For Good...

So I have to admit, I really really like Broadway Musicals. It is something most people do not know about me, but it is very true. Shows like Rent, Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, West Side Story have all been apart of my life, and I been engulfed by them. For Halloween night my fiancee and I went and saw Wicked. This was an amazing show. The stage transported you to the land of Oz, the special effects enhanced the experience, and the story drew you in and left you sitting on the edge of your seat!

One of the closing numbers of the show is, "For Good" and is sung between Glenda and Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West). This song plays at the characters' relationship and friendship. These two, who most would suspect are opposites and have little in common, are truly best friends. I know it is hard to believe, for those who have seen The Wizard of Oz, but it is true, according to Wicked. The line of the song in which Elphaba and Glenda sing together is, "Because I knew you I have been changed for good." That song and that line left me thinking about the people in my life that because I have known them I have been changed for good. I could write a list a mile long with names of people who have help to shape my life. Names like, Debbie, Mark, Jerry, Dave, Emily, Barbra and on and on the list would go.

These people have changed my life for good. They were who God created them to be and in living this way they freed and encouraged others to do the same. They also loved without expecting anything in return. I think about my theater teacher in high school, for four years my two best friends and I were absolutely awful. We pushed the limits at every turn and tried to get away with anything. For crying out load we drove a car into the school's theater and turned it around on the stage. Did our teacher notice the tire marks all over the freshly painted black stage? He had to have. Did he say anything or punish us? NO! He did however make a joke about it at the end of the year celebration during our senior year. But this man never once gave up on us, and at his funeral, his wife told one of my friends that our teacher truly loved us. Along with listing names a mile long, I could spend the rest of my life telling stories about these people, about good times and not so good times.

These people have helped me to become the person God created me to be. But how are we, who have been shaped by those around us, to respond in gratitude? I think, and I hope my response will be to pass along the gift these people have given me. Words will never be enough, but actions will be. If by my living into who God has created me to be helps someone be who God has created them to be, then I know I am adding to the God's story which those beloved saints are apart of and have contributed to.