artful worship

It's Thursday. I'm in the library. I just finished my last Oral Interpretation class for the quarter. And I'd thought i'd tell you all a story.

Before I get into the nitty-gritty of the post, how's about a run down of the course? 

Oral interpretation is basically about learning how to tell stories to an audience. Whether a poem or a children's book, it's about making the story and its characters come to life. My professor taught it from a Drama perspective, so we also got to do duo drama scenes and readers theater projects. 

Okay, now onto the main point. 

I love theater and performing, I was in drama all throughout high school, but this class shook me. In a good kind of all-shook up way. 

y'all, I loved and learned in this class more than I thought I ever could. Sure I knew what I was doing on stage from past experiences, but something about the setting or the way it was taught gave me a chance to soak it all in. 

You see part of my problem was, I HATED vocal/warm up exercises in the past. I loathed them, actually. In my opinion, they were silly and obnoxious. What. Was. The. Point. I can be a pretty serious individual and these things just seemed flat out ridiculous to me. 

Low and behold, in this class my professor started every single class with these very things. Early on I had to consciously make the decision to roll with the punches and DO them. No ifs, ands, or buts.  And you know what? I fell in love with them. They were relaxing, rejuvenating, and focusing for the task at hand. I let loose, made some funny noises with my voice, and sure as heck looked like an idiot, yet it was good. I freed myself from the handicapping fear of looking silly and it opened me up to experiencing the class fully.

I remembered how much I missed the stage and the rush of excitement and pure chaos it ensues inside of you. This class gave me a reason to live this feeling again. I was blessed with great partners and enjoyed the time we had to work on our scenes and develop our characters. 

Today, for our last performance I left it all on the stage. I was silly, exaggerated, and didn't hold back like the old Clarissa would have done. It was just what the scene was asking for and all that the character needed. I left sweaty and out of breath, absolutely on fire for future performances. It was something I hadn't felt in a long while. 

I never expected glean so much from this course as I did, but boy, am I glad I opened up my expectations to the blessings the Lord had for me in this class. If anything, throughout college He has taught me to not be so up tight about the little things. I still struggle to do this, but He is loving me and blessing me with classes like this one to learn and grow. 

Recently my friend said Followers of Christ have the most reason of all people to be at the forefront of the arts...because when we create, we worship. And I couldn't agree more. 

One day I'll know how the Lord wants me to use my talents to communicate His love, until then, I'll seek earnestly all the possible paths that my talents employ. If that means one day I'll tell stories and act for His kingdom, awesome. If not, I'll follow His will and be the silliest [with in reason, I'm still pretty type A] mom/storyteller around. I can't wait to see the tears of shame and embarrassment my future children will cry :)