The Play — Week 3
By Margaret Lackey, Ordained Minister, Christian Comedian, Charlotte, NC
(Margaret also serves as the executive assistant to the administrative bishop in the Western North Carolina Church of God State Office.)

Jeremiah 29:11:  “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (NIV).

“Life is a stage, act well your part” (William Shakespeare).

When God created us, He had plans for us.  Life is a stage; we’re just passing across it.  Each of us has been given assignments.  The difference in this play called Life and those for which we audition in the theatre is that we are to be real in our actions.  We are to be who He made us to be, asked us to be.  In any performance, not everyone is the star; not everyone is on stage.  Many are in the background:  The prop and stage crew, lighting technicians, costume designers, make-up artists, choreographers.  Everyone’s role is vital to the performance.  An excellent review comes about only through team effort.  Without the whole cast and crew the show would not go on.

Since God brought Ron into my life; he and I have been a team.  We traveled for a number of years in a family ministry.  Reed, with a special God-given talent, shared Bible stories.  Christy sang with us.  We did marriage and family seminars, children’s programs, and comedy routines.  After 14 years of pastoring, He called us on the road again.

God started to deal with me to become more involved in pulpit ministry.  I reminded Him, “I’m not a preacher; I’m a comedian.”  When Dad died, the call came clearer.  Vernon Wood is gone; I want you to pick up the torch and carry on the gospel he preached.

My argument became stronger.  Ron’s a preacher; Reed’s a preacher; Wayne, my nephew, is studying to be a university Professor of Religion.  As men of God, they will carry on.  I’d rather make people laugh.  The calling did not go away so I submitted, saying “God, I’ll do my best.”

In 2007 doors opened for me to minister in four churches where my dad had pastored.  Even in places where he had been more than 50 years ago, there was someone who remembered his ministry, someone whose life he had touched.  The role he played while they were on the same stage lingers in their memory.  Mother was with us and those experiences were humbling and yet so exciting.  God had allowed me to walk across those stages again and replay some of the old scenes.

In this passage in Jeremiah, we tend to zero in on the plans God has for us.  In focusing on the plans, wondering what they are and where they’ll take us, we lose the significance of the “you” in that passage.  As each of us read it, the promise gets personal:  He’s talking about me.  God is not just saying I know the plans, He is saying I know the plans I have for you.  I want to do something special in your life.  I have written this script for you.  Follow it.…

Realizing that God is not just laying out plans, but that He has something in mind for me makes January exciting.  We don’t need to know what the plans are for this month or next month; we need to be reminded that God is thinking of us.  He wrote our story; we’re to act well our part.

It is hard for me to comprehend that the One who spoke this world into existence and created everything (including me) actually knows my name.  With billions of people in existence, it’s incomprehensible to think I can speak His name in prayer and He responds, “That’s Margaret Lackey.  She’s calling Me, she needs Me, wants to talk to Me.”

In any play there is always communication between actors and directors.  There are hours of blocking, instructions for each scene, repetitive diction, achieving proper accents.  The only way we can get our role in life even half-way right is to communicate with the director, take instructions from Him.

Read the script (the Bible).  Read it carefully, memorize it, and hide its words in your heart.  By doing that, you’ll find your way…know what your role is…act well your part.

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