Friends,

On Mother’s Day Clint and I saw Ever After at the Phoenix Theater.  The musical was yet another rendition of the beloved Cinderella tale, whose roots go back to the 1st Century BC Greek story Rhodopis, written long before French author Charles Perrault wrote the 1697 the version featuring the fairy godmother and glass slippers.  Much later, in 1812, the Brothers Grimm published the darker German version, Aschenputtel, which featured a magic tree instead of the fairy godmother.

In the Ever After version, the evil stepmother also oppresses the always-kind Cinderella with abuse and neglect, although all Cinderella ever wanted was her love.  During the song in which the abuse and neglect come to a head, the stepmother calls Cinderella a “pebble in her shoe,” but in the last line of the number, we get a glimpse of the stepmother’s backstory: She sings that she was a pebble in her own mother’s shoe.  And so she perpetuates the cycle of evil.

Often it is easiest to perpetuate cycles of unkindness inculcated from our youth, yet the Christian Way calls us to a greater awareness of backstories so that we can break such cycles in our own lives.  As I reflected on this musical, I thought about my brother Joe who married a woman with a little boy.  Knowing exactly what it felt like to be neglected and psychologically abused by our stepfather, Joe vowed that his stepson would never experience what he did.  Joe made every effort to raise his stepson the same good way he raised his biological son; consequently, his stepson has grown into a secure young man, and because Joe broke the cycle, my brother enjoys a close relationship with his stepson to this day. 

The Apostle Paul knew all about the cycle of sin and wrote in Romans 7:18-19:  “For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.  For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”  It’s interesting that Paul locates his struggle inside of himself, which is the first step to self awareness.  Paul also knows that suffering is a result of sin, and the antidote is to turn back to the Ways of God, which are the ways of Jesus.  With awareness and God’s empowerment, we can make better, conscious choices resulting in love and wholeness ever after.

Grace and Peace,

Sandi