The Story of Gomer

"The word hypocrisy comes from the Greek ὑπόκρισις (hypokrisis), which means "Jealous" "play-acting", "acting out", "coward" or "dissembling".^[2] The word hypocrite is from the Greek word ὑποκρίτης (hypokrites), the agentive noun associated with υποκρίνομαι (hypokrinomaiκρίση, "judgement" »κριτική (kritiki), "critics") presumably because the performance of a dramatic text by an actor was to involve a degree of interpretation, or assessment, of that text.

Whereas hypokrisis applied to any sort of public performance (including the art of rhetoric), hypokrites was a technical term for a stage actor and was not considered an appropriate role for a public figure. In Athens in the 4th century BC, for example, the great orator Demosthenes ridiculed his rival Aeschines, who had been a successful actor before taking up politics, as a hypokrites whose skill at impersonating characters on stage made him an untrustworthy politician. This negative view of the hypokrites, perhaps combined with the Roman disdain for actors, later shaded into the originally neutral hypokrisis. It is this later sense of hypokrisis as "play-acting", i.e., the assumption of a counterfeit persona, that gives the modern word hypocrisy its negative connotation."

- Wikipedia

Why did I start with a really long quote from wikipedia on hypocrisy?

There have been many times in my life, none that I am proud of, that I have played the hypocrite. I have said one thing and done another. And in my hatred of all things hypocritical I have questioned many times my love of acting, of being on stage; struggling to find the reasons I love it so much since the word hypocrisy is rooted in "play-acting". Why is it that I love pretending to be something I'm not?

Is it the glory of performance, the applause afterward?
I have cried out often, Lord, why this? What am I suppose to do with it?!

And then one day in passing someone mentioned, "You know, Jesus loved to tell stories."

And it hit me. I love acting because I love to tell stories. I love to tell stories that are worth telling.

So I've been praying that God would lead me to stories that are worth telling. Two years ago I saw a story written and performed by Geri Campbell called "The Story of Gomer." I e-mailed her at that time wondering if I could perform it. At that time she wasn't ready to let anyone else perform it but I kept the e-mail.

I think God was waiting for my heart to be right with him. He was waiting for me to say, "Lord, I want to tell this story because it's important to you and not because I think I could do a good job. I want to tell it because people need to hear it, not because I have a need to perform."

And a few months ago I e-mailed again.

On the evening of Sunday, February 27, 2011 at Calvary Bible Church I will perform "The Story of Gomer" and I am so excited.

Well, nervous excited. I still have a bit to get ready before that time.

The Story of Gomer is based out of the book of Hosea, when God tells Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomer. And Hosea did; living out painfully and dramatically how God loves Israel even when Israel turned their backs on Him and chased after other gods. Time and time again God takes his people back just as time and time again Hosea took Gomer back, forgiving and loving her. But it's not just the story of Hosea and Gomer, or God and Israel, but also the story of God and each of us. God loves us with an incredible, redeeming, transforming love. He has bought us with the blood of his son Jesus and there is nothing we can do to earn it or lose it.

It is a story worth telling over and over again because so many need to hear it. Please pray with me that God would use the performing of this story and that he would prepare the hearts of those who see it. ... And that my memory wouldn't fail me and that I would perform it well.