TTA Takeover: Lydia Austin

STP Devotional for the Week of 1/19/2026

Hi! My name is Lydia. I’ve been at STP for three years, and this is my first year being a TTA. It has been so wonderful to be a part of the Wednesday Homeschool class and help present this amazing show, The Wizard of Oz. If you know anything about this story, you will probably be familiar with the character of Dorothy, the land of Oz, The Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Lion, and the yellow brick road–except, there is no yellow brick road, instead Dorothy has to follow the Narrow Brick Road. Jesus says this about the Narrow Road in the book of Matthew, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only few find it” (Matt. 7:13-14, NIV). Starting at the Cross, Dorothy braves her way on the Narrow Brick Road in search of the Emerald city and the great Oz. But she must, under no circumstances, ever leave the path, or else she won’t get to where she’s going, and she might end up lost forever.

When I was reading this story for the first time, what I kept thinking of was Final Two Weeks, and how intentionally “sticking to the path” like Dorothy, leads to powerful worship and trust in God during the run of a show. We have the remarkable opportunity to worship God by doing musical theatre here at STP, but it takes intentionality. God has taught me through my time at STP that if I trust Him with every moment on stage and off stage, if I worship Him backstage with an engaged heart, and try to please Him foremost in my performance, that puts my heart in a place of gratitude and worship. And similarly to Dorothy’s charge to “stay on the path,” this is the road to worship that we are charged to stay on during Final Two Weeks and the run of each of our shows. This road leads to peace of mind, gratitude of heart, and trust over fear. However, this is not the only road offered to us. Dorothy is warned about other “easier” roads she could take: wide roads, winding roads, misty roads, but in the end these paths will not get Dorothy to the Emerald City. In the same way we as cast members here at STP are tempted with other paths through Final Two Weeks as well: the path of self-importance, relying on our own skill more than God’s power to work through us; the path of distraction, getting so caught up in the wonderful things that musical theatre entails that we lose focus on using musical theatre as a tool to worship God; and finally the path of fear, becoming consumed by fear and worry over ourselves, little details, or the show on the whole. These paths are hard to avoid. But through God’s help we can stick to the right road. Dorothy meets other travelers on the Narrow Brick Road who have gotten off the path because they chose to follow another way. But even though they left the path, with Dorothy’s help, and guidance from “The Great Book of Direction” they are able to return to the right road and continue their journey. As a cast we hold each other up, and when one of us needs encouragement, we can remind each other of God’s word in the Bible to stay on the worshipful road.

So, just like how Dorothy is challenged to stay on the Narrow Brick Road, I challenge you to stay on the road of worshiping God as you put on your show this season. I know that God will use each one of you to accomplish His glorious plan on and off the stage in a tremendously wonderful way. So, let's follow the right road. Let's take advantage of backstage worship, engaging our hearts as we sing to the LORD. Let’s remind ourselves as cast mates that we are following Jesus in how we perform here, and that we are playing to an audience of One. Let’s most of all trust God to work through us despite our weakness, because He has cleared the path for us to follow, He will help us stay on it, and He is the reason we are following it. If you have questions about what it means to follow the right road, I would love to talk with you and I know that your TTAs would love to talk with you as well. I can’t wait to see how God works through you all this show season as you “stick to the path” through your production! I hope you come to cheer on the Wednesday Homeschool Class as they kick off this year’s show run with The Wizard of Oz, and I hope you are encouraged even more to follow the Narrow Brick Road.