What Do I Do With a God-given Desire?

Acting is a God-given desire and gift he has placed in my heart.  I had done some acting in high school and later was in a couple of musicals written by a local playwright.  Then, I took a break from acting for quite a few years.  I went back to school, got a graduate degree, and became a teacher.

During the years of building my career, I didn’t have time to give to a play.  I missed acting so much during this time.  I longed to get back on the stage.  I couldn’t think about it for very long because I wanted it so badly.

I think very often when we want something so much and it’s not harmful, it could be a God-given desire.  Sometimes I’ve wanted to do something but wondered if was selfish of me to want that.  I realize later as it is unfolding beautifully in my life that it wasn’t me being selfish at all but a God-given desire.

So, for years I tried to push the God-given desire to act aside and faithfully furthered my career.  Teaching is another passion of mine so it wasn’t too hard to give most of my time to it.

God-given Desire Fulfilled

Last year something wonderful happened.  I decided to check out what was opening at a local community theater.  I went to the show where I found out about an acting class put on through the theater.  I decided to sign up.  There was a class each week.  On the fourth week, I found out that auditions for a show were happening after the class.  Two classmates strongly urged me to audition.  One in particular introduced me to the director and made sure that I got a copy of the play and the pages to study an hour before the audition.  I decided this was a great opportunity.  I didn’t have weeks in advance to talk myself out of auditioning, telling myself I wouldn’t be good enough.  I literally had one hour to prepare before auditions.  I went into it with no expectations.  If I didn’t get the part, oh well.  Of course, I would be overjoyed at a positive outcome.  I was the first to audition for the particular part.  Afterwards, I enjoyed watching others audition.  If nothing else, it would be a great experience to watch the auditioning process.

An hour after I got home from auditions, the director called me.  She offered me the part and told me I had the best understanding of the character of the ladies that auditioned.  She also told me that practice would start in three days.

I went from not being able to think about acting because I missed it so much to being immersed in the theater almost every spare moment.

The experience was glorious.  Not only did I get to fulfill a desire of my heart, I learned a lot about myself.  I gained so much confidence in my developing acting skills.  I got to spend time with other like minded people.  I got to accomplish something that I am very proud of.

I also saw God at work.  It seemed like nothing was happening for so long to fulfill my desire for acting, and then all of a sudden, my spare time was filled with it.  I think God is so often strategically putting everything into place to fulfill things in our lives.  We need to give our desires to the Lord and thank him for working on fulfilling them.  He does this in such a beautiful way.  Sometimes we need to have a little patience and have faith that he is in fact working in our lives.  One thing about God, he always comes through for us when we allow him to.

Have a glorious day!