“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” –Psalm 139:14
Hairspray is the story of a weight-challenged (plump) Baltimore teenager named Tracy Turnblad. Set in the 1960’s, Tracy’s dream is to dance on the Corny Collins show which is a local after school dance show. Tracy is thought to be too chubby to ever win a spot on the popular show but her enthusiasm and infectious personality win out and she gets her spot on the TV show. Hairspray is one of our featured shows in this year’s St. Luke’s on Broadway.
A few years ago, when my kids were still students at Norman North High School, there was talk that Hairspray would be the school musical during my daughter, Sarah’s senior year. Sarah was all excited about that possibility. She saw her chance to shine as Tracy Turnblad. Sarah could sing a bit and was a good actress and she was also overweight. There were all those musicals where the female lead was expected to be thin or shapely which of course translates into what the world considers beautiful. Here Sarah had a chance to grab the lead…. heck she had an unfair advantage!
From an early age Sarah had watched her weight grow. Dealing with all the pressure of being a teenager plus the fact she had lost her Mom when she was seven did not help. As her Dad, I took the family out to eat way too much and some of my kids developed terrible eating habits. It wasn’t even necessarily because they wanted to. I remember one night sitting at the dinner table with the kids and happy meals in front of them for the umpteenth time. Sarah, who was probably eight or nine by now, began to cry and protest,” couldn’t we ever have something other than McDonalds”? As the years rolled on Sarah gained more and more weight. Of course, that didn’t stop her from being successful in a number of areas. She made good grades in school and if she struggled with a subject she just worked that much harder to do well. She had lots of friends. She was a caring young lady with a good sense of humor and a stubborn streak like her Mom that pushed her to stand up for others when she thought they had been wronged. She was destined to work in a caring profession and she chose nursing. She graduated a few years ago from our great United Methodist nursing school at OCU and since has worked in hospitals in the ICU and the ER.
A little over a year ago she began considering having bariatric weight surgery. She wanted to be healthier and being a nurse she knew what she was doing to her body was not healthy. After some trepidation, she made the decision to have the sleeve surgery in which part of your stomach is removed. It was not an easy surgery nor an easy recovery. Slowly but surely, she began to lose weight. Almost a year out from the surgery she has lost 115 pounds and is still losing. I am so proud of her for all the hard work she has done to reach this point and change her life.
As we think about Telling Our Story this year at St. Luke’s I wanted to share Sarah’s story (with her permission). Her story is she was brave enough to make a life changing decision, to overcome old habits that threatened her long-term health. But the story would not be complete if I didn’t say Sarah has always been a beautiful person…long before her weight loss. She has an amazing heart and a beautiful soul.
Part of the message of Hairspray for Christians is that God sees past our skin color and the size of our bodies and sees us for who we truly are. God looks into our hearts and judges us on the way we love and accept others. Telling the Story means understanding we are all God’s children and in God’s eyes we are all “fearfully and wonderfully made”.
Rev. Dave Poteet, Pastor of Congregational Care
