Flip the Script

Laura Booz: Okay, I have a trivia question for you, which show has had the longest run on Broadway? The answer . . . drumroll please . . . The Phantom of the Opera is the longest running show in Broadway history. It opened on January 26, 1988 and has had some 13,370 performances.

Just taking a short break during the pandemic, but they are back at it. Critics and fans agree that Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical score is just as gripping as it has always been. Some thirty years after its opening night, people from all over the world continue to buy those tickets for about $100, dress up, and find their way to the Majestic Theater in Manhattan to watch The Phantom of the Opera, because the show has aged that well. 

It makes me wonder, how does a cast and crew tell the same story day after day and night after night for over thirty years? Well, the answer to that is simple, by sticking to the script. As long as the actors continue to memorize, rehearse, and recite their lines, and the crew carefully follow their cues, and the orchestra continues to play the notes on the page, The Phantom of the Opera will always be The Phantom of the Opera. 

But what if they veered from the script? What if Christine, the heroine of the story, suddenly wanted to change things up? What if she said “no” instead of “yes”? Or “yes” instead of “no”? What if the guy on the sidelines with the pully decided he didn’t want the chandelier to crash? What if the phantom tired of the drama just sat down and ate a sandwich instead? The whole story would change. 

These what ifs were running through my mind one day when my husband and I were standing in the kitchen reciting one of our own scripts, and not a script I would want you paying $100 for to dress up and watch for two-and-half hours. We only have a few of these scripts, you know the type of back-and-forth disagreements that two people repeat for most of their relationship? It’s nothing novel. It never solves the problem. It never gets to the heart of the issue. And yet, we faithfully, or should I say stubbornly, say our lines as if we were performing in our thirty-year tour on Broadway. 

I honestly don’t remember the exact script we were reciting that day in the kitchen. At the end of the episode, I’ll tell you why I can’t remember it. But let’s just say it went something like this: 

I would say, “Hey, I don’t like how you talked to our son just then.” 

And Ryan would say, “Oh, I think you’re being a little too sensitive. He’s fine.” 

And I would say, “You have no idea how he feels.” 

To which he would reply, “I think I do. We have a great relationship.” 

And I would say, “Just imagine what this will look like in ten years.” 

And then it would take two hours to melt the ice between us with no intermission. 

That day was different though. Because as the lights came on, and our scene began. I was not only thinking of The Phantom of the Opera, but I was also thinking about Ephesians 4, verse 29, which says, 

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

I was trying to figure out how it applied to this back-and-forth script with my husband. I thought about how Paul was appealing to Christians to take their words seriously, and to intentionally choose words that would build other people up. 

Here are a few other experts from Ephesians 4, 

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. (v. 17)

That is not the way you learned Christ—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. (vv. 21–27)

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (vv. 29–32)

When I meditate on these verses, I think I know the scene in the kitchen used to go one way, but now because Jesus died for my sins, it can go another way. So, I can put off the old way and try something new. You know, there’s a term for this. It’s called flipping the script—to take what you were going to say and scrap and say something better.

Most of my life is not scripted; it’s more like improv. I have to think on my feet. It’s a lot harder, not impossible, but harder to meditate on verses from Ephesians when the conversation is evolving right in front of me. 

But here was a conversation I knew well. I knew what was coming next, and I could choose. What if I received God’s grace to change things up? Right then and there, in the middle of our rehearsed back and forth? And then what if I made some other changes too? Like what if I intentionally added new pieces of dialogue to my life that would build people up and bring grace to others? Like the well-rehearsed scene where I regularly light up when Ryan walks in the room. I love that scene. Or the dialogue that I have when I regularly thank him?

Or even when it comes to my kids. Over and over again I tuck them into bed with a prayer and a blessing. I realize that for every occasion in which I choose to say the life-giving thing, I am receiving yet one more blessing of the holy life God purchased for me through the blood of Jesus. I am receiving the gift of Him. Shaping my words and dialogue to glorify Him and to bring life to people. 

That day in the kitchen, Ryan and I must have been in the middle of our 13,000th performance when I suddenly decided I didn’t want to tell that story any longer. The only way to flip the script for me was to botch my line and do something entirely over the top. So, I did. 

Ryan said “Well, I think we have a great relationship.” 

And I jumped into his arms and said “You’re right! You’re right! You’re right!”

And that’s all it took; we both forgot our lines forever. We have never recited that script again. 

One of the ways God has used to get my attention, renew my mind, and flip the script, was through the podcast Revive Our Hearts. Every weekday Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth takes us to God’s Word through Bible teaching and practical conversations. 

Revive Our Hearts has also launched a whole podcast family, including Expect Something Beautiful. May is the end of the fiscal year at Revive Our Hearts. That’s when we close up the accounting books and make plans for another year of ministry. To end this fiscal year in a healthy place, Revive Our Hearts is asking the Lord to provide at least $775,000 in donations this month. 

If you appreciate Expect Something Beautiful, there is no better time to chip in, and help make it possible into the future. When you donate any amount at ReviveOurHearts.com, we’ll send you a thank-you gift. It’s a booklet called, (Un)Remarkable: Ten Ordinary Women Who Impacted Their World for Christ. You’ll read ten biographies of women who didn’t feel remarkable, but they watched God work in remarkable ways through their lives. You can help meet the fiscal year-end need and get your copy of (Un)Remarkable by visiting ReviveOurHearts.com. 

And I always hope you’ll check out my blog and read my book which is called, Expect Something Beautiful: Finding God’s Good Gifts in Motherhood. In both, I explore ways to flip the script, to fill our mind with God’s truth, and to let that truth to intersect the messiness of life. So, I hope you’ll visit me at LauraBooz.com. 

Expect Something Beautiful is a production of Revive Our Hearts calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.