"You just can't make up this stuff!"

Following the course of current events these days is more and more like watching, and therefore participating, in a bizarre scripted production spread across various media. People and events, for the sake  of swift sensation, are too often presented and portrayed as one dimensional caricatures of a poorly written morality play.

More and more I say and hear the phrase, "You just can't make up this stuff!" when in actuality this is exactly what is happening. The players, our so called public servants and leaders, are assigned roles by various casting entities and producers using the power of access and money to cajole them into "playing their parts." As soon as a new person appears in the story they are assigned roles as well - the victim, the accuser, the cad, the villain, the wily attorney, the scrupulous judge, and so forth and so on. The masses are told who the characters are in  "playbill bios" on front pages and screens disguised as "news."

In so many ways the spectacle we see unfolding around us is but a projection of inner turmoil within countless individuals struggling with eternal human questions of identity and purpose: Who am I? Why am I here? Our challenge as individuals and responsibility to the human community, is to not defer these questions to the script writers, but rather grapple with them by living into them.

In reality the spectacle around us will continue. The "show must go on" - this is life. Some challenges, opportunities, and questions for each of us when we step on to the stage or into the screen each morning are: Will I take time to contemplate and discern my true self? Will I embrace my true self or accept false selves assigned to me? How will I participate, as spectator or actor? Will I allow others the same freedom that I seek? And above all, is it true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise - think about these things.  (Philippians 4:8)