If you're reading this post, chances are pretty good that you know me. Even if you don't, if you read my profile, you'll notice that I include "amateur actor" as one of my descriptions.
I don't have ANY professional experience in acting. As a matter of fact, the only acting "class" I've ever had are a couple of different workshops put on by the Dramatic Arts Pastor at our church. It's a passion that I didn't even discover within until I was in my 30's.
So what makes me think I have any talent in the craft? Frankly, I don't. I've played roles ranging from the Apostle Thomas to Screwtape, from a middle aged bachelor living with his bachelor brother to Ezekiel. I've acted in front of audiences ranging in age from pre-schoolers to adults and in size from rooms of 10 to 1500 people. Through it all - every single time I walk onto the stage, I experience a feeling of "How in the world did YOU end up doing this?"
Please understand that I am not trying to convey a message that I'm some sort of Oscar winning talent. I don't believe that in the least. I am constantly amazed whenever someone walks up to me and praises my work. Even when that happens, I often get the feeling that "they're just trying to make me feel better". In our church community, however, they keep asking me to play roles, so maybe - just maybe - there's something there.
Which brings me back to the topic of this post. From a Christian perspective, how does an artist respond when someone walks up to them and tells them that their work is fantastic or simply says "Thank you"?
Our society is permeated, marinated and contaminated by celebrities and wannabes. I'm convinced that it is impossible to go through a day without hearing about some superstar actor, rock star, model or someone who is famous for nothing (Paris Hilton & Anna Nicole Smith come to mind). These people are constantly barraged with awards, praise and down right groveling. Some of them have worked very hard at their craft. Others have stumbled into stardom. Regardless of how they got there, they deal constantly with people who are worshipping them.
The Body of Christ - at least in the US - also has its celebrities. Christian musicians ranging from the Gaithers to Switchfoot have brought contemporary music back to what music was meant to be - a method of glorifying God. While there are relatively few major scandals within the Christian music industry (relatively being the key word here), I know that many of these artists struggle with the fame associated with their success. One of the more successful of these groups was DC Talk. They wrote a song that I believe should rattle through the brain of every Christian performer whenever they're about to walk on stage:
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/d.c.+talk/what+if+i+stumble_20037744.html
All of this leads up to my original intent in writing this post: How do I respond when someone comes up to me after a performance and says "That was fantastic" or "That really touched my heart" or simply "Thank you"? Although I have absolutely zero musical talent, I know the musicians have to deal with this as well - since I've gone up and said those things to them on a regular basis.
So how DO I respond to it? And, better yet - How SHOULD I respond to it?
To begin with, I've developed my own way of thanking the performers. "Thank you so much for using God's gifts to glorify Him". To me that is acknowledging where the gift comes from and what it was meant to be used for. It also acknowledges, however, the excitement any artist should feel at being blessed with those gifts.
When someone comes up to me and says "You were great", however, I get really uncomfortable and even want to squirm out of the situation. I KNOW that what happens on that stage would be a disaster if God wasn't in control of it. I immediately want to launch into an explanation of this for the person addressing me, but when you're standing in the foyer of the church and hundreds of people are milling about and past you, it's not particularly easy to do that. I suppose I could say something like "It's all Him - I had nothing to do with it", but I fear that this would come across as rejecting their compliment - something that we're far too well trained at.
I have a recent example of what I'm talking about here. When someone asks me to pray for them, I've developed a habit of typing the prayer out and emailing it to them. I also launch "sneak attacks" on occasion where I'll send these prayers to folks who didn't necessarily ask for them. I recently sent one of these to a man in our church who is being considered for a position of church elder.
Apparently the "e-prayer" meant a lot to him. He sent me a wonderful response and then returned the "sneak attack" by coming up to me in the church foyer a couple of weeks ago to thank me and tell me how much he appreciated it. As I'm standing there listening to him, I go into absolute panic mode. "What do I say to this? How do I respond?" I'm very much afraid I came across as a blithering idiot, and that he now thinks that there's no way this guy could have written that prayer!
So I'm in a huge quandary. I usually fall back to a simple "Thank you" or "No - thank YOU" or something equally inane.
In an effort to generate some interaction with this blog, I'd invite other folks' thoughts on this. I know of a couple of artists (even using that label on myself feels weird) who've visited this, so PLEASE share!
