If you have ever seen the movie 'The Greatest Showman', you may recall the scene where P.T. Barnum has taken on Philip Carlye as a partner and Philip is meeting Anne Wheeler (the trapeze artist) for the first time. She asks him a simple question: "What's your act, Mr. Carlye?" He responds with: "I don't have an act". She, of course, tells him that "everyone's got an act," but what did she really mean by this.
Did she mean that everyone involved with the circus had to have a circus act? Perhaps not. It seems as if she used her act to identify who she was and so the fact he didn't have an act showed he wasn't sure about what his 'identity' was. That maybe he was insecure. Our "acts" don't define us.
For example, if you are a football player or the best dancer, your identity does not lie in that. That thing you are involved in is not who you are, it is simply something you do and enjoy. One day my mom asked me what my hobbies are, what I like to do. I couldn't seem to answer because I did not even know myself. I was like Philip, I did not know what my 'act' was and was even convinced that I did not have one.
Everyone has something they enjoy doing, everyone has an act. It is up to you to decide what your act is. No one else can decide your act for you. You must decide for yourself. The great thing is that you do not have a deadline to have your 'act.' As J. R. R. Tolkien once wrote, "All we have to decide is what to do with the time given to us". Just because we do not know what our act is, does not mean we are forgotten or not needed in this world.
In fact, this "act" of ours is more for us than for others since everyone else has what is unique to them. We may have similar acts, but we all make them unique. If you look at the show, "America's Got Talent," you'll notice that there are multiple acts that are the same kind of act. For example, many people sing a song or play an instrument. If you were to look at a list of what each person's talent was, you'd say there was nothing unique about any of them.
But if you take a step back and look at each performance, you'd see have completely different and unique the acts are. The same goes for all our acts. We all have a part to play in this world. Some may look similar, but if you look at the big picture you'll notice how incredibly needed each and every act and person is. How amazingly unique each one is. We all have an act, the question is, do we know what that act is? And how can we best use it to love and serve others around us?
