"Hope" by Mary Freeman

I was really encouraged by my chat with FeaturedArtist: Mary Freeman last week. Mary uses her art to poignantly impact the lives of people… And I love to hear stories like that…

Stories about God using people are the absolute best kind… The Bible is FULL of these stories. We need them in the church today to encourage others to do the same and to remind us that the stories didn’t just end in the first century…

After I published the interview, Mary sent me a note that expressed her own surprise at the way that I had summed her up…

“I am reading it and saying, ‘This is not me…’ But then I realize it is.  This is what God has been doing… continues to do in my life.”

I think that most people need to hear that what they do has a significant impact… I know I do… When you give from your heart and gifts to serve God, it’s nice to know that the offering is going somewhere…

When you see someone else giving and serving and making an impact, it’s probably a good idea to tell them. The encouragement might come at a critical time in their life… It might inspire them to dig in when they were thinking about giving up. It might confirm to them something that they already knew. It might just help them see their ministry from a different perspective.

I know, without much doubt, that God has called me to encourage and equip artists to use their gifts in ministry… When an artist (in this case, Mary) tells me that they’ve been encouraged, it confirms that calling, inspires me to press on and helps me to recognize what it looks like when I’m walking in my own gifts…

And this is true of everyone who serves… not just artists.

Give encouragement freely… It won’t cost you anything.

Accept praise authentically… It isn’t prideful to recognize the work of God in your own life.

I knew I should've packed a map...

Good decisions leading to firm commitments are vital to developing discipline… BUT making good decisions requires discipline… This is the circular reality that always seems to bite me on the tush… So, I’ve given it some thought and reading this week and wanted to share with you guys…

Good decisions grow out of a life lived in conversational relationship with God… I can link almost every bad decision that I’ve made in my life to a lack of consistent prayer and Bible study… I have found that practicing this kind of intimacy with God is both energizing and exhausting, but well worth the effort in the face of any significant choice…

I don’t want to sound too mystical, but the truth is that when we saturate our minds with God’s Word and devote our hearts to intimacy with Him, He speaks… Often in an almost audible way (and I wouldn’t totally throw out the possibility of actual audibility either) to the simplest request for guidance…

Poor decisions grow out of a focus that is off of Jesus. So, make sure that your mind and heart are tuned to Him before you leap…

I recently found myself in the position of having already made a bad decision… I’ll tell you about it because it has a happy ending:

About a year ago, I wrote a post about artists helping missionaries tell their stories… After that, I had the opportunity to do a brand development and web presence project for an orphanage in the Philippines. This led to a similar project for the parent-ministry… Which led to an offer to join the administrative team of a small, but internationally-placed missions organization…

Up to that point, I was just using my gifts to serve these missionaries… Suddenly, faced with the decision of whether or not to join the leadership of this significant ministry, I jumped without really taking enough time to consider the decision…

I almost immediately regretted it… It wasn’t the kind of work that I feel called to do… I didn’t really enjoy it and it played to my administrative weaknesses… And it significantly sucked time away from my areas of deepest calling and vocation…

Fortunately, I was not financially bound to the position and I was able to pull-out of the higher administration role and stay connected to the promotional and marketing aspects that originally drew me into the organization…

There have been times in my life that I could not easily opt-out of a decision… I have several of these looming on the horizon… As I look forward to them, I see very clearly a truth that I’ve missed in the past:

Making a bad decision to a long-term commitment is not the end of the world IF you are positioned in close relationship to God so that He can guide you through the process of making the best of the situation… One bad decision doesn’t mean that you’re life is totally derailed… God is much bigger than that… But you may have to take the long road through the dessert to the Promised Land…

Wave encouragingly at the people you meet on that road, we like that…

NEXT in this series: A Sound Mind…

Aw... Poor thing... Suck it up...

The “path of least resistance” is virtually the same as the “road of good intentions”…

Think about this: If you have a goal (let’s say you intend to lose 10 pounds) but you skip the gym every time you come to an obstacle or time conflict, you are never going to reach that goal…

Because all of our worthy aspirations are met with resistance…

I don’t really have an explanation for this, but I have a theory:

Since our best, most worthy goals are designed to improve us or our world, they are likely to run afoul the status quo…

I’ve never made it my goal to gain 10 pounds of fat, unlearn an instrument or narrow my friend-network to something manageable like 2 or 3 people… Those outcomes can happen all by themselves because I am introverted, lazy and tend to medicate with Oreos…

Paul has this to say:

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.     – Paul, The Bible, Philippians 3:13-14

It always makes me smile when I hear Christians talking about “pressing on” or “pressing in” because that’s so 15th century… Modern paraphrase: “Suck it up.”

To conquer the inertia of the-way-things-are, I have to suck it up to reach for the-way-things-could be…

Here’s an example:

I’ve been trying to interview an artist for the site for 3 months. We’ve set appointments and I’ve missed them… sometimes through no fault of my own… but I feel like a schmuck every time it has happened. The temptation to just quietly stop trying is overwhelming to an introvert like me…

But the goal is more important than my insecurity… The prize more appealing than the comfort of retreating into my embarrassment…

So, I suck it up and keep trying…

The payoff is that I’ll have the opportunity to learn from this artist, share his encouragement with you and move closer to my own larger goals…

So, what inner turmoil is holding you back? What does it look like when you “suck it up” and push toward your goals?

NEXT in this series: Cut Yourself Some Slack…

For the record, this is the first animated bling to ever appear on WOP...

And guess what? There are 5 art degrees on the list… For the right-brainers, that’s 25%… Degrees involving children also account for 25% of the list… Ministry studies made 10% of the list in 2 separate categories as well…

I don’t expect that anyone will be surprised… I’m certainly not, since I’m sitting-pretty with a dual major in Religion and Theatre Arts…

My question is: Why do we study art? or theology? or disciplines that involve children? If it’s not for the bling…

I can answer for myself, after six years in a job that was math and engineering focused, life is more than the sum of your net worth and satisfaction is more about passion than about my personal balance sheet.

But I gotta eat and nobody wants to pay me to believe in the power of my dreams…

So, most of us will have to find a way to pay the bills while we work on the artistic pursuits that fuel our passion…

The CBS article ends with this clever dig:

If you’d rather end up with one of the best-paying college degrees, you’ll have to major in something that requires a lot of math classes.

I think if somebody had told me this going in, I’d have picked a more lucrative, third major… Of course, I could’ve been a doctor in the same amount of time…

How about you?

It takes more time and purposefulness to develop a good habit (like going to the gym) than to develop a bad habit (like eating a whole bag of chips in front of the TV)…

Maybe you experience the same struggle: the inertia of the status quo makes forming new, better habits hard… it’s work… and when I’m honest with myself, I don’t really want to do the work…

And here’s the circular logic that I get tangled up in:

Cultivating discipline relies on forming better habits and forming better habits is an exercise in cultivating discipline…

A few tips that I’ve gleaned from the www:

1. The 21-Day Rule… Everybody is different and some research in the UK has indicated that there may even be people who are “habit-resistant,” but the average person will form a new habit by repeating the desired behavior for 21 days.

2. It’s OK to Get Help… There is a reason that Alcoholics Anonymous is successful… It relies heavily on the esprit de corps (“spirit of the group”) to help group members form new habits, relationships and coping skills. Having a workout partner or Bible study group can make forming a new habit more challenging and more fun.

3. Attitude is Everything… Optimistic people are 4 times more likely to achieve their goals. If you are a generally pessimistic person (you will know this is you because you like to describe yourself as “a realist”) then your first goal should be to discipline yourself toward positive thinking. It won’t make your rich, beautiful or thin overnight, but it will open your heart to the possibility of substantial changes.

4. Remind Yourself… If I decide today that I’m going to drink 8 glasses of water everyday, I have got to remember to do it TOMORROW… Forgetting my goals is a real problem… Write it down, tape it to your bathroom mirror, or the fridge, or that bag of Oreos… Re-commit every time you see it… Decide everyday to do it again.

5. Suck it up… Sometimes, you need to just get to work… because nobody pays you to believe in the power of your dreams. Sorry to sound harsh, but some of the most pivotal times in my life have been those moments when someone cared enough to kick me in the butt…

You might find this website helpful: Habit Watcher helps you track your progress toward multiple goals…

What habits are you trying to make? or break? What tools have helped you?

NEXT in this series: Suck It Up…

And I don’t wanna…

I’m not whining, just generalizing in a way that I hope will challenge you to think about this…

Jesus told his followers that this world would throw hardship and trouble at them (John 16:33) but “take heart,” He said, “I have overcome the world.”

Could character be fueled by the discipline to do things that are difficult, painful or heart-killing?

This promise that Jesus overcame the world sometimes seems hollow in light of the very real pain that the world dishes out. But the same power that fueled Jesus is alive in those who follow Him…

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
- Paul, the Bible (Romans 8:35)

When Paul wrote these words, he was facing tremendous persecution, in the next verse he says that he faces the threat of death continuously… Then he goes on to answer his question:

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  (above, verse 37)

So, there is a supernatural work going on inside that gives us the potential to more-than-conquer (overcome even) some pretty extreme hardship… But I find that I am often way-laid by some simple slight… or thrown off-course by someone’s harsh words… or discouraged by the decisions of those in leadership…

Where’s the disconnect? What happened to all of the overcoming and more-than-conquering that I was supposed to experience? After I pray and repeat the promises to myself… After I conjure all of the spiritual-sounding jargon that has ever been thrown at me… If I’m still way-laid or off-course or discouraged, what am I missing?

Discipline?

Really?

I’m throwing this out for your consideration… I think I’m onto something life-changing.  You see, lately I’ve been discouraged and it effects every aspect of my life: I don’t feel like writing, don’t feel like balancing the checkbook, don’t feel like doing anything around the house, don’t feel like taking my daughter to the library… You get the idea, right?

But when I push past the feelings and do these things (that’s discipline, right?), something cool happens: I find that I have just a bit more “feeling” for the next thing… and the next thing… and the cumulative effect:

I’m overcoming that discouragement.

I think this is why Paul compares the life of a Christ-follower to the life of a distance-runner:

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training… I beat my body and make it my slave…
- Paul, The Bible (1 Corinthians 9:25, 27)

There is a balance between the work that Jesus did (when He overcame the world) and the discipline I need in order to access that work (to overcome obstacles in my own life)… Does that seem right to you? Do you see a similar truth in your own life?

NEXT in this series: Habit-forming…

Where we creatives like to live on the right side of our heads, the suggestion that we lack discipline is met with a shrug… “So what?” we retort.  Of course we lack discipline. Isn’t that the point?

We get it in our heads that talent, charisma and awesomeness is all we need to have a fantastically successful life… well, that and a good agent…

But there’s not a single success-story out there that hinges on talent, charisma or awesomeness… Not one that I’ve read, anyway.

Every successful author, performer or artist that I’ve ever read about has a story that hinges on discipline… the singular capacity to stay with a task until it is complete; the unwavering drive to take on the insurmountable obstacles that life seems to throw at talented, charismatic and awesome individuals.

I’ve now quite a few talented, charismatic and awesome folks that failed to launch… it’s sad really… a waste… but it happens all the time…

At some point or another in our lives, we must choose the path of greatest resistance… We have to weather storms and pass through dark valleys… We simply have to learn to discipline ourselves.

This is where it always falls apart for me: discipline isn’t something that I can just wish for or purchase or conjure.  If that were possible, I’d have gotten it by now. Discipline must be grown…

More than that, really, discipline must be cultivated.

In horticulture, cultivation is more than planting seeds, more than watering or feeding plants… It is the entire process of growth and harvest… Learning the process is the only road to success as an artist or anything else, really.  If we are going to produce a harvest (to extend the metaphor) that is 50 or 100 times greater than the seeds we sow, we have to persevere through the entire process…

Every time.

In the weeks ahead, I’ll be sharing the process with you… As I work through a few projects that require a high level of discipline (including the continuation if this series), I’m going to spill out my struggle to you guys…

Could be messy…

NEXT in this series: The Fallow Ground…

Everybody gets lucky once in a while, but success in imaging and in LIFE requires purposeful focus.

I shoot pictures with a nice digital SLR… It has a deep well of features to draw from but, for the most part, I keep all of the dials and menus set to “auto” so that I can just point and shoot.  I do this because I have a 4-year-old and I don’t want to miss any of the impromptu moments that happen in our family life…

I also do it because I’m kinda lazy…

In general, I don’t take the time to really dial-in my technical skills in photography.  I have a pretty good “eye” for capturing good composition, but I am limited by the automatic choices that I set by default.

Auto-focus is a funny thing… particularly when you shoot macro-stills.  For example, an image of a flower:  the camera might select the edges of the petals as the focal point… or the end of the nearest stamen or the nearest flat surface or the dead twig in the lower right corner of the image that you didn’t even notice… I have come home from photo-walking with a hundred images in my camera and no more than 3 that were properly focused… I suppose everybody gets lucky sometimes…

When you let the technology select the focus, it could be anywhere.

If this isn’t an obvious life-metaphor, then you haven’t lived long enough:  Focus doesn’t happen by default.

In life, I often wander around with all of the dials set to auto.  I get by largely on talent and intuition but fail to capture the real potential because I slack on skills development, discipline and focus.  Sometimes, I get a lucky break: a great image, a singable song, an interesting story… but mostly, I get a camera full of bad images, a notebook full of unused ideas…

And most of the artists I encounter seem to be floundering in the same way…

Except for the successful ones.

The “professional” artists that I know… the ones that play regular gigs, appear in multiple plays simultaneously, open their own art shows and make a living with their talents… These guys are all focused on specific goals.  They spend hours dialing-in their skills.  They have a camera full of great images, albums of great music, awe-inspiring portfolios… This is the legacy of living with purpose.

I saw this on a t-shirt:

Talent and discipline will always beat talent, unless that talent becomes disciplined.

...but the Lord will rise on you...

This is going to sound kinda kooky, but I believe that the Bible teaches that there is an Enemy to God and His people… That Enemy opposes us, especially when we devote ourselves to serving God with our gifts…

The Devil…

But I’m not talking about the “Halloween Devil” with his red cape and widow’s peak and pointy tail… I’m talking about a power of darkness, who deftly uses his skill at deception and aggravation to keep us discouraged or distracted when we are running the race that God has called us to run…

In our progressive, modern conception of the supernatural, we tend to discount this as idle superstition, but read the Bible and he’s there, he’s personal and he’s playing for keeps…

So, we have to play that way too…

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes….  -The Bible (Eph 6:10-11)

When we talk about the “armor of God” in church, we tend to get really stuck on the imagery… The shield and the breastplate and what – exactly – it means to have your loins girded…

And we miss the point.

Because the point of Paul’s military metaphor is what the armor represents… faith, righteousness, the word of God, salvation, peace… These disciplines are the essence of our fight against darkness…

So, I find that when I am creatively blocked because of unnatural or unreasonable discouragement, depression, irritation, whatever… I pray against it.

It’s a simple matter of asking God to bring His authority against the darkness… Authority that He gives us when we belong to Him…

I have applied this principle in many areas of my life… family, ministry, creativity, etc… with a great deal of success.  I highly recommend John Eldredge’s very practical book on this, Waking The Dead.

You see, Jesus lived so that we could walk in Light and not be mired in Darkness…

Arise, shine for your Light has come and the glory of the Lord rises on you.  For darkness is on the earth and thick darkness upon the people, but the Lord’s light is upon you… Nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn…     -The Bible (Isa 60:1-3)

The view from here...

For a Christ-follower, using your gifts in worship is an act of heart… Something most creatives can easily wrap their right-brains around…

Heart… Feeling… Inspiration… Soul…

Virtually required elements for creativity.

Lately, Inspiration has been eluding me. I generally feel that I have a fairly deep well to go to when I need to draw out an idea… a image… a solution…

But not recently.

It’s like there’s a gate inside my mind that all of the good ideas are hiding behind… All I seem to be capable of is approaching the gate and knocking… But the gatekeeper is nowhere to be found and I seem to have misplaced my keys.

I haven’t even been able to write for a couple of weeks… In truth, I think my best writing is actually months behind. So, I dug deep and consulted a reliable source…

I prayed about it.

I wonder, often, about non-believers… How they access their creativity… Because I really identify with Jesus’ assertion:

I am the vine, you are my branches… Apart from Me, you can do nothing…

I’m not courting false-humility here… This is literally true.  I’ve tried to use my creativity outside of the realm of worship and “Christian service” and it’s always a dismal failure.

I understand that this isn’t true for every christian… I know a number of artists that are able to move in their creativity in “secular” situations.  I’ve always found this interesting and have recently just accounted it to differences in individual calling…

But true worship flows from the heart.  On another occasion, Jesus said:

The time is coming, and is already here, that the true worshippers will worship in spirit and in truth…

Worship through artistic expression, therefore, must naturally flow from a true reflection of my innermost being… from a heart empowered by God’s Spirit. Whether I write or lead the band or doodle graphics or any of the other outlets for creativity that I offer up, it’s just not “worship” without integrity and connection with God.

When I suffer from “blocked” creativity, I start looking for a breakdown in either Spirit or truth or both…

I found an interesting combination of breakdowns when I prayed about this…

And I want to share these… If not for the sake of anybody but myself…

And, what are blogs for if not narcissistic navel-gazing…

Tomorrow… Part 2, All Stressed Up and No One to Punch…