How was your weekend? We had a great time Saturday with our friend and best-selling novelist, Kristin Billerbeck, fighting freeway traffic to play for a few hours in Scottsdale. I’m glad Kristin drove. She’s a city girl from the Bay Area, whereas we are country bumpkins who grew up on Missouri Ozark farms and don’t feel as comfortable as she does in traffic. It was fun, though a little bit of a knuckle-biter with so many aggressive Phoenix drivers. It made us grateful for the law-abiding drivers out there—and for Kristin’s driving skills.

But the highlight of the day came when I convinced Mel to watch Jesus Christ, Superstar with me Saturday night. This year is the fiftieth anniversary of the release of the movie, which I watched at least a dozen times when it first came out. I found that I could still sing along on all the songs even fifty years later. It was so good we watched it again Sunday afternoon. Mel had never seen it, and I was a bit apprehensive that he would be disappointed, since the movie doesn’t show a resurrection. I mean, what is the passion of Christ without a resurrection? 
 
And yet it was this movie that drew me back to Jesus, and to church, all those long years ago, because of the power of that story. There is such power in the cross, isn’t there? “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us it is the power of God. (I Cor. 1:18: KJV).  It has made me realize that even as imperfect as I am—as we all are—we only need to speak the words of truth from our Bibles and those words can have a lasting effect on others. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16; KJV). Mel actually enjoyed the musical—and he hates musicals. I wonder how many lives have been changed over the years because of this one movie—and the years before and after the movie’s release, when the show went on the road. I don’t know how many of those actors and singers were Christians, but God uses imperfect people to do His will. He uses the cross to point the lost to Him. 
 
This past weekend’s experience has encouraged me to speak words of truth more often, knowing that even though I’m so NOT a perfect Christian, God’s words can work despite my imperfections, even through them.