My Best?...Your Best?...Our Best?

I forgot to post this last week haha!

All of us have something sometimes that keeps us from being or doing our best. There are a million and one obstacles when it comes to things getting in our way, no matter what we are trying to do, in any and every aspect of life. But one hindrance that I can be sure we all have in common is something that if we dig deep enough (or in some cases not deep at all) we can pinpoint as the actual source of more than half of these issues...can anyone guess what it is?....Ourselves. 

We are our biggest challenge because we are the only ones that can stand in our way. No one can force us to reach our full potential and no one can force us not to. It has to be a decision we make every day. 

In my experience alot of the reason we can't get past ourselves is fear. More directly, fear of failing. Like the line from "Dancing Through Life" from Wicked..."Those who don't try never look foolish..." I have always had that tendency, to think that as long as I only try a little bit I won't be embarrassed when I'm not as good as the next person. But having that philosophy means that we never know if we are actually good at anything cuz we never got our feet wet when it was time to test the waters. Now that's a very straightforward example, but many more roadblocks are not so prominent. We disguise them with excuses from every page in the book. But we have to look for the source of them and fix it from there. Nobody wants to fail but sometimes its easier than succeeding. But we have to remember and accept that  it's not easy and it won't happen with the flick of a switch; but the ability is in all of us. 

We fight the fight. 

We win or lose. 

We make the choice.

Good...Evil...

So there is no intro to my blog this week I'm just gonna start right off the bat with....good and evil. More specifically...is the absence of good evil? Is the absence of evil good?

I think that the absence of good is almost always evil, and the absence of evil is almost never good.

Basically, when there is no good or evil it is neutral and neutrality breeds evil. Evil (or the Devil) is always actively seeking somewhere, someone, something to latch onto and make his own. We, as humans, are very easily corrupted...so we are easy targets. When we have no good (God) to shield us we are in danger of falling into the Devil's trap.  Especially in our world today. There are so many things going on that I never could have imagined happening, and we need the presence of good more than ever. As human beings, we naturally want and need something to hold on to and believe in, if that thing is neutral, it then becomes an open invitation for the Devil to insert himself into our lives. If we don't have the armour of God with which to fight, then we do not have any chance of winning the fight. We need good.

This is one of the very reasons we wanted to create our own theatre company. The arts in general is mostly a neutral environment. People really like to say they are artists for art's sake...or because it is their passion and it's what they love and they do it for their own self satisfaction and the entertainment of their audience. Sure, this is all a part of why we do what we do, too....but it can't be the whole purpose. I mean there are always the people who talk about God and thank Him and all but in my experience with too many people, it is more of a "for show" type thing than the real deal. Many of those same people will do immoral or inappropriate things in the name of 'theatre.' And once it's in the name of 'theatre' or 'art' it becomes more about ourselves and less about God. Selfishness is a vice that is too easily fallen into. As artists, we have to be so careful about how we tell the story and if we are compromising any of our actor's morality. We have to be sure that our purpose remains pure, to spread Gods's Light and to show His glory!