"You know, there's a rule in acting called "Don't play the result." If you have a character who's going to end up in a certain place, don't play that until you get there. Play each scene and each beat as it comes. And that's what you do in your life: You don't play the result. So, you get diagnosed with Parkinson's, and you can play the result. You can go right to, "Oh, I'm sick." It took me seven years to figure out that I'm not at the result."--Michael J. Fox, in Good Housekeeping magazine, June 2011
I fell head-over with Michael J. Fox when he played Alex P. Keaton in "Family Ties", circa 1982. I'm not sure if it was his conservative, Wall Street Journal leanings or his adorable face and way of dressing, but something in me wanted Alex to win.
Fast forward twenty-five years and Mr. Fox is now fifty (yes, FIFTY*) years old. He is married to the same woman who played his first girlfriend in "Family Ties" and has produced a healthy number of kiddos. Seems Alex's character rubbed off on Michael (or vice versa?!)
All that introduction to get to this point: Life, according to his interview in Good Housekeeping, couldn't be much better, unless his children never grew up. His Parkinson's has been a blessing in disguise. He continues to work when scriptwriters see fit to create a character with a neurologic disorder, which explains aways the tics that come with advancing Parkinson's.
But, Michael refuses to let a disease define him. I love his quote because it embodies the attitude we should all have in this life.
Some of us are playing the result, looking backward over our shoulders for our entire lives, using all the negatives that others have decided "define" us.
Some of us act like we have one foot in the grave and have forgotten we still have a pulse.
Some of us act like there is a destiny, based on our education or our family of origin, that is pulling us toward it and we have no power to walk a different path.
Some of us act like the latest bad news is the final say.
In short: many of us have completely forgotten how to live in Christ.
We've forgotten that forgiveness and grace define us, not this world, our parents, our job, or a diagnosis.
We've lost touch with the fact that to live IS Christ. We'll know no greater joy than to be called home by Him, in His time. But, until that moment, we are to live to the fullest for Him.
We've forgotten that every day is fresh and new. Walking with Christ requires a desire to do so, to crack open the Bible and read the Word and decide we are not worthy and want Christ's forgiveness. Our destiny is defined by the small steps we take each day, either toward or away from Him.
We've forgotten that this stay on planet Earth is very, very temporary; that we are but a breath in the scope of the universe. The bad news we hear today will be a faint memory in the totality of our story. And, often, when the chips are down, we find our best selves turned toward Christ's loving embrace.
Living involves loving. And the One who loves us more than we love ourselves doesn't play the result with our lives. He allows us to decide if today we will focus on the here and now or get caught up in the "what has been" or the "what will be". In fact, He delights in watching our stories unfold, through all the tears and laughter and heartache of this thing called life.
Let's face it: if a man with advancing Parkinson's can decide to live life to the fullest up until his last breath, you can make that same choice from where you sit.
Will you?
*He's kind of timeless, like Dick Clark.
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