Not sure why I get the urge to blog at 11:30PM. I’ve always considered myself a morning person. I like the early morning hours, when the day is just waking up, watching the sun rise, feeling the cool morning breeze. Nevertheless, here I am, at O’dark thirty, listening to the tunes on my Itunes playlist, putting thought to paper… ok, make that screen.
I just listened to Sunday’s message. I was down south (Valencia) this weekend visiting my daughter and 2 month old grandson. Oh… my… gosh… it is so wonderful being a grandmother! He’s the most beautiful, amazing, remarkable, fascinating creature! Can you tell that I’m enthralled with this little baby? 🙂
But I digress… I was just listening to the message and thinking about how I’ve been thinking about the things Jim talked about. I went for a walk this evening when I got home. I strapped on my Ipod Shuffle and took off. I was ruminating on the message from this weekend at my daughter’s church, Copperhill, and the messages from the past few weeks at Redeemer. I was also thinking about the new production I am in. Yes, I’m going to be in another play, Miracle on 34th Street, this coming December. I play Sawyer, the psychologist that wants to put Kris Kringle away. We start rehearsals tomorrow, or rather later today (Tuesday). I was thinking about a bunch of stuff and the whole missional living thing.
I liked what Jim had to say about “grinding things out.” There are times I wonder why I read so much and write so much about missional living, the how tos and whys… and how tos and wheres… and how tos. As I was walking, I thought about how I’ve spent so much of my Christian life around other Christians, being Christian, talking Christian, acting Christian and how little I’ve spent with others who didn’t act or talk Christian. I talked of being in the world but not of the world. Truth be told, I’m not sure if I know how to be in the world and not of it. I’ve depended for so long on others to determine my doctrine, my belief system and I’ve never really had to integrate it, assimilate it, make it my own, stand on it. And I’ve studied it (or at least thought I had…)! How different am I from the regular Christian sitting in his/her place every Sunday, not hearing, but thinking it was enough? He/She believed he/she would go to heaven… someday. And then he/she would leave church and go about his/her business, minding his/her own business, never engaging, coming into contact with the world at large to share his/her Great Savior.
This all leads me to the play. I must add some background to this in order for you to understand how challenging this is for me.
I fell in love with theater and performing in high school. When I went off to college, I majored in Theater Arts. I loved performing. I like to think I was good at it. I performed in various productions in Texas (Texas Tech University) and San Jose (San Jose City College). But it was the 70’s. OK, let me say it again… it was the 70’s! It was the era between the Summer of Love and AIDS… total madness and I was part of the madness!
God was gracious and got me out of that madness. I came to faith in 1977 and it has been quite the journey but that’s another post for another time… Anyway, I pretty much left the theater scene behind for some 30 years. I talked to God about it every so often and asked if I would ever have an opportunity to perform again. I’d see something in the paper or hear about a production and consider auditioning. I had pretty much determined that acting was to be my sacrificial offering to the Lord and that it was a thing of the past.
Then I read about Oklahoma! in the paper and God and I talked about it and I auditioned. It was being put on by a local company and I figured I could go audition and at least get to know the people in charge. They’d get to see what I could do and maybe next time… when it wasn’t a musical…
I got a call and they wanted me to be in the musical! I was so excited… and scared. My memory of productions was based on the 70’s. I wondered what the crew and cast would be like and how I would be able to deal with it. God was so amazingly gracious to put me in the midst of a group of believers, literally! If they didn’t go to Big Valley Grace, then they went to First Baptist. I was in awe of the God of this universe that He would provide a safe haven for me to get back into theater!
And that brings me to the present.
Jim talked about how each of us must determine how and where we are to live out this Missio Dei. It will be unique for each of us and I’m looking at how this next production will be an opportunity for me, for God to use me to minister, to live, to show mercy, to learn what that means…
Please pray for me as I again step out here. This is a new group, a new company. Once again, it’s new territory for me. Once again, I get to figure out what incarnational living, missional living is all about and not just figure it out, but engage it, make it real. I share this for several reasons… accountability, prayer support, encouragement. And… I’d love for you to come see the production. 🙂
All Things Elda 