The quality of a movie is usually directly related to the quality of its protagonist. If the hero is well-developed and likable, the movie is likely to be pretty good. But bad main characters make for painful movies to watch.
Nobody wants to watch a movie where the main character passively watches the action unfold around him. In a good movie, the main character is a major driver of the action. We want to see him go fight the bad guy, correct the injustice, get the girl, etc. It’s just not the same when he watches things happen to him, and really just responds because he has to. We like proactive heroes. We don’t just want to see the story happen to the hero. We want to see the hero happen to the story.
This reminds me of a story from a couple of months ago. My team’s assignment for the month was simple: Preach. A lot. Three of us spoke every evening, and on a team of six people, that meant we were all speaking every other night. It was a really great opportunity, but I’ll admit that speaking in public that often was exhausting.
At the end of the month, we had one extra day that didn’t fit our rotation, so the six of us met to discuss who would be speaking that day. I really didn’t want to, but we needed half of us to step up, so I reluctantly volunteered. But just a little later, we were informed that only one of us needed to speak. I jumped at the chance to back out and passed the job to my teammate.
We arrived at the service and began singing in worship. But my mind wasn’t on worship. I was feeling convicted for so quickly volunteering not to preach. Before long, I couldn’t stand it anymore and stood up, walked across the room, and asked my teammate if I could speak. He said yes, and I got up and preached the Word. It all went well, exhaustion and all. And most importantly, I stayed obedient to God, and kept an active role in the kingdom work.
This is one of many instances on this Race where I was faced with a choice like this. It’s so easy not to act, so easy to coast down the easy path. It’s much harder to choose to act and influence those around me. It’s so, so easy to just let life happen, and not leave a mark. Sometimes, I selfishly don’t even want to leave a mark.
But in the end, that’s what it’s all about. I’m here to leave Jesus’ mark no matter where I am. And that doesn’t happen passively. So no more letting life happen to me. I refuse to be a bystander. I’m taking an active role, getting in the action, and acting as much like Jesus as I can, wherever the Lord may take me. Let’s go.
