A Parallel

One of things I hope to teach my students is how to emotionally authentic onstage. I am a firm believer in order to tell the story you have to genuinely feel the emotions in order for it not to feel false to the audience. So I strive to create a safe environment where kids can be vulnerable and open.
Sometimes I ask them to do hard things. Sometimes I ask them to dig deep and open their hearts and emotions. Sometimes I use different tactics to help it be authentic.
Right now I am working on our competition one act piece- it's called Spoon River Anthology and it contains a lot of monologues that illustrate the human experience in all of its aspects. One girl is telling the story of a young girl who was raped by a teenage boy and the entire town turns against her. It is completely tragic and a very difficult piece to do. Well, the sweet young actress was having a difficult time feeling and making it authentic. And so I made it hard for her. I got in her face to make her feel small and vulnerable, I yelled at her- have you ever felt small? Have you ever felt powerless? Have you ever felt like no one was there? The entire class was speechless, fixated on me. Well, she allowed herself to feel and then she did the monologue. It was so raw- I sat there as she told the story and my heart ached for her. All I wanted to do was embrace her and tell her it would be ok, but I had to wait for her to finish. I had created this hard and cold environment so she could understand and it wasn't until she was finished that. I could go to her.
Once she finished the monologue, I rushed over to her and gave her a big hug. I told her she was amazing and that I was proud of her for being so vulnerable. And then I helped her step out of the emotion- but I taught her that she would need to be that open again with the piece.
As I thought about the experience- which had been hard on both of us- I drew an interesting parallel.
Life is so hard at times, we go through tremendous heartache, sorrow and disappointment. And sometimes, it feels like God has left us alone. But as I sat there and watched my student sob through her monologue- I knew I couldn't run to her, I knew she had to go through it without me. But, I was there, watching, feeling with her and making sure it would all be ok.
I think that's how God is with us sometimes. He can't take away the pain because we have to grow. But He is there with us, watching and guiding. And once we are done, he will run to us, embrace us and let us know we are amazing and it was all a part of our growth.