June 27, 2019 (Thursday)
I saw an article recently that looked interesting, so I read it–at least most of it. It was about what goes on in the dressing rooms of stage actors on Broadway.
The paragraphs described how make-up artists remove the actor’s idently and transform him/her with makeup and costumes. It’s almost as if somebody you know walks through a door and closes it behind himself/herself. You stand there and wait and within hours a new person emerges.
Disney’s “Pinocchio” put a song in the wooden puppet’s mouth with the title, “An Actor’s Life for Me.” He sings as he walks briskly and proudly, “Hi-diddle-dee-dee, an actor’s life for me, a high silk hat and a silver cane, a watch of gold with a diamond chain, Hi-diddle-dee, an actor’s life for me.” It seems to me that actors may feel the happiness that Pinnochio felt as they become, for a while, someone else.
What happens in the dressing rooms? It isn’t magical, but in a way, I guess you could say, it is. “The magic isn’t in the mascara. Nor is it to be found, at least not at first, in anything that’s added. It’s in what’s taken away. In front of the dressing room mirror, an actor’s own hair will often be secreted in a stocking cap, his 5 o’clock shadow spackled away, her freckles powdered to nothing. Looking at themselves disappearing, they may find their character getting ready to enter..But first, before they can become someone, they have to become no one.” (Quoted from the article).
When I read that last sentence, I immediately thought of how the Apostle Paul did precisely that. He did not act a part; he shed his life of sin and began a brand new life in Christ.
Here’s what he said: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20 NIV).
And he also taught us: “When someone becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same anymore. A new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17 TLB).
I love the song, “To Be Like Jesus.” It describes the new life in Christ: