As a Christian working in the influential media industry I am especially sensitive to the projects we produce at Cooke Pictures and how it affects audiences. I try even harder to pay attention to my own personal behavior and its affect on the people I work with daily. As leaders our work and lives are always being judged. Christians can be the worst at being judgmental and often slow to forgive publicly.  I am reminded of the whiplash effect that Paul had on the Pharisees when he was blinded and convicted by God to change his thinking and ways.  One day he was practicing legalistic Judaic law and the next he was condemning it after having his eyes opened to God’s grace and redemption.  Might we as believers also need to reexamine from time to time our rules, practices, and methods when we work and intersect with the unbelieving and blinded present culture? Let’s let God do the eye opening and convicting. Our job is to shed light and sprinkle Truth salt but most importantly we are to lead and love with empathy and compassion.

In the recent Relevant Magazine interview (Jan/Feb 2014 issue 67) of Jennifer Lawrence star of the Hunger Games film series I was impressed with her personal attitude and character choices she makes in real life.  Here’s a couple quotes from the article:

“I don’t ever think, ‘My job is very important,’” she says. “I remember being on the first movie and there was a girl who was an extra, and she was covered in scars. She had been burned, and I remember her coming up to me and saying that she was self-conscious to go to school when she was younger and then when she read The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, she felt proud of her scars, and her friends called her “The Girl on Fire.” And I remember just crying on and on, and I still can’t really tell that story without choking up. I remember calling my mom and being like, ‘I kind of get it.’”

Lawrence pauses, visibly choked up at the memory.

“Sometimes it can seem so pointless because you’re so filled with, like, hair and makeup and clothes—and then sometimes just the lives that you can touch without even meaning to,” she continues. “There are so many elements, so many wonderful things that can come from this, from when you have a voice, saying the right things.

I don’t know the personal spiritual convictions of Jennifer Lawrence but she gets it. She knows she is a woman of influence and is mindful of it.  As influential women, we have a responsibility to be aware of how we are affecting the others in our office, at the grocery store, or on movie set or stage platform.  It’s those times when we think that no one is looking that matters. It matters to God. We are His representatives. What should you be paying  attention to right now that gets in the way of being an authentic human being to others? Let your light so shine…. Matt. 5:16