Pastor John Van Sloten

This morning I read an article on Christopher Plummer playing a part in a new movie based on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  In the piece the actor says, “I think one can be quite free in one’s interpretation of fictional characters.”   As soon as I read his words I was reminded of something I wrote in my book – quoting Dorothy Sayers -  “In The Mind of the Maker, mystery writer and essayist Dorothy Sayers writes of the deep joy a playwright feels in watching her script brought to life by the actor. To hear an intelligent and sympathetic actor infusing one’s own lines with his creative individuality is one of the most profound satisfactions that any imaginative writer can enjoy; more—there is an intimately moving delight in watching the actor’s mind at work to deal rightly with a difficult interpretation, for there is in all this a joy of communication and an exchange of power. Within the limits of this human experience, the playwright has achieved that complex end of man’s desire—the creation of a living thing with a mind and will of its own.

 Imagine the joy God feels in inviting you and your imagination into his story! God invites all of us to play a role in his collaborative and redemptive production. In order to fully participate, we need to muster every bit of childlike creativity and imaginative energy we’ve got. We need to study the script, read it well, and then, with innocent abandon and trust, throw ourselves into the part—just like you did when you were a young child listening to your mom, dad, or grandparent read you that story, hanging on every word. Do you remember how it felt? Sitting so close as she read to you; so free to enter into the narrative. A whole new world came alive. You came alive! You went places and did things you could have never imagined. This is what it means to enter into and believe in God’s bigger story. This is what trust in a nearby Narrator can bring to your life, no matter how old you are.”

(Sorry for the extensive quote… but here’s the point I want to make…)  Reading Plummer’s words reminded me of Sayers’ words which reminded of the fact that whenever a role is played out in life, we can know that God wrote it, even as we bring our individual interpretations to it.   So, whenever you read about an actor doing their interpretive thing, you’re reminded.  Whenever you fulfill your role at work, home, on the field, in the classroom, you’re reminded.  Whenever to fill the role that is a human life, you’re reminded that the Playwright prepared your script, freed you to fill out the role, and is now, right now, delighting in what you’ve brought to the part.