Fifty Two Weeks / Psalm 15

This one is Personal

This short Psalm is the description of the person who has the right to stand on God’s holy hill and enter His sanctuary. This is what God is looking for and if you meet all of these requirements you are in.

Rather than go through this brief, but daunting, list I want to tell you a story of one of these things that is very personal and is the reason why this is a special chapter to me.

When I turned my life over to the Lord in the early spring of 1975 I was very heavily involved in the theatre in Nashville. For the past two years I had been constantly involved in either acting or directing at Ensemble Theatre Company on West End. When the change happened in my life I fully intended to just leave the theatre out right but the Lord had other plans. To make a long story short I continued at ETC and several of the other theatre regulars also came to Jesus.

In the fall of 1976 Margaret and I were married and our involvement in The Lord’s Chapel (our church home) took off. My heart was drawn more and more toward involvement at the church leaving little time for the theatre. Nevertheless, I promised my close friend C, B, Anderson (the Director of ETC) that I would direct a play in the winter of 1978. I chose The Tenth Man by Paddy Chayefsky. Though I had long admired this play I really had little desire to devote the time and energy necessary to direct again. I only made this promise as a favor to C.B.

By the end of 1977 I was in a quandary. It seemed with every passing day I was dreading more and more the very thought of directing this play. Time was running out. I was going to have to announce auditions soon. What to do?

It was about this time that Margaret and I attended a home Bible study and were surprised to see Paul Snyder in attendance. Paul had been Margaret’s pastor before we married and he was the one who married us. Talking with Paul after the Bible study I told him of my situation regarding the theatre and asked his advice. Without hesitation he directed me to the last two lines of Psalm 15:4, “who keeps his oath even when it hurts.”

There it was as clear as you could want; my answer. I prayed, “Lord, you know my heart. I’m wiling to do this but please either give me the desire to do this or get me out of it.” Two days later, as I was preparing my audition notice for the local paper, C.B. called to tell me that there had been a rather strong altercation between himself and the board. The theatre was shutting down. He was sorry but I wouldn’t get to direct.  

Since that time I have considered this to be one of my life verses. I was thrilled that I didn’t have to direct but even before then I had found great peace in surrendering to the power of this simple instruction.

By the way, I don’t think anyone perfectly keeps any of these instructions. It’s a good thing that we have a Savior - Christ Jesus.