What Shakespeare Made Me Realize

At my co-op, my friend said something about the Google tribute to Shakespeare, and how she was thinking about me or something. Another time, another friend was thinking about me when we were reading a book that had a Shakespearian aspect (it actually has multiple aspects) to it. Another person shared a link about Shakespeare’s first folio for me. Another friend once sent me a link to something Shakespeare related and said that when she saw it, she thought I needed to see it. Another special adult tagged me in a comment for a thing about Shakespeare. One of my closest friends even told me that she needed my help writing a Shakespearian love letter.

Yesterday, I was stopped by two moms I know about Shakespeare. The first one was mentioning his birthday a few days ago. I told her it was also the 400th anniversary of his death, and she said she remembered me mentioning that. I think she remembers my (around) ten minute speech from two years ago about Shakespeare. Then, as I was walking, another sweet lady (my brother’s music teacher) stopped me to give me a Shakespeare in music cd. I obviously have a reputation for Shakespeare, and what’s crazy about some of these people doing these things is that some of them I barely know. Now I’m starting to think, and I realize a common thing. Almost everyone I know has a common belief, that I love Shakespeare. And it’s true, I basically yell it out to the world. Even people I barely know seem to know it. And it’s really cool. But it makes me think, ‘What if I advertised my love of God in this same way? What if I talked about Him like I talk about Shakespeare?’ I mean, my reputation is one of a Shakespeare fanatic, and everybody knows it. But if I talked about God in the way I talk about Shakespeare, think about how many lives I could impact for Christ! Wouldn’t it be cool to be known as the girl who is obsessed with Jesus? Sure, my Shakespeare rep is cool, but in the end, what really counts is what I did about Jesus. If I listened to the command, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Matthew 28:19, ESV), then think about all that I could accomplish! I already have experience evangelizing to people; I just went on a mission trip where we evangelized to people on the beach! Why am I wasting my time talking about Shakespeare when I could be telling everybody how much God loves them, and how God offers a new life to anyone who will accept Jesus, repent, and follow Him? Wouldn’t that be a great accomplishment?