Steady Rock

So I'm still thinking about Full of Grace -- maybe I do recommend it?  If I"m still thinking about it? -- but the idea of St. Peter struggling to be the rock on which Jesus built His church is...compelling.  Because I feel a similar call on an infinitely less grand scale.

I'm the foundation of the theatre program at the school where I teach.  I'm the only faculty member involved with any consistency at all, I make the bulk of the decisions and particularly the day-to-day ones (grand vision being something approved by my bosses in the school proper), and I try to be the steadying presence in a room full of teenagers.

It's a hell of a thing to try to be.  The steady rock that others can build from.  The foundation beneath the feet of dreamers.

And I think a lot of the time it's being Ezekiel or John the Baptist -- the steady voice crying out for repentance to a world that doesn't want to hear it.

Oh don't get me wrong, it's also wonderful.  I'm thanked WAY more often than we think about the foundation of our buildings.  And I see the joy of others building on the steady rock I try to be.

But when there are 10,000 things to do and decisions to be made and standards to be set and  YOU are the one who ultimately needs to ensure they all happen...that's a lot.  And you're not always facing the happy, appreciative folk of closing night.

Hard of face and obstinate of heart.  Or, put in a spirit that better first my almost always lovely but ambitious and rambunctious and challenging students, a "rebellious house."  That's what a theatre program is.  A rebellious house, hopefully built a strong foundation.  I suppose that's what Israel is in the story of Ezekiel. Rebellious spirits, wonderful, challenging, stubborn, annoying, bad listeners with a rock solid relationship with God beneath it all.

I'm not sure there's a lesson here today.  I just pray that God gives me the strength to do my part well.