Green Eggs and Green Rooms

“The whole thing smells of the green room and the stage!”

This is a quote that hit me right between the eyes as I was reading Charles Spurgeon’s, Lectures to My Students. I think you get the idea here, but in case you don’t, let me go on.

Green Room

A place required by most musicians, authors, and speakers. It is a room or space behind closed doors where they can relax and “be themselves.”

Stage

A place where the said musician, author, or speaker “performs.”

I’m not a fan of the phrase “be themselves” and “performs” in this context. Please understand that I am not trying to put everyone in a box here. I do have to ask the question though, do our lives in the “green room” look different than our lives on the “stage?”

I went to a youth leaders conference a few years back and remember the speaker saying, there were a lot of green rooms they wished they would not have been in. They would rather be unaware to what they saw and heard. My pastor has said the same thing about places he has been. If I’m honest, it confuses me and terrifies me. Why would these great people be so different in different spaces? Could I end up doing the same thing one day? Maybe we are already doing it without realizing it.

There is a children’s book that we should all be familiar with, maybe even fond of. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. A character is confronted with the petition to eat green eggs and ham. He responds:

I do not like them
In a house.
I do not like them
With a mouse.
I do not like them
Here or there.
I do not like them
Anywhere.
I do not like green eggs and ham.
I do not like them, Sam-I-am.

Eventually he caves. We have all been there before. I will do it if you will finally leave me alone! (I’m going somewhere, hang with me!) He tries them and he likes them. He then responds:

So I will eat them in a box.
And I will eat them with a fox.
And I will eat them in a house.
And I will eat them with a mouse.
And I will eat them here and there.
Say! I will eat them anywhere!

He didn’t try them and go on with his life. He essentially said that if they are good enough for here, then why wouldn’t they be good enough for there?! That’s an incredible question for us to consider.

Psalm 34:8 “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

Have you been there? You’ve tasted and seen the goodness of God?! If Jesus is good enough for Sunday and Wednesday, why isn’t He good enough for Monday and Thursday?!

Perhaps what we live is not truly the Gospel?

The gospel is good news for everyday! If He is good enough for the stage, then He should definitely be good enough for the green room. Our lives should be a sweet aroma to God. Otherwise, it just smells of the green room and the stage!