The Les Miserables movie opened Christmas day, 2012, and the controversy began. Which is better:  pre-recorded songs actors lip-sync to when filmed, or actors who sing live while filming?

I’m not going to debate the issue either way. To me, Victor Hugo’s book, on which the movie is based, brings up larger, more important issues to consider. Grace, being one of them.

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Surf Science

What this discussion did cause me to reflect on, is whether it is better to be a poser – a pretender – and lip-sync our way through life, or experience it, pain and all, real time?

Yeah, I can see advantages with going either way, depending on the situation and circumstances. Most of us have filters our life experiences flow through, coping mechanisms we initiate, when life whomps us upside the head. We lip-sync to get through. There are also times we experience unbridled emotions, where we live life real-time.

But what I zeroed in on, was relationship with God. Lip-synced, or real-time?

As a child, if we were told to tell someone, “thank you”, or “sorry”, was it lip-synced, or real-time? I believe if we had to be prompted, it may have leaned more toward lip-synced.

Does that same pattern follow in our relationship with God?

Do we lip-sync through the motions of singing familiar hymns, without allowing the words to touch our heart? Do we glaze over Bible verses we’ve heard and read many times before, and not experience the relevance of those verses real-time?

Are our acts of worship on auto-pilot-lip-sync, or feel-it-in-the-moment-real-time?

Several years ago, Sissy and I took our mother, and one of our aunts, to visit another one of our aunts at the nursing home. After our visit, the four of us stopped at a fruit stand to purchase fresh peaches and watermelon. This fruit stand also sold homemade peach ice cream.

Oh, my goodness…I sure am glad Sissy ordered the larger sized bowl for each of us, rather than the smaller, less caloric, one I proposed. WHAT was I thinking?

The four of us ate that ice cream with pure enjoyment…real-time. We experienced the sweetness. We pressed on past brain freeze, and savored the decadent taste of peaches and cream in our mouths.

There was no lip-synced, “Oh, my. Isn’t this pleasant?”

No sir-ee. We were living real-time, baby!

“This is the best! Turn the car around. Now! We have GOT to get some more!”

Which sadly, we did not do.

So back to Les Miz…is our relationship with God real-time, like when Anne Hathaway, who won the Golden Globe, and Academy Award, for Best Supporting Actress as Fantine, sings, “I Dreamed a Dream”, or are we merely going through the motions? Lip-syncing our way through life? Being transparent, or masquerading?

Personally, I’d rather eat fresh peach ice cream, than talk about it, any day.

Same with God. I’d rather experience him in my life on a personal level, than have some philosophical discussion about what that should feel like.

What are your thoughts on the subject? I’d love to hear from you.

I wish you well.

Sandy

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