I am sitting down on my couch, headphones on with some new demos playing, the T.V. is one and I can see David Blain blowing peoples minds with his magic tricks. I also just got back from the premier for Kensington’s Christmas service (It’s gonna be awesome btw, seriously its sweet. From top to bottom a great achievement, and a great example of what a community of artists can create when they team up and go at something with servants hearts.)
But as I drove home after having a late dinner with some really good guys, (Dale Pittman, Brandon Husken, and Brian Craig…) I realized that the modern world that we live in, for all its amazing achievements is literally built to destroy our sense of wonder… If not destroy it, we milk it for all its worth until we don’t really know if its wonder anymore.
What I mean is that everything we do is criticized and ranked on how useful, creative, good, smart, or entertain it is. Louis CK has some amazing stand up about this actually
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itn8TwFCO4M (He kind calls me out about flying at the end… also there is a couple bleeps so don’t be offended Christian brethren and sisters…)
We live in a post-enlightenment, post-industrial revolutionary world where we are taught to live fast, epic, meaningful lives… But I am often left wondering what our definition of meaning is. Who’s standards are we measuring our “meaning” from? I mean, seriously, I just got back from watching a presentation of some amazing art and I am blown away by the shear creativity of the people I know and live in community with… They are seriously so talented, but the world I live in has taught me to make sure I have an opinion about it. Heck, I have opinions for EVERYTHING, and I can be one heck of jerk sometimes. Tonight at dinner I surprised myself at how critical I could be about some of the most beneficial things going on around me. And I admit, I struggle with wonder, I struggle with simply appreciating the people around me and the art they create, the community they create, the love they give, and the struggles they have. I get really cynical most of the time, mainly it starts with insecurity though.
Rick Warren has some cool tweets my friend showed me on criticism…
“95% of criticism is caused by envy, ego, or erroneous info. The 3rd is usually motivated by first 2. James3:16=why confusion.”
“The fear of criticism kills creativity.The fear of failure kills faith. The fear of rejection kills innovation.”
“Never fear criticism. Fear conformity,which stunts the soul. U cant have everyone’s approval &God’s anointing at same time.”
Normally I criticize things that threaten my sense of security in who I am. I want to feel special, unique, and things that make me feel less unique scare me, especially things that level the playing field. This is a theme we see through out the gospel; Jesus came and said that He came for everyone, not some select group of righteous, penitent, or a holy minority. Even scarier, He didn’t come giving people control over our enemies, He asked us to serve them… wooo, that’s a scary thought.
But back to wonder… seriously think about it and ask yourself, how much time do I take to do that in a week? For me the answer is “Not much,” most of the time I am worrying about something, or analyzing it to see if it makes sense, or if it functions the way I want. I spend more time trying to make sure I am doing things right and thinking through something before I do it that I often never DO anything (or I get depressed and overwhelmed either way) I just kind of stay in the same place. now I am not saying we should run around willy nilly doing whatever we want, wisdom and discernment are good qualities and have their place (Lord knows I might have worried about those to much in my time though, I did have the nickname “Mom” in high school.)
I have been surrounded by artists over the past 2 years, some in the church, some outside it, some in pretty big mainstream positions, some local, some international, some old, some young, some humble, some arrogant, and the one thing that unites them all is they have strong opinions. To be honest that is part of great artist’s magic, but wonder is also something we all have to tap into, because it’s what makes us love things. Things that take us back to our childhood, or being us back to reality, both can be amazing, but they make us awe and wonder.
We need creators, people who create community, art, and beauty, and guess what? Sometimes its gonna suck. Sometimes its gonna be mediocre, but sometimes its gonna be good! And sometimes it’s going to be amazing. But we never know until we create. Some of us are really gifted and some of us have to work really hard to be decent. But if we never create, if we never wonder, all we end up doing is standing still while our lives pass us by. I’m not interested in doing that anymore. There is a new year coming up, why not spend this year creating all the things we haven’t had the stomach to take on? Why not actually see if you can do what you’ve dreamed of doing? I can tell you from experience it will take a lot of work, you will feel like a failure, you will question yourself, living hurts, but its better than doing nothing.
God is calling us to A Kingdom, an Adventure, and a Love. So come on, lets get going already…
-
rianmai liked this
-
danielluigirossi posted this
