Unveiled

"Oh, how he loves us... oh..."

My breathing is heavy from running through the hotel as I stand before the front of the class. I consciously try to slow my breathing and pulse down, not really sure what the point of the exercise was. Jason puts his hand on my chest and begins instructing me to do the same as the two before me. “Close your eyes,” he rumbles. I do. Breathe in. Press. Breathe out. Breathe in. Press. Breathe out. This goes on for a few more times, then he asked me. “Why are you passionate about acting?” I just shook my head, not sure if anything had changed from the last time he had asked me that question. Despite my efforts to calm them, both my breathing and my pulse increased. “There. Pull that emotion, that thought out from the depths. That's what you're looking for.” I can... barely hold on to whatever it is that I stumbled upon.

As it's slipping though my grip, a voice unlike Jason's calls out to me. “Justin...” My pulse quickens yet again.

“You've got it,” I hear Mr. Jason say, though it sounds like he's in a few rooms over.

“Justin...” It sounds like a whisper, but contains so much power... Suddenly, my own thoughts are plucked out of my subconscious and shown before me, like library books being taken off the shelf and leafed through. I start whispering as fast as I can everything that is being shown before me.

“I love acting because... because on stage, up there, I can truly be myself and not be ridiculed. Because the real acting takes place when I step off the stage.”

“That's it. Say it out loud.” I repeat myself.

“I love acting because on stage I am who I am. I don't have to be afraid that someone will make fun of me or reject me. Because when the curtain closes, the performance begins.” Thoughts of love and peace and acceptance from the Father rushed over me much to my relief and surprise. I felt as if I was standing before the throne of God, worshiping without music or words, just standing in awe of how much He loves me. Jason called my drifting conscience back to the hotel.

“Open your eyes and look around. What do you see?” I blinked a few times, still in shock of what I had just seen through closed eyes. Slowly, the class came back into focus.

“I see...” I couldn't believe what I saw. On those faces before me, I saw fights with spouses, with siblings. I saw the anxiety of not knowing where the next meal would come from. I saw mortgages, car loans, rent, phone bills, college tuition... behind those happy, plastic faces I saw pain. I saw suffering. “I see... that everyone is the same way, has the same fears. They don't want to show the world their vulnerable side, their weaknesses. They're all hiding behind a veil.”

Jason nodded, “This is the Justin that will change the world. I truly believe it. You may take your seat.”

I numbly walk back and sit down. I found it hard to focus for the rest of the class, my mind reeling from the experience. I felt the presence of God move into my conscience and begin to shift things... things that were covered in cobwebs and stained with old sins and regrets. It was unreal. I think I finally am beginning to understand what being “unveiled” truly means. Not just on stage, but in life.

"How he loves us, oh..."

I encountered God today, in the most unusual places. It wasn't in a sermon at church, it wasn't lifting my hands at a worship service, it wasn't discovering truth at a Bible study.

It was in an acting class.