All Good Gifts Around Us
“All good gifts around us are sent from Heaven above.”
That is one of my favorite lyrics from the song "All Good Gifts" in Stephen Schwartz’s boppin’ musical Godspell, which we did at George Fox last year.
As I reflect on this past semester, I am in awe at the good gifts around me.
Just the other day as I walked to coffee with a new friend, I was astounded by the beautiful gift of a rainbow. And not just any rainbow, a bright, striking, full, double (almost triple) rainbow.
I had no control over this rainbow. It was a gift from God. Given through the gifts of rain and sunlight (and all the other science-y things that make rainbows possible).
It wasn’t just the existence of the rainbow that was a gift though. I actually almost missed the rainbow. My friend and I had been walking with our backs to the rainbow and almost made it fully across the quad before I turned around and started walking backwards along the path, to illustrate something my beloved past professor Rhett Luedtke taught me. It wasn’t until I turned around that the rainbow caught my breath and stopped me in my tracks.
...
A year ago, Rhett told me that sometimes he walks off the paths on the quad, to remind him to think outside the box and make new paths. But other times, he walks within the path, but he zig zags and figures out a way to walk differently within the confines of the path.
...
I think about this often. Especially when I need to get out of my head or remind myself that creativity thrives within constraints.
This lesson was a gift.
God brought Rhett into my life for a time to teach and guide me as an actor and human.
And that lesson ended up causing me to turn around and walk backwards, unconventionally on the conventional path, and notice the rainbow.
What a breathtaking gift.
In addition to the pockets of warm sun, the crunchy leaves, the stunning rainbow and other gifts of beauty in nature, I have seen the good gifts around me in art and people.
This Monday I got to perform with my fellow theatre majors for our ‘showcase celebration.’
Due to the theatre major being cut, the juniors and seniors are all taking Senior Seminar this semester. I am a junior, and though I am not graduating, many of my close peers are.
My freshman year Rhett turned to us and said, “this is your ensemble.”
That ensemble has changed over the years, but as I look around my Senior Seminar class, these beautiful humans are my ensemble. We are a team and a family. We get to create art together. To explore and discover together. We have faced intense moments of vulnerability and struggle together.
We faced the brunt of the administration's decisions to cut theatre, together.
We cried and lamented. We wrote angry, thoughtful, brilliantly logical letters. We showed up to a Town Hall meeting and we shared our stories of the impact of art and theatre and how we see God moving in that. We shared stories–because that is what we do.
We built bridges together. We worked alongside our professors to build back a relationship with administration. To create beautiful work in the midst of changes and program cuts. To move forward and support each other.
We reimagined theatre together.
We mourned the loss of Cristi at our University together. And then we were blessed with the gift of Cristi to teach our Senior Seminar this past semester.
And Monday night we each got to do two things, two pieces of theatre that light our soul on fire, to share with each other, with Cristi, and with our friends at this showcase.
And it was magical. Watching my friends do what they love. Live into each character with specificity and focus and joy. They made me laugh and cry.
Such a gift.
And then, this week we are of course finishing reading Madeleine L’Engle’s Walking on Water in Theatre as Ministry.
Madeleine L’Engle says, “It is a joy to be allowed to be a servant of the work. And it is a humbling and exciting thing to know that my work knows more than I do.”
She goes on to discuss how God provides the experiences or information she needs for moments in her book, in unexpected ways before she even knows she needs them.
“Perhaps the only part I had in it was accepting the discipline of listening or training the ability to recognize something when it is offered,” says L’Engle.
There is still work we do. But ultimately, we do not have control over the impact or response to our work. And while we work hard at training our craft, whether it be writing or acting (or in my case, both), we also hold to that work lightly, letting it go, trusting it in God’s hands, and being receptive to listening to when God whispers something for us in the work, or when He places a well timed gift in our hands.
L’Engle also quotes H.A. William’s saying, “Justification by faith means that I have nothing else on which to depend except my receptivity to what I can never own or manage. And this very capacity to receive cannot be the result of effort. Faith is something given, not achieved. It is created by God’s word in Christ.”
Faith is a gift. Art is a gift.
Writing and theatre are gifts.
There are some elements of these things I have control over. But ultimately, they are made possible by God’s grace. I can work hard to do my beat work for theatre. I can sit down every day to write. I can take acting classes, and work specific scenes to refine them, but ultimately I trust that God can use whatever I bring. I let go of the work and trust that God will use it how He wills. I also recognize that God is already working and moving, and I merely receive the gift of the opportunity to join in creation with Him.
You all are a gift. Thank you for reading and joining me for some stories about life.
"We plow the fields and scatter, the good seed on the land. But it is fed and watered by God's almighty hand."
Sincerely,
Sophi
"We plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the land..
But it is fed and watered by God's almighty hand..
He sends us snow in winter, the warmth to swell the grain...
The breezes and the sunshine, and soft refreshing rain...
All good gifts around us
Are sent from Heaven above
So thank the Lord, oh thank the Lord for all his love...
We thank thee then, O Father, for all things bright and good,
The seedtime and the harvest, our life our health our food,
No gifts have we to offer for all thy love imparts
But that which thou desirest, our humble thankful hearts!
All good gifts around us
Are sent from Heaven above..
So thank the Lord, oh thank the Lord for all his love..
I really wanna thank you Lord!"
UUUUGH SOPHI THIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL!!! It made my heart ache (in a good way) while reading it. You are my ensemble and I'm so blessed to be in God's play with you. I forgot that Rhett told us that freshman year, and wow, he was right. Art is Such a gift. It's crazy how incredible an Artist God is and the fact that He allows us artists to imitate Him is just bonkers! It saddens me that so many of our ensemble are gonna leave. You just watched me cry about it, actually. But I have to remind myself that recurring lesson in our college experience: hold on tightly, let go lightly. We'll create new ensembles, and they'll be different, but still good. I love you, Soph!
ReplyDeleteHi! Thanks for sharing all of this! I can feel the love and gratitude pouring out of you over everything that you mentioned, which is really inspiring. Sometimes it's easy for us to focus on the things that we lack (maybe like the theatre program being cut) instead of being thankful for the many gifts and hopeful that God has a purpose for what he gives and what he takes away.
ReplyDeleteI miss the performing arts! There is no community like it.