in the last two days i have been overwhelmed by an almost instinctual urge to urgently "trim the fat" from my life. to what end; i do not know. upon reflecting more i have found that the list of things i am being urged to trim are things that i don't really want to let go of. what is it that i absolutely must have with me? what tools, what necessities can i simply not do without? what things should be left behind as painful and as uncomfortable as it may be? there are things we shouldn't take along because they only weigh us down or distract or dull our senses. there are the things that simply waste our time. i have a whole stack of these things; a motorcycle project, an XBox 360 that has far too many hours on it, a list of pedals and amps that i'm going to eventually build but "just haven't found time." time is a resource that is often misused and wasted, so i am beginning the painful process of trimming the time wasters from the list of things that i must prioritize. what i must keep in mind about priorities is that if i allow dead weight to be loaded on then i'll be affected in two ways; first, i will be loaded down with things that are, well, dead weight. why would you climb a mountain with 100 lbs of extra weight that bears no assistance or advantage whatsoever toward reaching the summit. you take only what you absolutely need. you leave the junk at home. the second way that non-priorities affect the adventure is that they take up space meant for much more useful and valuable things. here is a rather extreme example: if i want to climb mount everest and insist that i bring along my flip flops, my beach ball and my umbrella then i won't have room for my -30 degree rated boots, my ice pick, and my 70 mph rated subzero tent. my insistance upon non-priorities has already doomed my adventure before it truly had a chance.
that which is not a priority is junk. junk takes many forms. things that waste time, things that waste energy, things that waste any of the other resources that there never seem to be enough of. junk can be things like that beloved XBox of mine. junk can also be people. people can waste your time, your energy, your resources. these people should be left behind. they are taking up space that is needed for much more valuable, much more important people on your journey.
something that seems to somehow escape the priority measure is thoughts. there are thoughts that waste our time, make us indecisive, make us hesitant. these thoughts are junk as well. they weigh us down and take up valuable space.
junk. i am getting rid of mine, or at least i'm starting to. what do you have that needs to get left behind.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
art and propaganda.
i'm stealing this topic from john mark mcmillan. he asked "what is the difference between art and propaganda?" one person answered "motive." my answer was "art is personal expression. propaganda uses art to persuade those experiencing it to adopt the ideals and thoughts of the artist or the person who commissioned the art."
as i hit the submit button i was struck by the profoundness of this statement in regards to songwriting, especially for worship. i must be careful to write songs that don't attempt to convince those of God's glory, but rather express the glory i have personally experienced. i don't need to (and i shouldn't) try to persuade that God's grace is sufficient. it is more important that i simply express the grace i have experienced.
i have known this for a long time, but at this moment i am experiencing great clarity in regards to it.
as i hit the submit button i was struck by the profoundness of this statement in regards to songwriting, especially for worship. i must be careful to write songs that don't attempt to convince those of God's glory, but rather express the glory i have personally experienced. i don't need to (and i shouldn't) try to persuade that God's grace is sufficient. it is more important that i simply express the grace i have experienced.
i have known this for a long time, but at this moment i am experiencing great clarity in regards to it.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
nose vs. basketball
i've got it pretty good. i've got an awesome, (and i mean WAY awesome) wife, awesome little kiddos, a great place to worship and lead worship, friends that outnumber my enemies,...i've got the whole burrito people. but even in the midst of all my life's awesomeness, there is still the propensity for life to get drudgingly frustrating. let me explain,...
you have a vision, an idea, an inspiration,...that vision begins to materialize,...so you surround yourself with people who have either caught that vision, or that might soon catch it in hopes that the vision will manifest completely, if not (pardon the cliche) beyond your wildest dreams. but between finding the people and 'beyond your wildest dreams' there's this no man's land called 'faithfulness.' (SHOOT! i completely forgot about that part!) so, in being faithful, you realize that somedays, you're the only one who's gonna be faithful. but, that's what you're called to, so you keep pluggin' away. this is where the frustration comes in. not only does it seem you're the only one working, the work isn't even coming easy. let me illustrate it this way;
i remember being 6 or 7 years old in our back yard in Oklahoma. we had a basketball goal set up over the big swinging door of our barn. the hoop seemed like it was 4 or 5 stories of the ground and the ball felt like it was full of lead, not to mention that it was bigger than me. but getting the stubborn gene from both my mom AND my dad, i hoisted the basketball to my shoulder shot put style and gave my best try at a goal. i think the ball got about 3 feet higher than my head and then upon its defeat by the laws of gravity it plumeted like a meteor and landed squarely on the tip of my bewildered little nose. i saw that flash of red you see when you get hit in the nose and i half fell, half sat on my rear in the dirt. i sat there so mad that i wanted to cry. i probably did, i don't really remember, but i wasn't mad at the ball hitting me, i was mad that i didn't make the shot. the throbbing on my nose was salt in the wound. i wanted to succeed. why wasn't i stronger? why wasn't i taller? why wasn't i faster? ( if i was faster i could at least have avoided the nose vs. ball match.)
i'm not 7 anymore, but i still feel like sometimes i get the basketball in the nose. i feel like that kid right now. trying so hard but coming up short. i'm a results oriented person, so if i don't get results frustration quickly follows. i start to question why i can't make certain things happen, (how come i'm not better at what i do?) even though now i'm old enough to know that its not always me that limits progress. but today i got a card from a new member of my worship team. her card was pretty funny, talking about the daily task of dealing with frustrations. it was nice to be able to laugh about it. she's been in and around worship ministry for a long time and has seen quite a bit which is why the card meant so much. but there was one thing she wrote that somehow sparked the memory of a kid with a throbbing nose with the red dirt of okalhoma on the rear of his jeans. "it will get better." this is not a riveting statement, i know. but let's go back to the baskeball goal. i'm not 7 anymore, and with time, with three squares a day, and with some coaching i could hit a lay up everytime by the time i finished high school. that doesn't make me michael jordan, but i've come a long way. now, back in the present, i've long ago given up on basketball, but i think God works the same with us spiritually. i'm not a baby Christian or an unexperienced pastor anymore, but i'm also not Billy Graham, at least not yet. so, when my nose meets squarely with the basketball, i just gotta remember,..."it will get better."
what i'm listening to today:
Andy Gullahorn "Room To Breathe"
you have a vision, an idea, an inspiration,...that vision begins to materialize,...so you surround yourself with people who have either caught that vision, or that might soon catch it in hopes that the vision will manifest completely, if not (pardon the cliche) beyond your wildest dreams. but between finding the people and 'beyond your wildest dreams' there's this no man's land called 'faithfulness.' (SHOOT! i completely forgot about that part!) so, in being faithful, you realize that somedays, you're the only one who's gonna be faithful. but, that's what you're called to, so you keep pluggin' away. this is where the frustration comes in. not only does it seem you're the only one working, the work isn't even coming easy. let me illustrate it this way;
i remember being 6 or 7 years old in our back yard in Oklahoma. we had a basketball goal set up over the big swinging door of our barn. the hoop seemed like it was 4 or 5 stories of the ground and the ball felt like it was full of lead, not to mention that it was bigger than me. but getting the stubborn gene from both my mom AND my dad, i hoisted the basketball to my shoulder shot put style and gave my best try at a goal. i think the ball got about 3 feet higher than my head and then upon its defeat by the laws of gravity it plumeted like a meteor and landed squarely on the tip of my bewildered little nose. i saw that flash of red you see when you get hit in the nose and i half fell, half sat on my rear in the dirt. i sat there so mad that i wanted to cry. i probably did, i don't really remember, but i wasn't mad at the ball hitting me, i was mad that i didn't make the shot. the throbbing on my nose was salt in the wound. i wanted to succeed. why wasn't i stronger? why wasn't i taller? why wasn't i faster? ( if i was faster i could at least have avoided the nose vs. ball match.)
i'm not 7 anymore, but i still feel like sometimes i get the basketball in the nose. i feel like that kid right now. trying so hard but coming up short. i'm a results oriented person, so if i don't get results frustration quickly follows. i start to question why i can't make certain things happen, (how come i'm not better at what i do?) even though now i'm old enough to know that its not always me that limits progress. but today i got a card from a new member of my worship team. her card was pretty funny, talking about the daily task of dealing with frustrations. it was nice to be able to laugh about it. she's been in and around worship ministry for a long time and has seen quite a bit which is why the card meant so much. but there was one thing she wrote that somehow sparked the memory of a kid with a throbbing nose with the red dirt of okalhoma on the rear of his jeans. "it will get better." this is not a riveting statement, i know. but let's go back to the baskeball goal. i'm not 7 anymore, and with time, with three squares a day, and with some coaching i could hit a lay up everytime by the time i finished high school. that doesn't make me michael jordan, but i've come a long way. now, back in the present, i've long ago given up on basketball, but i think God works the same with us spiritually. i'm not a baby Christian or an unexperienced pastor anymore, but i'm also not Billy Graham, at least not yet. so, when my nose meets squarely with the basketball, i just gotta remember,..."it will get better."
what i'm listening to today:
Andy Gullahorn "Room To Breathe"
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