Part 2: I'm pointing the finger at myself first. This is written for me. If it's for you, that's between you and your maker...

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If people understood that life on Earth was really just preparation for eternity, how would we act differently? The truth is we're just in rehearsals right now. We have opportunities to get it right before the curtain opens and the lights come on. We have to get ready and admittedly there is a lot of hustle and bustle in preparation. Right now we are bumbling around backstage trying not to knock each other over. The key is to be gracious and supportive to everyone else, our fellow performers. We all play a part and we all need the preparation if we are going to pull this off. Instead of make-up and costumes, we need to put on character and Christlikeness. This takes time, effort, concentration and a whole lot of grace. It never happens overnight.

We have lines to rehearse which are the scriptures. For us to be very effective at all we not only need to know those lines backward and forward, but we need to embody them. Nobody will believe the delivery of our lines if we don't believe them. We are convincing inasmuch as we become the characters who can say these lines: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Gal. 2:20)

If we can't be gracious and kind to one another backstage in the dark, can we expect to do so out front when the lights and the pressure are on? We need the practice because practice really does make perfect.

We are all in this together, and the show only opens if all of us are ready. Instead of demanding our own private dressing room with every personal amenity and special star treatment, we might actually learn to share and to put others needs above our own. In short, we'd put people first. We'd stop being concerned so much about "me" and "us" and "what we want" and be more concerned about the overall plan and how we can help each other in it. We would hold loosely to our sub-agendas and tangential plans. We would learn to work together for common goals from a common script beyond our petty schemes and schisms. The show must go on! Everybody plays a part.

We might even do something crazy like sell everything we own and go be missionaries half a world away in the hope that we might make a difference...that we might reach one more for Jesus...that he would walk with us and we'd feel the grace and peace and joy of his presence upon us, enabling us to keep going and love him more. We would learn to say "not my will, but your will be done, O Lord, on earth right now as it is in heaven for all eternity."

We would pray, "Father, whether I get anything else done today, I want to make sure I spend time loving you and loving other people—because that is what life is all about. We don't want to waste this day that you have made. More than anything else we want to get to know you, Lord, and to love you forever. Amen."

All praise and honor be yours, O God, because you are a generous God, who did not even stop short of giving your own son. (John 3:16).

What is the least we can do in return?