THE LEAD ROLE

lead role

image courtesy of photobucket.com

I’m as guilty as the next person, I’ll admit it, but that doesn’t make it right. Everyone enjoys an escape of the mind, a mental mini-vacation of sorts. I caught myself doing it last night. My wife isn’t as guilty as me, she just falls asleep when she sits in front of the TV at night.

I watch not just the actors and actresses, I look for detail, the architecture of the settings, the ceilings, doors, trim, base, and floors etc. I consider the storyline, the writer’s perspective and performance along with the actors and actresses. We become engrossed in the human drama of a fictional story, on-screen or in print… and it consumes us.

That’s probably not a bad thing once in a while, but like all things if not tempered in moderation it becomes a weapon used silently against us. Right at the climax of the movie last night it hit me: What about my human drama? What about my story? And I don’t mean the fictional one I’m writing presently. I mean the story of my life.

My wife sleeping through the climax next to me, my daughters, two of them in their rooms close by. We have real human drama daily, we have struggles. Every single person I know has the lead role as the protagonist in the story of their life. To round out the story we are never short of an antagonist in this fallen world.

We are pressed yet we persevere. We are pushed down, yet we get back up to stand in the face of antagonists. We need not pretend as a child… we have been prepared to play the role we choose to play. We can play the victim or villain – it is our choice. We get to be whatever we want – just like we did as kids using our imagination. We can choose to be the heel or the hero – it is a decision we have the authority to make.

The gift of free will allows us to choose the story of our lives. It is up to us how we want the plot to unravel. There will be twists to the plot – there always is, but that’s what makes the story interesting. That’s what makes it worth telling. The best part of any story is how the lead character reacts to adversity, then proceeds while dealing with the trouble, never backing down or admitting defeat.

The story of our lives is how we react to the human drama of life. How we believe or Who we put our trust in will determine if we’re either the hero or the villain in the stories of our lives. Each of us has a story and each of us gets to choose our roles. Even as a kid I always wanted to be the good guy, the hero… Because in the end it’s always the same… good triumphs over evil.

I’m a little weary from the battle scene… I can tell you this; by the time my denouement comes…

I’ll be ready…

But for now – I gotta go slay a few more dragons…