Get Busy Living

Rating: 10/10 (28 April 2015)

Why do so many people love this film? We see a story that offers us all hope. There is hope, real hope, all of us can have. As a Christian, I see many reflections of the Gospel in this film. It is interesting to me, how so many love the film, yet reject Christianity and the message it brings. Again, it's simply interesting. It may say more about the Church than about those who love the movie. A question I always ask myself, who has the greater redemption in the film, Andy or Red? On the surface, many can see it as Andy. After all, he is wrongly convicted. He goes to prison. He escapes. He has his ultimate redemption. One can easily view the film in this light. However, I believe Red has the greater redemption. Here is why. Andy is goes to prison without committing the crime. Andy has a physical redemption. Yet, it is Andy who always has hope, always has a plan, and always brings light. To his inmates, to the world he inhabits. Red is guilty. His crime, his sin, has pervaded into his life. He has lost hope of what might be. His life is prison. He cannot escape, even as he gets out into the "real world." He is still not redeemed, spiritually in his soul. Andy's journey through the dark tunnel is a foreshadowing of the darker journey Red is walking. And we don't know if Red will survive. Yet Red has a redeemer. It is Andy. Andy never gives up on Red, even after he has escaped. He does everything he can to keep connecting, communicating, and reaching Red, to say to him - this is not the end, there is hope. You only have to take a step. You have to get busy living. Red does. He finds hope. He is truly redeemed. As a Christian, I see great connections between this film and the Gospel. I see in this story large elements of the Greatest Story. We have a Redeemer. He was without sin, He was not guilty, yet He came to us, in a world filled with sin, darkness, and death. He came to our Shawshank. He came to set the captives free. In this world, He healed, He taught, He educated, He cared for, He encouraged, He worked miracles. In this world, He continued to be wrongly accused, persecuted, beaten, mocked, and sentenced to death itself. He entered into the dark hole. He traversed through the darkest tunnel we can imagine. He rose again. Yet this was not the end. It was the beginning. The beginning of His work to continue reaching out to us, communicating to us, doing everything He could to say there is hope. He wrote us a letter in His Word, the Bible. He gave us the means to take the journey, a bus in essence, by His Church. He promised He would be there. And He is. He is waiting for us. He give hope and a home. Now and forever. Red's redemption can be a portrait of our greater redemption. We can say, like Red, "I find I'm so excited that I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel. A free man at a start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain." We can be free, truly. We can have hope, fully. Now in the world. Forever, in the world to come. "Get busy living." Well said, Red.