Tuesday, May 13, 2008

New Things

Lots of new things are happening in my world. New relationships; new performing opportunities (I got cast in The Tempest--finally getting to do some Shakespeare); new role with an indie film group in Atlanta (I'm gonna be a PA on some productions this summer!); and still more new chances to be creative in The Gathering. Oh, and also I'll have new roomies soon. It's an exciting time, being at the beginning, the "front end" as they say in biz-speak, of so many things, knowing that I'm gonna learn a lot in each of these journeys--that I'll use a lot of my gifts and develop new skills.

A verse came to mind yesterday as I pondered all this new-ity.
"Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."

That's from Isaiah 43:19. Don't really have any insight there, just thought of that verse, and how it is applicable as I see God offering me new opportunities now, as well as working new things in my heart (more posts on that soon).

There have also been new things opening in this area--a new Avenue shopping center, Lifetime Fitness and an outdoor amphitheatre. Working for the local newspaper makes me privy to all of them, and I hear all of the buzz for weeks leading up to each. Well, I was able to attend the Grand Opening of the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre on Saturday night. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performed, and the evening was full of fanfare...and it's share of kinks that hadn't yet been worked out--the toilets weren't flushing, leaving upwards of 4,000 women to 'hold it' for the night, or brave long lines and stinky rooms...my date didn't want to, and I didn't blame her (us men were fine, though). Across town, my gym's grand opening wasn't without it's share of kinks as well, a big one--it blew a transformer within the first few hours of being open on Saturday and was out of power until today. I was telling my sales manager about all of this today, and she mentioned that that's why folks usually have soft openings, an unannounced opening usually a couple of weeks before a grand opening publicized event, to make sure they've ironed out all of these kind of details, like working power and public restrooms--you know, minor details. Guess the big guys are too big for that...

Sunday's sermon was from Matt and I though he brought it! It's worth downloading if you missed it. It was on being non-fiction in a synthetic age, and he really honed in on why we so often hide behind masks instead of being real--because we are scared of being found out, and we forget how completely loved and accepted we are by God. In the course of the sermon he said a few things that really hit home with me, but one applies here. He said when we become Christians, we are made new, as new creations, but he explained it in a different way. He said we are truly new, but not completely new, meaning we are at our core, deepest level new, but we still have the flesh shrouding us that we must fight against. Our redemption is complete, but we haven't fully realized what living it out looks like. You might say we have our own kinks that we need working out; and we could use a 'soft opening' of sorts before the big show to make sure all systems are go. I think Christmodeled that, so I don't think we are to expect to be an exception.

So those are my thoughts on all the new things happening. I'll keep you posted on how they all develop as I continue to work the kinks out.

2 comments:

David Wilhite said...

Good thoughts future roommate. Also, I can't help but think of the song Nu Thang by DC Talk (back in their early rap days). "Ya know He's doing it (Who's doing it?), God is doing a nu thang."

Randy Schlichting said...

Why are you up so early?....or so late?