When The Stage Lights Dim

There’s something about a good show. The satisfaction of quality music that ignites the emotions within us. Maybe it’s because it tells a story that we identify with. Or maybe it creates a wave of inspiration to rise to the occasion and conquer our goals. It might bring a nostalgia of times gone by. Or an aggression that we’ve tried to contain. Music is the language of the soul. It leaves no one untouched.

Perhaps that’s why we tend to idolize or put the artist on a pedestal. They’ve been able to put into words what we have been feeling or want to feel. The way they are able to combine words with rhythm and melody can leave us standing in awe.

Do you ever catch yourself wondering what their lives are like off the stage? I know I do. Maybe it sounds cliche, but I find myself praying for celebrities quite often. Can you even imagine the amount of pressure they live under? If you are still skeptical, take a quick glance at the cover of a tabloid the next time you’re in line at the grocery store.

I’m not sure millions of dollars would be enough to convince me to have my real image, unfiltered for the world to see, all over magazines everywhere. And being scrutinized, nonetheless! Sometimes I look at these photos and think to myself, “Well geez, her muffin top that apparently disqualified her from having a beach ready body, still looks better than mine.” And yet here we stand, gawking at this celebrity’s calamity, shaking our heads in amazement that she let herself go that much. “And she still wore a bikini! Gasp!”

Really?

I say, good for her for being confident and refusing to give in to the idea that her body has to look a certain way in order to enjoy a day at the beach! We need more people like that. Real. Honest. Unfiltered. And happily confident in who they are.

Next time you find yourself tempted to scrutinize someone around you for how they look, just remember that it could be your unfiltered image being broadcast for all to see.

Do we not all have something we would rather the world not know about? I know I sure do! Not that I have deep, dark secrets, but I also would like to have some privacy and non-judgement when I wake up first thing in the morning. You know, when my hair’s doing that weird thing, and I have evidence that I did indeed drool last night? Come on, please don’t snap a picture of me at my very worst moment and especially at an unflattering angle. That’s just mean.

Why are we so afraid to be real? Can we all agree that we all have stuff to work on? Things to get better at? Habits to break; lifestyle choices to commit to to better ourselves? Why do we tend to be a certain way “on stage”, but when the stage lights dim, we scurry back into the shadows like cockroaches, afraid that the light might be too, well, illuminating?

Well, I think it might have something to do with our confidence. And where we find it.

For me, I’ve had to learn the hard way that my confidence cannot come from what people say of me. The cruelty of humanity becomes acute in times of crisis. Have you noticed this?

Especially when a person goes from a leadership roll of some sort, to a person in need of intervention. Think Britney Spears. At the top of her game. All the young girls wished they were her. Even Pink wrote a song, loathing the fact that she was compared to Britney.

And then, the truth was revealed. She was using drugs. How dare she do that! She was a mother of young children!

She went from most idolized, to most appalling celebrity in a matter of hours.

I applaud her ability to rise above that and get clean. What an enormous mountain she must have had to climb! But she did it. And she is still in the spotlight today. She was real, even when it was hard to admit the truth to the public. She was honest with her struggle. And she got the help she needed to overcome that habit. She remains one of the celebrities I admire most. Not because of her lifestyle, but because of her courage to stand her ground in the face of adversity. When insults were being thrown at her. When she was being judged. When her motherhood was being questioned. When her career was threatened and her paycheck frozen, she overcame.

Again, just to clarify, I do not endorse a majority of her lifestyle. But, even someone that I wouldn’t choose to model my life after, still has something that she did well and I admire. What if we all came at it from that perspective?

Let’s take this to scripture. I’m reminded of the woman at the well. Jesus could have completely annihilated her with shame from her past. Here she was, caught in sin. She had been married five times. And the man she was now with, wasn’t even her husband. But, Jesus leaves her with a sense of joy and forgiveness. Enough that she runs back into town declaring to everyone that she just met a man “who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”

What if we left people with that sort of feeling of being forgiven and left with confidence? What if we, instead of slaughtering people for their mistakes and hangups, decided to leave them in the hands of our Father? What if we lived in the confidence that we stand forgiven, so who are we not to forgive others?

Does that mean that we can always trust a person who has wronged us in the past? No, unfortunately not always. But, that’s another post for another day. What I am saying though, is let’s question our motives when it comes to the confidence we exude. Are we running on judgement, or are we coming at it from the mindset of one who has been forgiven also?

Would we want to be picked apart the same way that we are picking apart others? Then, let’s not do that anymore. This world is hard enough as it is. We fight so many battles already. People don’t need to hear what we’re against. I guarantee, they already know. They need to hear what we’re for.

We should be for restoration. God’s way. And his timing. We might think we know what is best, but I assure you that the Holy Spirit is still alive and active and will convict when needed, as he has promised to do. Let the Holy Spirit do his job. He doesn’t need our help.

And the way we live our lives matters! It matters so much, that if we are not living in the state of knowing that we have been forgiven much, we can actually make Jesus not only undesirable, but flat out repulsive!

Have you ever been around someone who was so egocentric and religious, that you just wanted to find the nearest exit? Yeah, me too! I don’t want to be around someone like that! Let’s not be that person that makes people run from Jesus! Let’s be the kind of people, that when others are around us, they are drawn to our humility and kindness. And then in turn, they will see that it’s not because we are particularly special that we are able to stand confidently, but because they recognize that we know that we don’t deserve this peace, but are fully able to embrace it because of the God that we serve. He gives us that confidence to move past our failures. He doesn’t scrutinize. It is his kindness that leads us to repentance.

Now, THAT is something to stand tall and confident on! When the stage lights dim on my life, may I be known as one who stands consistently confident in the One who knows me on and off the stage.

Hebrews 10: 32-39

32 But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, 33 partly by being made a public spectacle through insults and distress, and partly by becoming companions with those who were so treated. 34 For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better and lasting possession. 35 Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

37 For yet in a very little while, he who is coming will come, and will not delay.

38 But my righteous one will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.

39 But we are not among those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith for the safekeeping of the soul.