Leon Russell, yet Leon Russell’s redemption would likely not have happened without them.
And who knows? The story might not be over. Think of all those who have read about Elton John and Ryan White’s friendship as related in Elton John’s autobiography. Think of all those who heard Leon Russell’s acceptance speech at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when he described the ditch he’d been rescued from. And think of those who are reading this article.
Redemption is like a wonderful virus that spreads from one person to another. May we all catch that virus.
