Unredeemable

The other night, after all the family was gone, and it was just DH and I, we turned on one of our Favorite Christmas movies that we hadn’t gotten to watch yet.  “Spirited” If you haven’t watched it yet, you should. It is so good. 

It’s a different take on Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” 

Did I mention that it’s also a musical?  I LOVE musicals!!  Music just reaches me in such a profound way. 

(Spoiler alert: if you haven’t watched it, but plan to do so, know that I’m about to give some of the story away.)

Every time we watch it, a different song speaks to me.  This time it was the song “Unredeemable”. The Scrooge character, played by Will Farrell, sings it and is troubled thinking he’s unredeemable.  After all he did in his life, should he take the chance at life again or will he go back to who he was before that Christmas Eve when the ghosts came and he was changed? Can he really be forgiven for the all harm he caused? Can he trust himself to not go back to the cruel miser he was before?

“Am I forever unredeemable?
Can I ever overcome all the wrongs I'm running from?
Can my worst be left behind
And do I deserve to find
There's a soul who could see any good in me?
Or will I only ever be
Unredeemable?”

As the song goes on he asks…

“Can I be a man who breaks from a lifetime of mistakes?
Can my worst be left behind
And do I deserve to find
The kind of love that I could lean on everyday?”

I just feel like there is so much here of all of us.  We all make mistakes in our lives.  Sometimes our mistakes hurts others and sometimes they only hurt ourselves and sometimes those mistakes are hard to move away from, we don’t feel like we deserve to move on. Often times, it’s harder for us to forgive ourselves than it is for those who love us to forgive us. 

Forgiveness doesn’t mean we forget, it doesn’t make it all disappear, but it is how we move forward. 

This is true in both forgiving ourselves and in forgiving others. 

I feel like in this instance of the movie, it’s about self-forgiveness.  

Scrooge is out there trying to change the world as a way of making up for all the wrong he did in life. But when given the opportunity to live again, to finish out his life, he’s afraid.  Afraid to hurt others again, to be human again.

Oh, I’m struggling with what I want to say.  I woke up singing this song this morning, feeling it deeply in my heart and soul.  Feeling a sense of sadness for all those who have ever felt unredeemable, who still feel that way today. I want you to know, that you are NOT unredeemable. You are still worthy of love, love from others, and self-love too. 

Acknowledging the wrongs we’ve done, facing them, and then working to move through it… it’s a choice we have to make. The choice to forgive ourselves, to accept the forgiveness of others, the choice to accept love. It’s a daily choice we have to make, to be better in this moment, than we were in the moment before… UGH…

I keep typing and deleting because I just can’t seem to get my words right, to say what I’m thinking and feeling so, I’m just going to share the lyrics and the song here.  We are ALL Redeemable, we just have to choose to live a redeemed life.  We need to forgive ourselves, and ask those we’ve hurt for forgiveness and continue to live trying to be better today than we were yesterday, everyday for the rest of our lives.

“Unredeemable” from the movie “Spirited”

“Am I forever unredeemable?
Can I ever overcome all the wrongs I'm running from?
Can my worst be left behind
And do I deserve to find
There's a soul who could see any good in me?
Or will I only ever be
Unredeemable?

Spent every waking minute taking all that I could take
Never stopped to reckon with the ruin in my wake
With all the bridges that I burned
The wounds I didn't mend
All the worth I thought I earned
It turned worthless in the end
What was it for?
Well, is it possible I'm meant for something more?

Am I forever unredeemable?
Can I be a man who breaks from a lifetime of mistakes?
Can my worst be left behind
And do I deserve to find
The kind of love that I could lean on everyday?
Or will I learn I have to stay
Unredeemable?
Unredeemable?

(We have to believe inside the worst of us
There is some decency there
You know that you can achieve something miraculous
If you'd only dare)

I have to go, I have to try
That's how I'll know, know if I'm

Forever unredeemable (unredeemable)
If I'll ever be someone who makes up for all they've done
Or is all I am unlovable? (unlovable)
Am I someone someone can forgive?
Can I take the leap and live?
There's a lot I leave behind (leave behind)
But I've got to go and find (go and find)
If it's true that there is truly good in me (truly good)
And maybe see that I won't always be
Unredeemable? (unredeemable)
Am I unredeemable? (can you redeem the unredeemable?)
Unredeemable?

If the embedded song above doesn’t work, here’s the link. https://open.spotify.com/track/0pIKUyMpydZOXUxBtN8edx?si=ffa53923634b44ab

It’s a beautiful song. I hope it touches you the way it touches me.

♥️ Until next time…