Being a ‘creative’ is an odd vocation. My job is to come up with ideas. Some are good. Some are not. But what is the response you get when you throw out ideas. Lately, for me, they fall into two categories:
It’s either:
‘We can’t do that!’
or
‘How can we do that?’
The difference is subtle, but clear. The first question is actually an answer – NO. The second question is actually a question. Basically the person is asking for more information. ’What would it take to accomplish what you are proposing?’
So I turn the question back on myself. When someone comes to me with an idea, what is my first response? Is it a resounding – NO! We can’t do that! Or, is it – ‘I don’t quite see it yet, but explain to me how can we do that?’
I think this has application for all areas of life, church, job, family, etc. What if, the next time someone asked for your input on a creative idea, you chose to say, ‘Ok, how can we do that?’ Instead of saying, ‘No.’
How do you relate to God when this world bears down on you? Are you angry? Are you sad? Are you mad?
Job lost his his house, his kids, his health, his friends, all his possessions. Listen to Rob Bell talk about Job’s response and our response in this NOOMA video.
If you are wondering what to do with all of your free time, a few fantastic peeps at Grace have collected a bunch of opportunities all together in one place for you to peruse and pick what you can do. There are places as far away as Guatemala and as close [to Indy] as downtown.
I spent the beginning of my life in San Diego before moving to Indiana last year. Part of my childhood included Christian Youth Theater (CYT) with the Russells. A few years ago Jason Russell along with some of his friends went to Uganda to make a documentary and what came out is making history. The documentary is all about the child soldiers in Uganda and it is heart wrenching. From this film, the Invisible Children (IC) became a focus, and quickly grew into a movement.
Yesterday they have again made history through a peaceful rally outside the Oprah studios where 500+ people sung and danced to get Oprah to speak out against the Invisible Children on her show. Today she is doing just that!
But this is only a small part of the larger picture. IC has freed 100 cities in the US and many more across the globe to raise awareness of the Invisible Children. The final stop is Washington DC in June.
Today brought clarity of many words and things I never would have seen before, but it also brought a serious migrane the likes of which I cannot stand or get rid of (even now).
Yesterday, leading worship I could totally read the words on the charts from a further distance, but very shortly after beginning rehearsal I realized a problem. My normal practice of leaving the stand really low and viewing out of my periphery was untenable due to the fact that my glasses are square and my eyes are round. I literally cannot see below the range of my glasses. This weekend worked out ok, but that will be something that may become a problem for me later…
With that thought, Contacts are sounding really good right about now!
The journey continues. Again my hope is that my brain catches up with my eyes on this one….
All of this probably is second nature to those of you who have worn glasses for any amount of time, but for this newby, who did not have any kind of glasses for 31 years, its all new and different. One day at a time I guess!
So yesterday was the first day in my life wearing glasses. It was a bittersweet experience with positives and negatives.
I like the fact that some things are clearer. I can read text clearly from much farther away. It truly is amazing!
The downside is that I was dizzy ALL day. I realized as I was working on my computer that the screen used to look like a rectangle and now looks like an upside down trapezoid. I just wonder if my brain will ever catch up with my eyes. Time will tell I guess.
