Footloose: The daily work of the devoted

Tim and I went to the opening of the musical at the high school on Friday night.

Musicals are always well-attended in these parts. This one in particular is a favorite, given that we are an agriculture-based community.

There’s a lot that kids and adults alike could relate to in this rendition of Footloose.

That’s not to say that any one pastor makes up the rules for our community — they don’t. We might be small but we are diverse.

We don’t have a full-time drama teacher at the school: Does anybody these days? So the productions are a labor of love for the secretary at the high school. She is the heart behind every show.

I have no idea how she manages, given the demands of her day job but she puts her shoulders back and her chin up and presses onward — for the love of kids and of theater.

When the high school was expanded a few years back one of the things the community invested in was a state-of-the-art auditorium. Unfortunately, we didn’t spend the monies necessary to put in a quality sound system.

Or if we did, somebody ripped us off big-time. So throughout the performances, kids were having to figure out a way to get a microphone passed between them. We apparently only have two working mics. We do have a couple of lapel mics but those worked willfully — meaning they worked when they felt like it. So there were times when somebody would be singing a song and it looked like they were lip-syncing because no one could hear a word they were saying.  And times when  several kids were simply too overcome by opening night jitters and a lack of confidence to really own their songs.

Timidity is not a gift on-stage.

There comes a time in all our lives when boldness is required of us.

I suspect that’s one reason why Paul urged Timothy to “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” Paul understood, as most teachers do, that the way a person develops that kind of confidence is through dedication to the mundane. Practicing the same six dance moves over and over and over again, until your legs are limp as noodles and that “Kick off your Sunday shoes” line is stuck on repeat in your head.

There’s just no other way to do it. Being center stage requires a huge commitment to the mundane. The daily work of the devoted.

My husband has read and re-read the works of C.S. Lewis so many times the book covers are frayed. I asked him yesterday how many times he’s read Mere Christianity.

“Oh, seven or eight,” he said.

He’s read the Bible cover-to-cover as many times.  Tim broke the spine of his Bible from overuse. I married the man who practices the daily work of the devoted.

What about you? What books do you read and re-read? If you are in ministry, what books, besides the Bible, have helped you kick off your Sunday shoes and move with confidence in the Lord?