All posts in Creativity
Horrible Bosses
I’ve got 5 jobs. For real. I have a total of 3 bosses. I’m the boss at the other 2. It keeps things interesting I guess. My current bosses bend over backwards to make my life and schedule conducive for their organization, but that’s not to say they’re perfect or that I’ve never had a Horrible Boss.
If you’re making any sort of personal work progress, there has to be some form of tension, correction, or discipline between your boss and you. I’ve had a lot of these meetings. 
Now if we’re honest, which is the purpose of this blog, we’d all say we’ve been extremely frustrated with a boss or two in our career. Or perhaps there wasn’t obvious tension, but you simply disagreed with the theology of that pastor or leader. Or maybe you don’t like the way that person handles leadership and you’ve seen things like that handled a lot better. There are countless situations that can set us off internally where our job is just a job that helps us pay bills and we spend days “putting up” with people.
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” (Colossians 3:23 NIV)
This shifted my thinking when I actually apply it. I thought about changing my boss’ name in my phone and email contacts to “the Lord” to see how I would respond to the things they ask me to do. Because honestly, I may do a good job and get things done, but I know I don’t do it as if God Himself ask me to do it. And I should.
This doesn’t change anything externally necessary, but it does change my attitude when things get tense. Horrible Boss or not, there’s a big man upstairs that I’d do anything for. And that anything entails working for for a human.
I’ve Got An Idea
“That’s a good idea.”
I get that statement a lot in conversations. I can spit out ideas all day long. I started my own company so that I could get paid for it. But when I take inventory of all the ideas I’ve come up with for myself or others, I have to ask myself: How many of those good/great ideas did you or someone actually act on? Just a few. It’s like if we shout enough good ideas, we can actually deceive ourselves into believing that we are actually making a difference.
If you think about it, the Bible is full of lofty ideas. Heal the sick. Open blind eyes. Make disciples of ALL nations. Treat others how you would want to be treated. Test the Lord and see if He’ll not open up the windows of Heaven and pour out a blessing that blows your mind. If you go to the book of Acts, you’ll see tons of examples of the ideal Christian life. Hey. Why don’t we all sell our possessions and make sure that others have enough?! If you’re paying attention to what we read all the time, you can walk away from the scriptures with this thought: “What a great idea.”
Being the guy who always has ideas, I made a decision that at the end of my life, I didn’t want to be known as a creative guy who had really great ideas, but I wanted to be man led by the Holy Spirit to do really great actions. And I started with the Bible. So… last week I went through my closet and started grabbing a few pair of jeans, sport coats, shirts, and shoes, and I sold them at Plato’s closet. I got $84 and simply gave it to a friend in need. It wasn’t much, but what was a good idea in scripture became a good action in my life.
The above isn’t to gain more spiritual brownie points with you, but it’s to challenge your life with the scriptures. They aren’t there for entertainment value. We can’t sit around and discount scripture due to historical context and a bunch of “ologies”. Bull crap, man. If you see it in there, it’s there for a reason. Reading great ideas gives you “Aha” moments. Acting on them gives you a shot at making a difference and actually living this thing out.
What Happens In Vegas…
Hey, you. Thanks for checking out the blog. Seriously. You’ve got a million other things you could be doing, but you decided to take a break from whatever you’re doing to read this. You’re good people. I appreciate you being here.
I had the opportunity to shoot a documentary this past week with some friends in Death Valley, CA. [coming soon to a computer near you.] Part of the package deal of shooting the documentary was also spending a few days in Vegas. Poor me, right? Being in Sin City, naturally, the first thought that comes to mind is: “What happens in Vegas… stays in Vegas.” It speaks to this idea of getting away with… well, anything. I think the infamous motto carries over into our private life too. It’s like what happens in our private world… stays in our private world. We use phrases like, “That’s none of your business.” We’re creeped out by unknown facebook friends that WE confirmed as friends. We have a list of things that we’ll tweet about, and then there’s a list of things that will never make it to our lives’ highlight reel on the internet.
There’s this guy, Gordon MacDonald, who wrote a book in 1984 called Ordering Your Private World. Great book. He teaches great concepts of discipline of your private world that govern your external life. For example, any form of time that you have that goes unmanaged is an opportunity for your greatest weakness to creep in. It’s real good stuff. Read it. Well, in 1987, Gordon cheated on his wife, unfortunately. So let’s get this straight… the guy… who wrote the book on getting your crap together… had a hard time getting his crap together. Ladies and gents… what happens in your private world… does not stay in your private world.
Better information and accountability is not enough to keep you from falling. Knowledge makes us feel better about who we are. Wisdom is putting what you know, what you read, and what you’re learning into practice. Keeping your reputation isn’t enough to keep you from falling. If that’s your motivation for not committing “major” secret sins, you don’t stand a chance. Forget about following rules. Because you’ll figure out a way to get what you want around those rules. The corners that you cut aren’t noticed by anyone around you simply because they’re not paying attention. Those text and emails may seem lightly flirtatious now, but the compound impact of secret sin over a span of years ends in disaster.
The only thing that can keep you from falling is Jesus. And even with Him, we occasionally still fall flat on our faces. And when that happens, you still have Him and His grace there to pick you back up. So the questions for you are these: Who knows what’s really going on with you? Who knows your biggest temptations? And between you and Jesus, how are you handling these areas? Most people who cut corners, usually ignore those areas when they talk to their God. Don’t.
Lost and Found
There’s a trend in American Churches where the more spiritual the church is, the less creative it becomes for its attenders. Stereotypically, uber creative churches are churches “lost people would want to come to”, and are often times… considered less spiritual where professional Christians would say, “It’s cool there, but I’m not really growing.” Creative churches get mad at super spiritual churches for speaking in tongues during services because they believe it confuses the lost or flat-out pushes them away. Uber spiritual churches that practice the “gifts of the spirit” on a regular basis pigeon-hole practical and creative churches for “watering down the gospel.” My personal take on should the church be more focused on reaching the lost… or more focused on growing the seasoned vet… I have no idea. In a perfect world, we’d say it SHOULD be both. But the truth is… most churches, in action, pick one.
But what about you? Some of you have been in the church so long that, perhaps, you are sick of charismatic people “making things spiritual” that maybe just… aren’t. Or maybe you’re just bored, and going Creative would be something new for you. It’d spice up your spiritual life. But an even more important question that I believe needs to be asked to deal with this tension is simply: What about Jesus? He’s beyond uber spiritual, yet reached the lost very effectively. One time, He walked up to what some considered the worst of sinners, a tax collector, and His Master plan consisted of two words, “Follow me.” Doesn’t sound very creative to us, but dang, the dude got up! And Jesus had the whole constant miracles thing going on that drew the attention of people both lost and found. We sometimes believe we could do the same… but if we’re honest, our batting average on miracles isn’t very high… so we rely on creativity to grab people’s attention.
So how do you stay creative without losing your spiritual swag? How do you create a consistent lifestyle that is conducive for both the lost and found?
1.) Obey. We will opt out of what God told us to do because someone else thinks “it won’t work.” Never live your life by “what works”. Obey down to the last detail whether it’s against or with the current trend. Before you go do, God has to trust who you are. Be before you do.
2.) Use your gift. Everyone may not be “creative”, but everyone has been gifted with something. Whatever God-given gift you have, leverage that to reach people around you. And wherever you go to do that, make sure you repeat step 1. Doing both of these should create a healthy balance in your life whether in church or outside of it.
What do you think?