You Don’t Have to Pretend

by kingteamdad

RAMBLINGS from Lacy’s dad – Lacy loves to be on stage. It doesn’t matter if it’s singing or acting, she thrives on it. We have watched dozens of performances since she first started.

Early on we might sit through 2 hours of a performance to see her brief appearance of 1 minute. In those early days there was no iPhone for me to occupy myself. There were no mindless games to play on the iPad, so I actually had to sit there and watch and listen. When Lacy did appear, it was often just her standing there being an evil fairy, or a flower. We might even see her sing with a chorus of other evil fairies or flowers. She was not very believable in those early years, but she enjoyed it.

The years went by and the performances grew in number. The makeup and costumes got more elaborate. And more importantly, Lacy’s acting got more believable. I guess that should come as no surprise with the countless hours of rehearsing and performing.

I recall watching one of her early rehearsals for her most recent show. It was a disaster as people missed their lines, and missed their cues. They bumped in to each other practicing a dance scene. It was like watching an old 1920’s Keystone Cops movie where they were incompetent with everything. It would have been funny, if it they had meant to do it.

Several months later I was there for the opening night. To say I was blown away with the performance would be an understatement. They were a well oiled machine hitting their notes and cues perfectly. The months of practice, encouraging each other, and endless rehearsing was very apparent!

I guess God is the same way. He knows when we first become Christians, we are inexperienced, we are untrained, we are often naive. We go through the motions, but might not be too believable to those watching us. If we are around other Christians, however, like Lacy was around other actors and singers, we can learn from them. If we read God’s word, our “script” for life, we can see how the performance should play out. If we spend time with THE Producer (God the Father) in prayer and meditation, we can begin to understand how we can fit in His show.

But some of us just occasionally run to church for a quick fix at Easter and Christmas. We then go on about life focused on what the world thinks is important. Unfortunately, time and time again, we might be called on to play the role of a true Christian, and not be too believable. Even worse we might falsely lead some of those watching to believe its a low budget movie with cheap props and special effects, and not the real thing….

I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify Him with thanksgiving. This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs. (Psalm 69:30-31)