The Bald Goat

Amy and I love movies and just this week we watched the movie Conviction. Here is the synopsis from IMDB.com:

Betty Anne Waters (Swank) is a high school dropout who spent nearly two decades working as a single mother while putting herself through law school, tirelessly trying to beat the system and overturn her brother’s (Rockwell) unjust murder conviction.

I like it when the creators of books, movies, music and things have the amazing creativity and ability to play with words. The writers did this when they used the word “conviction” as the title of the movie because they are talking about two things at the same time. I believe they are talking about the brother, Kenny’s conviction of murder. Without that conviction there would be no story.

But I also think they are talking about his sister, Betty Ann’s conviction to prove her brother’s innocence. Because without this there would also be no story.

When her brother was convicted, Betty Ann did all she knew to do to get help for her brother and when others would no longer help her she got her GED, went to college and completed law school in order to find a way to help her brother. Her world seemed to fall apart all around her as she struggled to prove her brother’s innocence, but she did not waiver. Her efforts spanned the course of 20 years, yet she did not give up!

She was convicted.

She knew what was important and her whole life pointed her in the direction to accomplish that goal. A life so focused and rooted in one singular purpose. It is enough to baffle some and inspire others. There is one scene in the movie where Betty Ann’s two sons are talking about what their mom was doing and one of them asked the other if he would be willing to give up his whole life to save him like their mom was doing to save her brother. She was surprised by the way they were talking because she had never considered the fact that she had sacrificed everything in order to prove her brother’s innocence.

It reminds me of the story in Matthew 13:44 where a man finds a treasure in a field and then hides there so no one else will find it. He sells everything he has in order to buy that field so that he can have that treasure. 

His conviction drove him to sell everything so he could buy that field.

The treasure was so great that there was nothing that could even compare in importance to the pursuit of obtaining that goal.

I want that conviction in my life. That my pursuit of God could be so strong that everything else pales in comparison to the importance of this goal. I don’t completely comprehend what this means. But this is my prayer for today:

Lord, convict me…