Tag: story

All the world’s a stage. ~William Shakespeare

Last weekend I drove north to see Phantom of the Opera with my High School teacher son. The plot was stunning, the talent impressive–the students earned the thunderous applause.

If I squinted my eyes I could see my much younger self, watching the lead actors take their bows.

Every year of high school I tried out for a main role. Every year, my shaking finger traced the posted list until, somewhere at the bottom of the typewritten page, I found my modest part.

“There are no small parts, only small actors,” every cast is told. But lesser characters get fewer lines, and seldom get a solo. The message is clear right from the start–the plot’s about somebody else.

Do you ever feel like a minor character in everyone else’s plot?

No one notices me, I have no voice, I’m never heard, I’m overlooked, I’m not appreciated, the spotlight never turns towards me. I thought by now I’d be playing the lead, and I’m still just part of the crowd.

Searching For A Better Plot

You’d settle for even a nod from the audience, a note in the mail that says, “well done.”

• But the same person has hogged the attention again and you leave the party, annoyed.
• In your work or ministry setting you are often ignored and you wonder if you should move on.
• You are surrounded by people of lesser talent, but it’s you who is overlooked.
• You dream of the big break–an agent or angel–someone willing to trumpet your worth.

The truth is, whether you are a main character or an unnoticed extra depends on only one thing–who gets to tell the story.

I think Jesus meant what he promised, “the last will be first and the first will be last” (Matthew 20:16). Someday the stars of the stage will be silent, enthralled by the tales of unknowns. And those who travelled on a third class ticket will walk the red carpet in style.

Then both lead and bit player will lay down their scripts at the feet of the only true Star. The credits will roll, unnoticed. No one will care anymore.

Are you embracing your bit parts, your eyes on a better plot?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do, with your one wild and precious life? ~Mary Oliver

Like an unwelcome squatter a story has taken over my brain.

As squatters will, it has rearranged the furniture, fluffed up the pillows, put up its feet and sits there, smirking, “What can you do?”

It started with a photograph I couldn’t put down, morphed into a poem that ended strangely, and before I knew it, chaotic voices demanded a hearing, a prominent place on the page.

As I shared the story’s theme over coffee and scones with a friend, the plot sounded familiar, as if written long ago.

And so it was. Because only two stories have ever been told.

Stories We Have Devised

go something like this:

A disillusioned King Solomon: I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind (Ecclesiastes 1:14).

A  despairing Macbeth: Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

A cheesy Brad Pitt, his recent commercial for Chanel No 5: It’s not a journey. Every journey ends but we go on. The world turns and we turn with it. Plans disappear, dreams take over. But wherever I go, there you are. My luck, my fate, my fortune.

It’s a story told every time we shrug our shoulders and walk away.

The day we stop searching in the ashes for a glimmer of light; when we give in to the uncaring winds of fate; when we believe we are nothing and our lives have no meaning, we’ve embraced the story’s false claims.

Stories That Turn Out To Be True

go something like this:

• Life is not a circle. The world as we know it had a beginning and it will have an end. A day of accounting will come, when justice will triumph, when all that’s been broken will be restored.
• You are unique, there is no other. You matter and no effort will be in vain.
•  Where there is no way, a way will open–help is as close as one desperate prayer.
• Dare to hope, hold fast to your dreams, put your trust in the One who planted them in you.

It’s the second of these stories I choose to write.

Which story are you writing with your life?

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