The Outcasts and Outcasters: The Greatest Showman Insights
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I didn’t want to watch it. Thankfully my friends convinced me to go, and I found myself sitting next to my best friend, one hand in a bucket of popcorn, while the first few brilliant notes of “The Greatest Show” song boomed through the dark theater. Clapping, stomping, and singing tempered by moments of silence filled the room and beat through me. The song escalated and I leaned forward, chills spreading from my fingertips to my toes.
And for the next two hours The Greatest Showman held me captive. Mesmerized by the scenes unfolding in front of me, my thoughts did not stray from the story, from the characters, or from the emotions rising up inside me.
If you have not watched this movie, then find a theater now. It’s worth it. (So watch it first, then read this. Spoiler alert!) I didn’t want to watch it at first, because I’d never really liked circus movies. Many of them had darker undertones or showcased bullying . Some of them just seemed really weird.
And the people in this movie are weird. Weird and strange and different, but they are beautiful—beards and all. But as much as I loved the movie, my stomach sank inside me when the story climaxed with a song titled “This is Me.”
During this scene, Hugh Jackman as P.T. Barnum closes the door on his group of circus performers. He excludes them from a party celebrating his newest sensation, the famous singer Jenny Lind.
The door closes and the ‘outcasts’ step back, eyes downcast, but only for that moment, because then the first few lines of “This is Me” play and they find the strength to walk on, to face the world, and to never back down.
I saw myself in this scene, not as someone on the outside, but as P.T. Barnum shutting the door, separating his friends into two groups because he worried about what others would think.
Sometimes we are swept along in the adventure of life, and we forget to notice those standing in the corner, those who watch quietly, waiting to be noticed. Whether they are shy or nervous or just different doesn’t matter. Have you felt left out? Or have you left others out, whether it be purposeful or unintentional?
The idea of being left out seems very juvenile. Why should what others think matter to us? But it does matter, and it matters the most when it comes from our friends. We can brush off the opinion of strangers. We can ignore the crowds. But when our friends, who know us best, look at us with shame or embarrassment, pain carves deep into our heart.
If our closest friends slam the door shut in our face or let us down, we must learn to be strong enough to stand, to lift our head once more, and walk away. Like the song says, “When the sharpest words wanna cut me down/I’m gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out/This is brave, this is bruised/This is who I’m meant to be, this is me.”
I think back to when Jesus came down and walked through the crowds, seeking out the outcasts, the lost, the sinners—those we would not want to be seen with. He found them and saved them, just like He pulled us from our own sin and shame.
Let’s work together to see people not just their scars, not the sin they are entrenched in, not their past. But to look past that and see them as God does, to see them as who they really are, and who they could one day be.
What do you think? Have you struggled with this as well? I’d love to hear your comments and thoughts. Did you like the movie? Have you found something else that dealt with this topic?
