The Devil is a Scrooge!

My sister and I are the Christmas Play directors. Since God has really blessed us with a growing church, we have three separate Christmas plays. Normally we have the Adult Play on Saturday, and then the following Sunday evening we have the youth & children’s plays. But this year, Nancy and I have opted for something a little different that our church has never done before. Our youth will be hosting "A Walk Through Bethlehem." It is the same concept as a live nativity, however, there will be a guided tour of Bethlehem where you actually walk from scene to scene. This will be taking place on December 8th & 9th. Nancy is the main director for this play, I will be helping when I can.

On December 16th, we will have the Adult Christmas play. The title of the play is "A Second Chance Christmas." We have been working very hard on the play, and I know that the Lord will bless. I am the main director for this play, Nancy will be helping when she can.

On Sunday, December 17th, will be the Children’s Christmas play. It is titled, "Christmas Around the World." Each child will be representing a different country and will speak of the traditions unique to that country/culture. They will be forming a manger scene in the end. Nancy and I are both directing this play. Nancy is doing more of the actual play stuff, I am working more on the costumes, props and anything else that needs to be done. We also have others who are helping us get this play under way.

Nancy and I together are directing the children’s choir and the youth choir. These songs will be presented on the night of the 17th as well.

I have never seen the likes of the devil as I have this past weekend. I have come to realize that the devil is the biggest Scrooge of them all. Naturally, I don’t expect the devil to be excited about anything that takes place in a church in the name of God. He really does know how to wear you down, though.

Saturday morning as I am getting ready to start the adult play practice, I find out that one of the cast members is not going to be able to be in the play. I also had an idea that another cast member (main character) wouldn’t be able to be in the play either. I was so stressed. However, I had a couple of people in mind for the parts. I spoke to them Sunday morning, but with their jobs, both travel quite a bit, and December is no exception. So here I was, less than a month away from show time, and I didn’t have a main character, nor did I have a husband for the nosy neighbor. I was stressed and I really just wanted to cry and throw up my hands.

Then, over lunch, Nancy informed me that she was having just as much trouble with the youth Bethlehem Walk, as I was with the adult. She had youth telling her that they didn’t want to be in it, they had to be outside in the cold, they didn’t want people standing around staring at them, etc. By the time we left the restaurant, Nancy and I were so disheartened and really felt like all we were trying to accomplish was going down the drain, and no one was going to get a blessing from it. The devil had us by our feet and was ready to pull them out from under us.

The past two years, I have directed the youth play. I know how they are, and Nancy and I thought that this year we had a fool proof game plan. The youth do not like to act, they do not like to speak, they do not want to memorize lines, they really don’t want to do much other than be seen. So that is one reason we decided to do the Walk. Because they wouldn’t have to do anything other than put on a costume and stand/sit, whatever, in a scene during the Walk. They wouldn’t have to practice very much at all (maybe like once the week before), they wouldn’t have to do a thing other than stand. Well the devil reminded us really quick he doesn’t like anything to do with God, and our fool-proof plan was not devil-proof.

Anyways, by the time church was over last night, I had my two recently empty positions filled and Nancy had volunteers for the youth play (hopefully more than enough) and it was obvious WHO was in charge. We even had like 4 costumes for the Christmas Around the World taken care of as well! WHEW....what a blessing!

Today, life as a Christmas play director feels a little less stressful. So Bah, humbug, Satan!

Well, it’s time for another play practice tonight, hopefully everyone will show up!