On the stage and behind the scenes

BIRDIE –
“Nobody wants to play rhythm guitar behind Jesus. Everybody wants to be the lead singer in the band.” The Oak Ridge Boys made this song famous in 1983 and it is one of my most favorite sayings.

REBECCA –
That phrase says it all – very few people desire to be in the background doing the work with no glory.

BIRDIE –
Yet, in the Jesus Book of Success: Top Ten list of the qualifications of a successful person, servanthood ranks #1.

REBECCA –
Mark 9:35, “ And he (Jesus) sat down and called the twelve. And he (Jesus) said to them, ‘If anyone would be FIRST, he must be last and servant of all.’”

Wow! That’s just what all of us wanted to hear! Apparently, to be successful in God’s eyes, we better understand what it means to “play rhythm guitar behind Jesus.”

BIRDIE –
When I was 13, some kids introduced me to a killer... no! I mean it, a real killer – cigarettes. When you’re 13 you don’t think about COPD, lung cancer, heart attacks, the cumulative cost. You just think: “Wow, this is something only adults are allowed to do so it will make me look cool to all these friends.”
And so, I became a smoker.

REBECCA –
Now you may be thinking, is this a chapter about smoking or about promises?
Well, it’s a little of both.

BIRDIE –
Implementing my best abilities at hiding the habit, my parents found out. But that wasn’t the clincher. My GRANNY found out.

REBECCA –
You’ve heard that old saying: You can’t take it with you. It usually refers to spending all your money before you die because, well, “you can’t take it with you.”

BIRDIE –
This chapter, however, is about the things you CAN take with you – but SHOULDN’T.

REBECCA –
There’s a line in NarroWay’s “Not Just Another Love Story” delivered by Uncle Zeb which says: “I knew I’d be an old man one day, Willie. Of all the things I’ve got to take to my grave with me, I didn’t want to take a bitter heart.”

BIRDIE –
We prepare for work, vacations, retirement but, honestly, we can’t be certain of any of these. But one thing is indisputably certain: Death.

REBECCA –
One of the obstacles that I have to overcome when coaching a cast member on how to realistically play a specific part is to get them to deliver their lines realistically and not as if they already know what’s coming next.
That’s not good in acting but it is good in life!

BIRDIE –
In fact, we SHOULD live every day with the mindset that, one day, our life script will read: The End. Hopefully that won’t be soon, but there are some things, like Uncle Zeb, that we don’t want to take to the grave.