Pro Tip: Read the Script (Learn from my humbling experience)

I really thought I was ready. They asked if I’d be the Lead for Backstage Team working Heidi’s play, The Rockin’ Tale of Snow White. I had helped backstage once before and really enjoyed it, so I was happy to step up and lead the team.

The week before tech week, I ordered the poster-sized list of scene synopsis for the green room. I made sure the backstage box had the glow-tape for spiking the set. I laid out all my black clothes so I’d have enough clean outfits for the 7 straight days of rehearsals/shows I’d be working. I carefully drew out the scene placements that the director had sketched for me. I even flipped through the script enough to write down the one-line cues that would mark the end of each scene.

I thought I was prepared.

And then, of course, it came time for the show to start and there I stood with the curtain rope in my hand and had no idea what to do. Hilariously, the music started, the actors danced … and I stood there idiotically with the rope in my hand and the curtain still closed.

Of course everyone laughed but I’m sure they’re thinking, “You had one job…” Ha!

Ah yes, I needed a headset. Of course. Ok. So I got a headset, and now I had the show caller calling sound, light, and curtain cues into my left ear along with occasional questions and comments from the crew kids coming from their headsets, while my right ear listened for line cues from the actors.

Ok, so I gotta listen to one thing in one ear, the other thing in the other ear, my face is smothered in mask (I cannot figure out why a mask makes me feel like I can’t hear but it does!) and I realized fairly quickly that maybe it’s my over-40-ears, but from backstage I can’t hear many of the lines.

Ok, it’ll be fine. I turn to check my trusty cue-list taped to the wall and wait … I can’t see it. Because it’s pitch black backstage. No problem, I’ll use my phone light. Left my phone in my purse out in the audience.

I’m in full-blown I-have-no-idea-what-on-earth-I’m-doing mode by now. As the show went on, of course changes were made on the fly:

“Oh, can you strike the stump after the pig dance?”
“Oh, the fire goes on and off after each scene with the evil queen.”
“Oh, the snow needs to fall during the King & Queen scene.”

I look hopelessly at my cue-list. Each scene is numbered. I haven’t the foggiest idea when the pig dances or when what queen is where. It occurs to me, again, that I am an idiot because of course when a play runs there is no one calling out, “Ok this is SCENE TWO, everybody! Got that?! Scene TWO.”

Thankfully, another mom was there, the Prop lead, who knew the story inside and out, and could help me along.

It worked out ok but I’ll tell you what, my anxiety was through the roof! Why?

Because I didn’t really know what was going on. I was always teetering on the brink of failure, never really understanding what was needed where. I felt anxious. Insecure.

And instantly I knew what I had failed to do:

I hadn’t actually read the Script.

In all my preparations, I had only focused on the list of things I was told to do. Sure, I had checked all the boxes.

But I didn’t know the Story.

And because I didn’t know the story, I didn’t really understand how to help. I didn’t understand how things fit together and what was needed when and how I could be ready to provide assistance best.

And in a mind-blowing (to me) revelation, I realized: This is what we feel like if we don’t read the Word of God.

We might go to church and get our bullet-point list: Five Ways to be a Better Spouse. Three ways to be free of anxiety. Etc, etc.

We take notes. We jot it all down. Great. But then we go home and stuff hits the fan and stuff happens that we totally didn’t plan for, and we don’t have a clue how it all fits together and suddenly I’m standing in the dark and there’s talking in one ear and other sounds in the other and I have a vague sense there’s a cue I’m supposed to catch somewhere but I have no idea what it is.

I’m an anxious mess.

Because while it’s fine to have a pastor pull out a few verses here and there, just like with the play, when we’re living life there is no booming announcement from heaven, “And now we’re going to be living out 2 Timothy THREE. Got that?! Second Timothy THREE. That’s the scene we’re at now.”

Anybody?

At least that’s my experience. It’s so tempting to only take in tidy sermons and five-minute devotionals, but if we don’t know the ARC of God’s STORY, we won’t really know what’s going on.

It is a STORY, right? The Bible is a story. It’s not only a list of commandments. It’s a story, and we’re part of it, and the story of Scripture is what MAKES SENSE of what we see in life. When I look around the world I can go, “Ah yes, that makes sense. This is all part of that big arc of God’s story. Man, it’s stressful now, but I remember that end scene that’s coming. It’s going to be good.”

When we don’t have a clear understanding of the ENTIRETY of Scripture, when we don’t know God’s Story, we are so much more prone to anxiety.

Knowing the Script gives me confidence. Gives me peace. I know how the story ends. It enables me to be WAY more helpful. When something unexpected happens, I can step in and help because I know how it’s supposed to go. I can help others who might forget a line or miss a set-change cue.

You know what else? I sure enjoy the play a whole lot more.

You better believe after that first awkward night I came home and read the Script. I’m still way behind everyone else, because I haven’t studied it. I have a very basic understanding of how it goes, but how much MORE equipped are the actors who have spent 10 weeks studying this thing, or the directors who have spent 10 months studying, preparing, and teaching the script.

You see where I’m going with this right?

I do not pretend to know all of God’s ways. He God. Me not. But after 23 times reading Scripture from cover to cover, plus doing innumerable Bible studies and teaching Scripture, I can testify that knowing the story of God gives us PEACE. I DON’T feel like I’m standing in the dark, hopelessly clueless, anxious and afraid. Sure, there will be twists and turns, there will be grief and difficult times, I’m even facing some right now. But knowing the story sure helps everything make a long more sense.

Even when it’s dark, we’ll know what to do.

{Thanks for reading.}