“Bada-ba-pa-pa. I’m loving it!”
Anybody remember that jingle?
It really doesn’t matter because it’s beside the point. All I’m thinking about today is doing something that puts a smile on your face.
I’m really not talking smile seeking—doing something that you know will make smile when you do it (though that’s not necessarily a bad thing).
I’m talking about throwing yourself wholeheartedly into something so much that the smile just shows up.
Here’s a story to illustrate:
My favorite son is a middle school theatre teacher in Borger, Texas. Each year he conducts auditions for a one semester class that prepares a one-act play for competition.
He obviously wants his students to do well in the competition (and they have every year), but more than that, he wants them to develop a love for the theatre and have a positive experience of giving their best possible performance—both as cast and crew—regardless of who wins the competition.
Over five years at BMS, he has developed such a positive reputation that this year he had 75 students who auditioned for a class that was limited to 25!
Their competition show was last week and was a 40 minute adaptation of the well-known story of the Three Musketeers. Romance, intrigue, betrayal, lots of sword fighting—all done with students between the ages of twelve and fourteen.
A couple of weeks ago, he told me about one of his lead actors who was just killing it. He had his lines down perfectly, understood the character, nailed the sword fighting—really a top notch job of acting.
There was only one problem.
The kid was having so much fun that he couldn’t stop grinning.
He’d be in the middle of a sword fight, confronting his nemesis, kneeling over the body of his long lost love—and the grin would start to show up.
He was just loving every moment of being part of this production.
When joy sneaks up on you—that’s amazing.
It’s happened to me many times.
I’m in the middle of an ordinary experience when I realize that I’m grinning.
It’s not that everything has gone perfectly. In fact, it is sometimes precisely because everything has NOT gone perfectly.
And yet, right in the middle of the mess, joy shows up and I realize there’s no place I’d rather be right now than right here in the messy middle of it all.
It occurs to me that we sometimes miss amazing moments looking for exceptional experiences.
It occurs to me that we sometimes miss amazing moments looking for ideal circumstances.
In this season leading up to Christmas, I can guarantee that we will have circumstances that are less than ideal and experiences that are less than exceptional.
We will have situations that will be messy and inconvenient.
We will not win every contest.
But, as we consider what it means to have God show up right in the middle of the mess—as He demonstrated in a stable in Bethlehem—I hope we get surprised by our own grins.
Bada-ba-pa-pa!
Be amazing today, my friend.
