G-ds candid camera

Scenario number one: you walk into Macy’s one day determined to buy something nice for yuntif. After two hours of shopping you finally choose a great outfit that looks stunning and whose price is even more stunning. You wait on a long line and finally get to the cashier. She rings you up and suddenly as you are paying someone takes their cart and rams it into the back of your knees. You go stumbling. You get up angry as anything and yell “You jerk! What’d you do that for?! Do you know who I AM?! Do YOU know who I AMMM?!?!” you are really upset as you stalk out of the store. When you walk out you see that there are huge crowds of people laughing. Confused, you see a distinguished looking man come over to you and say “Smile! You’re on candid camera!” Turns out you were set up and all these people were watching.
Scenario number two: you walk into Macy’s one day determined to buy something nice for yuntif. After two hours of shopping you finally choose a great outfit that looks stunning and whose price is even more stunning. You wait on a long line and finally get to the cashier. She rings you up and suddenly as you are paying someone takes their cart and rams it into the back of your knees. You go stumbling. You are on the verge of anger as tears course down your cheeks. You are about to lose it when you catch a glimpse of this persons face. You take a deep breath and smiling you ask “Is everything ok?” You buy your outfit and walk out peacefully and with a smile. As you walk out you see that there are huge crowds of people laughing. Confused, you see a distinguished looking man come over to you and say “Smile! You’re on candid camera!” Turns out you were set up and all these people were watching.

Now. You have hundreds of strangers watching your reaction. Which response will be better? Which are you going to be embarrassed by? Clearly you would rather stalk out angry as anything. Just kidding. OF COURSE you will be thrilled that you didn’t lose it at that moment. Because anger feels great in the moment, but not afterwards. When a person is angry his words can really sting. So often we say things in anger that we didn’t really mean, or didn’t want the other person to know. What if every time we were about to lose it we remembered that we are being video taped?
Last time I checked though there were no camera crews following me into the kitchen and into class, there is nobody telling me that I’m on candid camera or YouTube. Nope. There’s none of that. Except for one thing. G-d is videoing us. He’s watching each moment and step just waiting for us to choose right. No matter what we choose we will have to face our very own ‘Candid Cameras’.
As we approach Rosh Hashana, a line from a song we sang in camp plays in my head over and over. “Did you make the day or lose it, was it well or sorely spent”. How are we going to answer? Is our video of our lives going to make the ‘top ten’ rating of the season? Do we deserve to have another season running? Are we going to win the Emmy award for what we did? How do we measure up?
. There’s one more thing. So many times we are handed really tough situations in life. Hashem knows what He is doing and He wants to SEE you grow! He wants to watch you rise to the challenge and respond well. So when you are faced with a sticky, bad, hard, tough situation – Look up to Heaven and think “Smile! You’re on G-ds candid camera!” Because Hashem knows that you have the capability to choose well and is waiting to capture an Emmy award winning moment!
Everyone always takes on really big things for the beginning of the year that don’t really follow through. Don’t take on a big mama. Take on something really small but really meaningful. Do something that shows Hashem “I’m trying!” because in the end, that is all He wants.
You should all have a wonderfully inspirational Rosh Hashana, a meaningful tefillah , and may we all be deserving of many “Heavenly awards”