My Oscar

Good Afternoon Girls!

Happy Monday, Happy March, Happy Moms!


Here's to living a better week than last week!


I got sucked in last night watching the Oscars. I normally don't give in, but somehow, this year, I did. Sometimes I find the awards shows (and I do mean show(s) for how many awards did Sandra Bullock get in the past 2 months??) full of pomp and circumstance, full of gloating and self-toting, and it's just exhausting to see everyone dressed to the nines and to look down and "admire" my leggings.



I totally understand that above all awards, this is the big kahuna to win. This basically secures your position in Hollywood history, and gives job security (unless you're Mickey Rourke) until your death. You will be interviewed by Oprah. You will get a star on Hollywood Blvd. You will be mourned with candlelight vigils near every location that meant something in your life after you pass. And most importantly, that little statue sitting on your mantle will stare back at you for as long as you shall live. (PS...Oscars collect dust just as quickly as anything else in your home.)



As much as I would love to be awarded the Oscar by the votes of mommywood, wifewood, or housewood, I understand that those awards are for a moment in time...not for ALL time.


But wisdom- a wise heart...now, that's an award I'd love to win daily. Let's just call it the Wise Heart!



In Proverbs 8, Wisdom speaks to us:

Proverbs 8:18-21 Riches (wealth) and honor (glory, dignity) are with me; yea, durable (handed-forward, enduring, valuable, surpassing) riches (substance) and righteousness. 19 My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue (gain) than choice silver. 20 I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment: 21 That I may cause those that love me to inherit (acquire, possess) substance (existence); and I will fill their treasures (storehouses).


(The words in parentheses are synonyms from the Hebrew roots of each of the words in the KJV version.)



So, Sandra Bullock may have an Oscar, but I have my Wise Heart, and this is why I win in the end.


1. Oscars are won by a person pretending they are someone else. It is their interpretation of who someone else is. They are not themselves. They are the epitome of someone wearing a facade, sometimes so deeply as to not leave that fake persona for the entire length of filming (method actors). In fact, it seems that the more submersed they are in a character, the better they are.



My Wise Heart is "won" by living out my life authentically as me. I am in the trenches with my heart and soul...my mind, my thoughts. There is nowhere to run from who I am, whether good or bad. I can put on a facade, but in the end, in the silence, when I'm alone, I am me. And in that authenticity, God can mold ME into the daughter of His that He wants me to be. For He has this amazing plan for my life that fits perfectly in His big picture. I may think it’s fleeting, like a movie that ends abruptly, but He thinks my life is a masterpiece…and my performance is for Him.



2. An Oscar is won for one performance. All actors start somewhere (remember George Clooney on Facts of Life??), and to be finally acknowledged is like finding that needle in a haystack. Nobody can predict that when they pick up a script that someday that ONE performance in that ONE film with that ONE director telling that ONE story would be the “best.” The odds are more against you winning an Oscar than scoring big in Vegas. And yet, by a “fluke” you MAY win an Oscar.


However, my Wise Heart is a culmination of a life-long performance where nothing goes unnoticed by the King of Kings. Every performance, every role, every day, every moment, every relationship is an opportunity for my wise heart to burst forth and grow. It’s not like finding a needle in a haystack; it’s like finding the sun in a clear, blue sky. It is guaranteed when we turn our face to His. We are guaranteed to grow in His wisdom as we cultivate the garden of our heart. Our wise heart is not the result of a chance happening; it is a gift from Him and the direct result of digging deep in His Word and applying it throughout our lives.


3. Once you are awarded an Oscar, is there anything really that will top that in your profession? Is the only way from there, down? Can you get any better than best? Well, I suppose Meryl Streep has answered that over and over again, but I am just curious. If you’ve “arrived,” then where do you go from there? For in Hollywood, when you think you’ve arrived, you become complacent and wake up 5 years later broke and on Celebrity Rehab or Celebrity Apprentice. (Okay, yes, I’m intrigued by reality shows.) And you can never, ever become comfortable, even though you’re the best…at least for that year. (And what if all the movies that year stunk, and you were actually the best of the worst?? Just a thought.)



However, my Wise Heart will never "arrive." It will never reach the “best” and I happen to love that. For when we think we’ve arrived and sit in our self-proclaimed "bestness", is when we turn our back on our Lord, and rely on our own strength…and wake up 5 days, 5 weeks, 5 months, 5 years later with a mess on our hands. The severity depends on the length we’ve been away from Him. My success, my existence, my "substance" (v.21) is due to Him! And that is what causes me to continue to strive, reach, stretch, and grow, for His approval and blessings. Ladies, when your teachers preached the good in being "life-long learners," this is what they were talking about. Most likely they were not referring to faith, but in what better area to be life-long learners than at the feet of our Lord?



4. An Oscar guarantees the winner glory for the night, maybe for the month, maybe for the next year…but after a year has past and they have to announce the next winner, their reign of “bestness” is over. For someone has replaced them. The glory fades as the newest, more trendy, more artsy, more gutsy, more bizarre roles are played. Soon you will be known as “that actress who won some award years ago for some role that can’t be recalled.” Try to remember the best actress from 5 years ago, let alone supporting actress. It just doesn’t happen. For the Oscar has no bearing on life itself.



And yet, my Wise Heart gives glory to Him for my entire existence. It's not just glory on the night I was saved, in the nights my marriage was saved, in the nights He rescues me from the pit of despair, but in all the nights, mornings, noons, evenings in-between. Forever my heart will be what defines me…not what I once earned or achieved, but what I am earning and achieving in the present. For He has my future held tightly in His hands. The glory, honor, dignity (v.18) of my Wise Heart is based on Him and due to Him, not on what is most trendy or most moving. It’s not due to how far out of my comfort zone I venture, but due to Him stretching me to places never imagined before! This glory, mamas, lasts a lifetime…and will go and on and on and on as we influence the generation that proceeds us, in our children, and their children.



5. And P.S., the Oscar is just an object. I know the recipients carry it around the first night as if it were their fifth appendage...an extension of their body...a new accessory...a new member of the family! HAA!! I watched Jeff Bridges’ backstage address to the press, waiving his arms in excitement, one hand holding the Oscar, and the other holding loosely to a tall glass of champagne. The only thing I focused on was the glass wondering at which point some liquid would bounce out of it! Forget what he was saying...the anticipation of the liquid in the glass was much more entertaining. But all of a sudden, the Oscar made him important. It made him an expert. It made his career. It made his wife's career spent indulging his endless travels, horrendous schedules, and lack of time with the family. That Oscar gave him validity.



But in the end of time, it will be my Wise Heart that will give my life validity. It is the object that proves throughout my life, who I stand for, what I stand for, and why I stand for Him. My heart, never away from my body (and without it, I would be clinically dead), defines me. I have the opportunity to develop my heart, to ground it in Him, and yet to allow it to soar on the wings of eagles. It is not about the verbal cacophony that I spout on and on, for it's my walk that proves my Wise Heart. So my worth is wrapped up in the wisdom that is greater than gold, silver (v.19), and will fill my existence and my treasures (v.21).



Ladies, how amazing is that? I would much rather win a Wise Heart. For in the end, when we stand before the Lord, we won’t have anything EXCEPT our hearts.



Here’s to living every day as if a performance for one, the One who created you to be exactly where He has you.



Lots of love!!



Rebecca