The music man: You can sing

My friend Joey sent me a note earlier today about the play asking if I would like to go, we both knew one of the actors.  Later that afternoon,  flipping through the newspaper (which I never do), I saw an ad for the same play.  

I had a great time, not just to meet and talk with Joey's daughters, Mark, Matt, Colleen, John, and others, but just to be reminded about the power of hope.

The story is about a man, and a woman and a town who are all changed in the course of coming together and seeing things not as they are, but as they can be.  I actually teared up when the little boy who had been trapped by a fear of speaking began to sing, because he had been given hope by the promise of playing a musical instrument.  

The music man was a salesman who gave people so much hope that they could sing, dance or play instruments, they forgot about everything else.  Only the mayor was able to resist the "spellbinder" (because he stood to loose money).  The heroine knew the music man's story was a hoax, yet she was swept off her feet because he inspired the town to greatness.  Poignantly, she loved even though she knew who he was. In turn, her love inspired the music man to make good on His promise. 

A couple of my favorite quotes:

"Oh, my dear little librarian. You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays. I don't know about you, but I'd like to make today worth remembering."

"There was love all around, but I never heard it singing. No I never heard it at all, Till There Was You."

This show reminded me of the movie "The Postman", where an apocalyptic  con-man is accused of giving out "hope like candy",  and ends up causing a great restoration as a result of coming to believe for others.  

God sees us not as we are, but as we will be.  That hope draws us towards Him in conversion, and beyond; helping us live life  to the full, and sing to Him as He sings to us. Its that hope that changes lives. 

Thanks Joey, Matt and Mark!