NEVERMIND ME...

If you are interested in Christians and Hollywood and culture and all the stuff of this blog, click on over to Jan "the (brilliant) Maven" and read her piece for January 27, 2005, "AN ARMY THAT WILL NOT RUN AWAY."

She's talking about believers who come to Hollywood and, then, fade away or run away. Here's the heart of it:

I've seen people run away because they didn't realize how hard the task before them was, and didn't train for what they were going to face (proving the rightness of the sentence). They gave up.

I've seen people run away because they refused to admit that the non-believers they were working for had any authority over them (in a sense, refused to submit to their commanding officers). Some of those only ran away after what could only be charitably called a "dishonorable discharge."

I've seen people run away because their own personal glory was more important to them than whether or not their army won the battle. (Not the kind of folks you'd really want to be next on a battlefield, anyway!)

Saddest of all, I've seen people run away from their faith. Some stick in the battle, but without any understanding why. Some run away from Hollywood, at loose ends as to who they are and what their purpose is.

And I have to say, it all really does come down to training. If we're *trained* to face the task before us, if we're *trained* to be servants, if we're *trained* to stick together as a community, if we're *trained* in what it takes to maintain a vital faith in the midst of darkness and disappointment and rejection.... Then and only then can we persevere to do the job God wants us to do.

Go read the whole thing. (Jan's MY friend...ahem.)