Inspirations from The Greatest Showman

***SPOILER ALERT***

I went to bed that night happy. I felt like I’d known the songs for ever… the catchy tunes filled a space in our souls as we laid our heads on our pillows and talked about the power of a story. And music.

“It’s everything you ever want. It’s everything you ever need. And it’s here right in front of you. This is where you wanna be…”

That night I dreamed of the day The Greatest Showman would open on Broadway – and how I would sell everything I had to get tickets for the opening night. And drag Markus with me. What was it that touched my spirit, took me by surprise? I hadn’t expected much from this circus tale based on an American icon from bygone times with a top hat and a quirky name like “Phineas”.

But there it was… opening with the eerie echo of Phineas Taylor Barnum all alone on the empty stage of his once glittering show. Flash back to Barnum as a boy– a poor tailor’s son helping his dad make ends meet. A boy with a hard life, but a twinkle in his eye and a vivid and colourful imagination. He charms the young daughter of a rich client and gets into trouble,  but wins her heart. He takes her on a spectacular tour of a run down mansion next door; the garden overgrown with weeds and an interior full of dust and spiders’ webs. Yet with this palette and canvas the richest of pictures is painted in his mind…

“I close my eyes and I can see the world that’s waiting up for me – that I call my own. Through the dark, through the door, through where no one’s been before. But it feels like home.”

Home. A place to call my own. A place to belong. Is that not the cry of every human heart?

“Cause every night I lie in bed the brightest colours fill my head. A million dreams are keeping me awake…I think of what the world could be…”

His imagination is beautifully cast as the young tailor’s son stumbles and drops an armful of fabric rolls that unravel a rainbow of vibrant colours down the grey staircase.

Then, tragic loss. An orphan is left to fend for himself. Alone and homeless.

The kind act of a lady with a strange looking face handing this hungry boy an apple births in him another dream…

Phineas courts and marries his childhood sweetheart. Aptly named ‘Charity’ – she is a woman who had been destined for a nobler union.  They enjoy a simple life with their two daughters. There is little money but a lot of fun, a lot of love and imaginative games to share. Phineas’s failed idea of a museum of curiosities’ develops into a show (his daughters suggest he showcase living things rather than the dead) and he gathers ‘freaks’, outcasts and strange people with daring acts to launch his great show. It’s an invitation. The advert is nailed to every street post: “WANTED: Unique Persons of Curiosities.”

These are people who are generally unwanted. Discarded. Shut out of society. And here is the call – ‘Come Alive!’

“I see it in your eyes. You believe that lie that you need to hide your face. Afraid to step outside so you lock the door… When the world becomes a fantasy and you’re more than you could ever be ’cause you’re dreaming with your eyes wide open.”

The dream. Come alive. Lights, camera, action! It’s a spectacular show. And suddenly those in the shadow are in the light. Success ensues. But approval is not forthcoming from all quarters. For Phineas, the shadow of insecurity of his poor youth and the drive to match up to those who once scorned him is still haunting. Even those in the show are still acutely aware of their less-than-valued status in society.

It begs the question of identity. Who is Phineas and what makes him valuable? What makes all those curious people in his show worthy?

He gets a name. Fame and fortune follow. The run down house in which a million dreams were birthed is resurrected and becomes his magnificent family home. Yet it seems his heart is a far cry from the happiness of the days he once knew when he had nothing but the warm love and acceptance of the three women in his life.

He wants more. He is enticed by the fame of European opera singer Jenny Lind and impulsively arranges to fund her North American debut show in New York City. It’s a wow! Finally he receives the approval he’s always wanted from audiences, critics, and even his estranged in-laws. But his curious performers – the Tom Thumbs and the bearded ladies are not invited to the grand performance and the after party with the beau monde. Those who have brought him his success and who themselves have finally found a place to be accepted and belong have been left out in the cold. Rejected once again.

“I am not a stranger to the dark. Hideaway, they say “cause we don’t want your broken parts. I’ve learned to be ashamed of all my scars. Run away, they say. No one’ll love you as you are.”

Phineas whisks Jenny Lind away in a whirlwind tour all over the country at huge risk and personal cost. As his wife Charity watches them drive off together for their adventure she harks back to the simple life she chose and the man for whom she risked it all to follow:

“Some people long for a life that is simple and planned.. tied with a ribbon. Some people won’t sail the sea ’cause they’re safer on land.. to follow what’s written. But I’d follow you to the great unknown. Off to a world we call our own.”

That world and the home they shared seems a cold, distant memory.

Jenny Lind sings even more enticingly than the Swedish nightingale she is reputed to be. Phineas is in awe.

“All the shine of a thousand spotlights, all the stars we steal from the night sky will never be enough…Never be enough.”

And when we let our insecurities drive us, it never is enough.

A series of bad choices and misfortune lead to a turn in character. Phineas loses his home, his family, his business, and even his infatuation with his Swedish nightingale. He is forced to reconsider what is of value. It is the mixed band of curiosities and daring performers that lead him back to his true purpose. In a fatherly and visionary kind of way, he had given them a sense of worth. A family. A home.His eyes are opened to the importance of that home – their home, his home,  and his family.

“From now on these eyes will not be blinded by the lights… And we will come back home. Home, again!”

It is a theme song that calls out in all of our hearts – certainly in mine. A song of belonging. Even if we’re bruised and scarred. Especially if we’re bruised and scarred. And when we embrace our true identity – created for glory (and ultimately for our Creator’s glory), we find our true worth and our purpose.

“But I won’t let them break me down to dust. I know that there’s a place for us. For we are glorious. When the sharpest words wanna cut me down I’m gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out. I am brave, I am bruised I am who I’m meant to be, this is me. Lookout ’cause here I come. And I’m marching on to the beat I drum. I’m not scared to be seen I make no apologies, this is me!”

A story told long ago springs to mind. It’s about a father and his two sons. They had everything – or so it seemed. Their father’s love. Their father’s provision. Security. Purpose. An inheritance. A place to call home.

And yet, it wasn’t enough. The younger brother demands his inheritance – he feels there is more to life. “It’s everything you’ll ever want…and it’s there right in front of you.” He takes the money and runs. He squanders it on wild living and prostitutes. And then, having lost everything, he decides that he’d be better off a servant in His father’s household than rummaging for food with the pigs he is tending. He is unwanted, discarded. He turns toward home probably reciting his apology speech. His father runs out to meet him. Before he can say a word, his father puts a robe on his naked body, a ring on his finger and calls for the biggest feast ever – in honour of his son’s return. “Come Alive!”

The older brother had remained ‘home’. Yet he refuses to join in the festivities. He’s mad that the one who squandered everything is now being welcomed home. He has worked so hard for his father yet he feels hard done by that no feast was ever prepared for him. But the father assures him that all he had was already his – and that this was a celebration worth having. The lost has been found. The orphan is now in his father’s arms.  

You see ‘home’ is not so much about where we are, but it is about who we are. Knowing we are loved. Knowing who we belong to.  

May we march to the beat of the true drum. And may we find our true home.

“There is more than enough room in my Father’s home… I will come and get you… so that you will always be with me where I am.”

John 14:2-3 NLT