You're a Mean One, Mister Grinch

Tis the season of traditional Christmas movies like Miracle on 34th Street and It’s a Wonderful Life.  As great as these feel-good classics are, my personal favorite is How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  You see, I believe that we’re actually all Grinches.  This is our story! Yes, the powerful influence of the Grinch within is alive and well, and in need of redemptive transformation.  A character study of the Grinch within basically reveals that part of ourself that’s different from others while craving to be the same. Maybe it’s the color of our skin, or some crude and unacceptable temperament or behavior.
The movie Grinch grows up with an outlook on life totally foreign to most kids. Why?  As an 8 year old boy with hair on his face, he’s ridiculed, embarrassed and deeply humiliated by other children, and even their parents. Carrying a lot of inner hostility, he’s mad at the world. The mean-spirited teasing so long endured shapes his future decisions about both himself and others. Sadly, the Grinch’s heart begins to shrink more and more.
Many folks know firsthand how the Grinch feels from similar experiences in their life. We don’t want to talk about it. We just want to forget it ever happened so we can fit in as a normal person. But the fact remains, lots of us grew up with something of an inferiority complex and a deep desire to conform to the values of a group we desperately wanted acceptance from. We may have been the nerd, wallflower, pothead, class clown, the top of the assistant principal’s most wanted list, or we may have been the cheerleader, star quarterback, drum major, class president or valedictorian. Our social status is often not at all representative of what lies within---a Grinch waiting to break out!! 
I was one of the smallest kids in my junior high, and also very shy. Ah, junior high...the adolescent social torture chamber! Not only was I short, but I was the only one of my 7th grade friends who didn’t weigh at least 100 pounds. It seemed like I stayed at 98 pounds forever.  My size often served as comic relief for my pal’s lunchtime conversation. Maybe today I’m overcompensating!
In spite of my size, I was actually very athletic, but nobody noticed for a long time. I was usually picked last when teams were chosen, which is, of course, the ultimate humiliation in junior high. But I wasn’t the only one facing social pressure. The team captain risks losing face if he dares to choose a squirt like me anywhere other than the last choice.  Poor guy!
Yet there was one place where being last meant success and where one could find some degree of respect. To be among the last ones standing in the game of Bomb Bardament was impressive, whatever your size. And because of my quickness, I was often one of the last. Today, this game is known as Dodge Ball (another great movie if you haven’t seen it). Of course, being among the last is a mixed blessing because there are lots of guys standing along the center court line, aiming multiple balls at your head, all of which you’re not likely to be able to dodge when they’re simultaneously released. In one such instance, I was actually knocked unconscious, which lent even greater credibility to my accomplishment in the eyes of my peers. I loved that game....it provided some personal redemption.
During these formative years, it’s hard to believe that the “cool social gods” at school, the beautiful people, and especially the bullies, are just as insecure as the geeky bottom feeders. But its true, maybe even moreso. Unfortunately I didn’t know that at the time. Who does?
How do you become part of a coveted elite group that promises social prominence, when there are things you can’t control that keep you from being like them (your size, color, confidence, wealth, accent, clothes, competence or athleticism)? This question usually begins to be asked well before junior high, and we certainly don’t cease asking it when we leave junior high, do we?  To some degree, it stays with us all our lives. Aren’t there times when each of us would just like to go hide in a cave up on top of a pointed mountain until the party’s over?  If you’re anything like me, you understand the Grinch only too well. He is us.
One of the hardest lessons in life to learn is that conformity to a group and self-worth are not identical. Those difficult times spawn the temptation to try to be something we’re not.  Even though understandable, the Grinch learns the hard way that this may be the worst sin of all.
Ultimately, the Grinch’s story illustrates the redemptive power elicited in community forgiveness and individuals reaching out with random acts of love and kindness.  The Grinch literally has a change of heart...it begins to grow 3 times its normal size. This kind of enlarged heart is a good thing! And the community finds it’s conscience by taking back its wayward member. As the Grinch allows himself to be received and healing begins, he has a lifetime of hatred to overcome and a future of grace to grow into. He doesn’t become “Mr. Whoville” overnight, but he does begin to discover and accept his true identity and let go of his self-loathing. Holiness is developmental, not instant.
This story reflects the very nature of God’s Church, an extension of Jesus’ healing touch to the hurting Grinches within each of us, and to the countless others who are still hiding on their isolated mountain peaks?  We can only give what we first receive. Jesus offers God’s undeserved, forgiving grace free of charge to anyone who wants it. It heals wounds and dissolves hatred,  replaces inferiority with confidence, and motivates us to conform our lives to the greater power of love.
Even tho life’s not fair, forgiveness is God’s marching order, and grace, not fairness, is the rule of God’s Kingdom. As the human heart grows in the Lord, the Grinch within is diminished and transformed into his or her real self, God’s beloved child.