I loved God, but my life was becoming rooted in the arts. I was sick and tired of people judging me for my passions and telling me not to pursue them in college. My plan was to go to school and major in Arts Administration. I got a lot of strange stares, a lot of kind words about how that industry needed lights for Jesus there, and a lot of "you're wasting your time and talent for a degree that won't get you anywhere." People didn't get it.
What they didn't know was my story. That in middle school, I cried every morning because I hated school. I cried every time my family visited a new church because I felt so alone everywhere we went and just wanted to go to my home church with my friends, now lost. I felt so alone. Then God stuck theatre in my life, and I found a community who loved me. I believe 100% that God uses non-believers to work his plan, because there is no doubt in my mind that theatre and music were put in my life by Him to impact me and allow me an outlet to express my joy and love for Him...and rediscover that in the process. The arts were my passion, and I was being told that they were this super dark, scary place where God was not.
So, I went into college, chasing my dreams of working in the arts, but unsure of how my faith fit. No one wanted to shed any light on that. Probably because no one knew how to. But this semester, God has come in and redefined what I'm doing and taught me some things about where my passions fit His plans. Because here's the thing--I don't think God would give me a passion that's outside of His will. I've really grown in my faith over the last few months and fixed something. I no longer love God but have a life rooted in the arts...I love the arts and my life is rooted in God.
Many well-meaning people had made it seem that working in the arts and living for Jesus were two things that didn't fit together, making theatre out to be this dark, dark world where there was no hope. Well, Jesus is hope, and He is with me, even in theatre...even in the other arts...even if I decide to go into more TV/media/entertainment. I will admit, I see and recognize that many people in my career field don't have the same morals and beliefs as me and sometimes that is difficult, but I have the greatest amount of love and respect for these people. Theatre people are extremely respectful towards me and my beliefs, because I am the same towards them...I have never felt attacked or pressured to believe anything differently, and I love people in the arts. I love people who love Jesus too.
So many Christians seems to fear the field I have surrounded myself with. People seem to want to run the opposite direction. But I have a passion for the arts and a heart full of love for the people in the arts. I don't have any reason to believe that was a coincidence. I 100% believe that if "there are very few Christians in the lost world that your field is" that is all the more reason for me to be there. Who is reaching those people? Who is being Jesus? I'm not here to shove things down anyone's throat, but I am here to love like Jesus while doing what I love. And I am totally on board with that plan, and I'm really thankful that God has started to show me what that looks like.
So, to all the people who warned me against doing what I'm doing (whether it be because of the jobs I will get/money I will make or the lack of Christians in the field)...thank you for your concern, because I truly know you say what you say because you care. But also, this is me telling you that God is going to use my passions for His glory and to change the world for Him, just as He uses yours. And I can't wait to see what He does, and I hope you feel the same way.
Love,
The follower of God who happens to really love theatre
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