I’m currently watching the Oscars. This happens every year about
this time. Award nights come around and I typically don’t care. But
then I catch a glimpse of one award or one actress and I’m hooked. For
the next three hours I’m cheering for these people as if I’m obsessed
with their music or movies and talking to them like their my best
friends. To a TV!! They can’t even hear me. They won’t see my tweets. The only other person hearing me is a family member if they happen to be in the room. What is this?!
I’m not one of those people who read tabloids and follow celebrities
in the news. I typically don’t care. I follow their movies and
occasionally hear about their lives from friends and am mildly
interested. I don’t try to know them, but when award nights
come around suddenly I’m all about their lives. When the Grammy’s were
on a few weeks ago, Fun. and I were best friends, as if I’ve been
following their band for years. I haven’t. I sort of jumped on that
band wagon this past Fall. So why do I get so invested in these people
in one night?
Movie stars seem to be a bit different because they play a person we
can relate to or we can see small clips of their lives and in our minds
we relate. We pretend we know these people. George Clooney and I have
been tight ever since I watched him every Thursday night on ER when I
was five, and Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner have been a favorite
couple since Ben was in Voyage of the Mimi which we watched in 6th grade
science class. But to say that I know them or anything about their
lives is dumb.
Does anyone else find themselves starstruck with awards? A few
thoughts on why we do this and what I learned from the Oscar’s tonight:
1. We all have a huge desire to be known.
We view these stars as people to strive to be like, and somehow think
that if we know about these stars we will be known too. We want to be
like them because everyone “knows” them, and we long to be known as
well. Is that so bad? Well, no. God created us with a desire to be
fully known by Him and that was broken with sin. There’s a pit there.
So we fill our lives, our pits, with things that will make us known. We
chase stars, boy bands, even the star football player at school. We
surround ourselves with people who will know us and we put ourselves out
there. This isn’t necessarily bad, but only if we are filling our pit
completely with God first. We talk to Him, listen to Him, read what He
tells us. And then we can relate to other people and be known by them.
We know God and we know people. Real people; not those who we pretend to know through a TV screen.
2. Be in the moment. One reason I want to know Ben
Affleck was the contagiousness of his full presence. As he was
accepting his Oscar for Argo winning best film, he was all there.
Through that TV screen, I could tell he was absorbing being there, with
those people, in that place, experiencing those emotions. He was fully
present. How many times do I go through my day so busy that I miss out
on the moment I’m in because I’m planning or thinking about the moments
to come? And then when those moments come, I’m not fully there either
because I’ve already moved on to the next. God gives us an exact amount
of time, and what we choose to do with it defines our lives. We
collect the moments so that our lives have meaning and are full. If we
pass through each of our moments without absorbing them, they are not
collected and they scatter – missed.
3. Life is not about me. Seth MacFarlane, who
hosted the Oscars may have made some crude comments, but I felt that he
did a fabulous job hosting. He made the evening flow, was brief yet
funny, and most importantly made the night about the films. Most
hosts/hostesses make the evenings about how great they are or all about
how great their lives are; their jokes are at the expense of someone
else. But Seth did not do that. He made jokes, but they were turned on
him or the moment happening. No one left embarrassed. He wasn’t
perfect, and I didn’t see the entire show, but from the majority of what
I saw I was impressed. This just reminds me not to make situations
about me. There is a time and place, but we don’t need to butt in to
conversations or turn situations into “The Brittany Show.” No one wants
that. In conversation, make sure you’re not monopolizing. James tells
us to be quick to listen, slow to speak… Life is not about us. It’s
about bringing glory to the Kingdom of God.
4. Embrace the lessons of the character whose story we’re telling.
We’re all telling a story. By the words we say, the actions we do,
even our thoughts. Each moment collects and tells a story, making up
the whole of our lives. According to the previous point, life isn’t
about me, therefore I’m not telling my own personal story. I’m telling
the story of God working in my life; it’s His story not mine. Anne
Hathaway taught me this lesson tonight. She gracefully accepted the
well-deserved award for her performance in Les Mis. She gave a lovely
speech and ended it with “Here’s hoping someday in the
not-too-distant future the misfortunes of Fantine will be only found in
fiction and not in real life.” #Classy! Listening to that really
made me think of the story I’m telling and learning from. Anne told the
story of Fantine’s misfortunes, but we get to tell a happier story.
One of life and hope. Unlike Fantine, in the end Christ wins! This is
what shapes us and what molds how we live so that we’re telling it.
We’re telling of His work in our lives. We also get to learn from the
stories of others and allow that to shape us a little bit. We can allow
the story that we’re telling to become bitter and callous or open to
compassion and love. What story am I telling? Let’s embrace the story
of hope, of holiness, and joy. And may our lives tell His story and
not ours.
