Reading What is the Bible? by Rob Bell

I'm reading Rob Bell's new book about the Bible, aptly titled What is the Bible? I've been a fan of Rob's ever since his Nooma video days. Of course, Rob has become famous in recent years for questioning many of the things orthodox Christians believe. The firestorm began with the release of his book Love Wins, which challenged many of the teachings the church has about hell.

I don't agree with everything that Rob says, but I do think he has a lot of important things to say and gets people thinking creatively. With that said, I'm really enjoying the book so far. Most orthodox Christians would probably shy away from the book simply because it's written by Rob Bell, but I think it's worth a read from what I've read so far. He says some enlightening things and some questionable things.

Most importantly, however, he gets people thinking about the Bible and the God it points to. I'm looking forward to writing a more detailed review of the book when I finish.

A Bittersweet End of the School Year

The end of every school year is bittersweet. Of course, summer vacation is exciting. But there's something about saying goodbye to these students that I've spent more days with than not over the past nine months, especially when so many of them come to say goodbye and offer their kind words on the last day when they don't have to.

Every year, I think to myself that this is the class that I'll never forget. Then this year's freshman class walked in, and now they also are the ones I will never forget and that has made the most impact on me. I'd gladly teach them another year if I could. I am truly blessed to have a job I never dread going to each day.

When Salvaging the Past Can Get in the Way of Cultivating the Future

In a really good story, the main character goes on a journey to find something that he desperately needs. Often the thing he desperately needs most is a personal character change. The liar becomes honest. The alcoholic becomes sober. The deadbeat dad becomes the loving father his children need. The distant husband becomes the relentless pursuer of his wife’s heart. The guy who was lazy becomes the most industrious fella around.

Storytelling works because it mirrors what is supposed to be true about reality. Human beings find in themselves a need to change. We aren’t perfect. We have flaws. We need to be more than we are today. And the journey doesn’t end as long as we’re alive.

But what happens when the story stops? Not because of a sudden death, but because the journey became more about repairing the past than moving into the future. You see, we’re meant to change. It’s good for us, and our story is better when we do. But when it comes to living, we can take one of two postures, and which one we take determines our future.

We can spend our lives salvaging the past or cultivating the future.

And that’s the problem. Too many times I catch myself picking up the pieces of my last mistake because I just keep making the mistakes instead of moving forward. Opportunities pass by because I wasn’t ready. How could I be? I was in salvaging mode.

In salvaging mode, you never really feel like you’re making any traction, and you never really feel like you can get ahead because you’re relentlessly behind, picking up the pieces of the choices you continue to make.

At some point, you have to wake up and realize that opportunities are passing you by because you’re in salvaging mode. Salvaging sounds good, but salvaging only makes the most of the past to make the best of the present. Cultivating learns from the past and builds from it into the present with a constant view of the future.

Salvaging brings you to today. Cultivating brings you to tomorrow and beyond.

That’s the great thing about a story. It’s what we resonate with. All the best stories are stories of characters who start out normal, descend into salvaging mode, and through the journey discover a life of cultivating a better future.

That’s the kind of story I want to design.

Question: Do you find yourself living more in salvaging mode or cultivating mode?

photo credit: paul bica via photopin cc

Chasing Your Destiny: Course Correction Versus Adaptation

When you’re writing a story, the main character often goes on a journey in which he makes mistakes and goes in a different direction than the one he’s supposed to be going in. That's what keeps the story interesting and the audience tuned it. We want to know how the character will get back to where he's supposed to be.

In a story, the main character has a destiny, even if they’re not aware of what that destiny is at the beginning. Yet, there are hints within the character’s story world that tell them that something isn’t right, that they’re going in the wrong direction, and that they need to course correct somehow. The character faces opposition, either internally or externally, and they often have to fight and strategize their way back to the path toward their destiny, with help along the way.

In the M. Night Shyamalan movie Unbreakable, Bruce Willis’s character David is having a conversation with Elijah (played by Samuel L. Jackson) that goes like this:

DAVID: This morning was the first morning I can remember, that I didn’t open my eyes and feel that sadness….I thought the person who wrote that note had an answer for me.

ELIJAH: That little bit of sadness in the mornings you spoke of? I think I know what that is. Perhaps you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing.It’s a brilliant exchange because Shyamalan perfectly captures the human condition. How often do we feel this restlessness, this discontentment with who we are and what we’re doing? Our story world is soaked with hints of something more that we could be and more that we could be doing.

It's Easier to Adapt
Yet we often settle for far less. The sadness continues, but somehow it seems easier to settle than course correct. How many people have taken a career path that is completely outside of what they should be doing simply because that's the path on which they found themselves? Rather than work their way out of it, they make the most of a bad situation. They adapt. Yet the discontentment continues. Like David in Unbreakable, we settle for being a security guard when we're meant to be a superhero.

Why should we settle? C.S. Lewis puts it this way, "It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

Course Correction Isn't Quick
The scary thing is that, just like in really good stories, course correction isn’t quick and it isn’t easy. It’s often grueling and it takes time, sometimes lots of it. It’s so much easier to settle than to hustle.

When you’re in the midst of course correction, the thing to remember is that you’re only somewhere in the middle of your journey back to the path toward your destiny. If you give up, you’ll always feel that sadness that you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing and that you're not who you're supposed to be.

Don’t settle. Course correct. And realize that course correcting sometimes means doing things you don't love for a time to earn the right to do the things you do love later on.

Question: What's the one thing that you feel you should be doing with your life that would take you some considerable time to get to?

Photo Credit: CarbonNYC via PhotoPin CC

Weekly Intake - February 15, 2014

Here are some of the things I found most interesting read about and watch this past week.

Stephen King to Publish Two Novels in 2014 - The Guardian

Stephen King is undoubtedly one of the most well-known storytellers in the world. I read and loved his sequel to The Shining last year and 11/22/63 the year before that. This year he's releasing two novels. I'm excited about both of them, but I'm particularly looking forward to reading Revival since it's about a preacher. It sounds interesting, and King is known for exploring the spiritual in his stories.

A Look at StoryChicago Creator Ben Arment's Bookshelves

I discovered Ben Arment when I read his incredible book on church planting Church in the Making a couple years ago. Of course, Ben is known for much more than that now as the creator of StoryChicago and Dream Year. He's become an encouraging voice for the creative and the entrepreneurial. Blogger Anne Bogel had a conversation with Ben on her blog about the books on his bookshelves. Ben has an interesting approach to organizing his books. It's interesting to learn what the most creative thinkers consider worthy of their intake. If you're unfamiliar with Ben Arment, you've got to check him out.

LEGO Lessons for Life - John Saddington

Blogger and entrepreneur John Saddington shares some lessons that can be learned from playing with Legos from author Steve Klusmeyer. Great stuff, especially if you're a fan of those fun little bricks. I really like this one: "Every brick has a purpose. Some are made for a specific spot--most can adapt almost anywhere--but everyone will fit somewhere."

Shut Up Already And Do It - Jon Acuff

Another great post by Acuff on taking action on our dreams rather than just talking or dreaming about it. Great story about Sony selling their waterproof headphones and MP3 player in a water bottle.

Maybe Church is About More Than What We See - Nate Pyle

Author Donald Miller recently sparked a lot of controversy in the blogosphere with his comments on not need the church to worship. Blogger Nate Pyle offers a passionate and humble response for what gathering together as the body of Christ should be.

Darth Vader Dances to "Beat It" by Michael Jackson

My kids are really into Star Wars right now, and we found this video on YouTube this week. Hilarious stuff.

The Danger of Feeling Isolated

We are inherently social. Even the most die-hard introvert has the desire to belong to something that is more than just them. It's a longing to be part of a movement. We long to be part of a community of people who share the same values and the same vision of the world.

But what happens when you feel isolated? What happens when you don't feel like you belong anywhere?

Like a tree that needs sunlight and water to grow and thrive, a person who isn't surrounded by people who are investing in them begins to die away inside. No one sees it. Most people are probably completely oblivious to it. But I bet there are a lot of them out there, and I'm afraid for what will happen if no one steps in.

In the Christian world, we say that God loves you and will never leave you. Even when bad situations occur, we're urged to be believe that God still loves us. We're told that we could do nothing to earn God's love and nothing to lose it. 

Many people believe we're not supposed to question it, and that it's unspiritual to question it. God said it, so we should believe it. On the surface of it, I agree we should just trust that God loves us and doesn't ever leave us.

Even if your experience tells you otherwise.

But that's the problem, isn't it? I can't be the only one who has felt at times like God not only got distant, but completely abandoned me. He's nowhere in sight, and I can't bring him back. 

Christianity is interesting because there's so much risk involved in it. And I'm not talking about big risks like the risk of dying if you go on a mission trip to an uncivilized country. Not even the risk that God might actually call you to die for him.

I'm talking about the risk that's inherently built in to the idea that "It is not good for man to be alone." It's the risk involved in God's decision to so often work through people to express his love toward people. God may be perfect, but people are definitely flawed.

If a person's only chance of feeling the love of Jesus is if I express that love toward that person as God's representative, what happens if I say no? What if I feel uncomfortable, so I just neglect to do it? What happens if I hold back God's love from someone?

Because I've watched the church of Jesus fail someone I care about so many times that God's love feels more like hate, it's really easy to start questioning why God chooses to work this way. It's not like God is unaware of the risk. He obviously knows when people are going to fail to do what he intends for them to do. But it's the way he chooses to work, and if God is a perfectly blameless being, where does that leave us?

In the Bible, God called a man named Jonah to go to a corrupt nation of people and show his mercy by telling them they needed to respond with their hearts in adoration of God rather than the raw hatred they had always been expressing. But Jonah failed the first time and ran away. Thankfully, God's love for Ninevah was strong enough that he called Jonah again, but what if Jonah would have ran away again?

It's a horrible existence to live in isolation. To feel like you don't belong. To feel like God himself hates you because his people, who are called to express his heart to a dark and dying world, fail to do that very thing.

It scares me because I probably do it myself every day and don't even think about it. It scares me because I've been able to see firsthand the way a person's soul withers and weathers because of the failure of church.

Author Caleb Breakey recently wrote a book, Called to Stay, about the failures of church in this area and God's desire for burned believers to stay with it and be infiltrators. Why? Because there's too much at risk for a church not to express the loving heart of God to people. People desperately need to know that Jesus loves them and that there is a community of people where they can belong and feel encouraged to press on in the daily struggles of life.

I think there are more people who feel like they're living in a prison of their own isolation more than we realize. It's so easy to be inwardly focused that we never see the people hurting around us. Imagine if people who were called by the name of Jesus joined together and relentlessly pursued the hearts of people the way God desires.

Question: Has there ever been a time when you felt like you didn't belong to something bigger than you? How did you handle it?

Photo Credit: Mariano Kamp via PhotoPin CC

A Journey Back to Writing & Some Thoughts on Identity

As 2013 was coming to a close, I decided that 2014 was going to be the year that I became a writer. The first time that I can remember wanting to be a writer was when I was in junior high. Ironically enough, the movie Scream had come out, and in my angst-driven teenage mind, I thought it was the most brilliant piece of storytelling ever.¹

Over the next few years, I took creative writing classes in high school where I wrote stories and screenplays, and I had a lot of fun creating stories in my head and putting them on paper. I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up at that time: a storyteller (through screenwriting, novels, and creative nonfiction). Then something happened that eventually led me to stop pursuing that dream.

I started following Jesus.

Looking back, I realize I bought into a cultural lie that being a storyteller wasn’t a noble calling for a believer, and I stopped trying to be a writer. I would still write from time to time, but my writing was more focused on devotional thought and expounding the Bible. Those things were good, but I missed storytelling.

Within a couple years, I came to believe that my calling was to be a church leader, a professional Christian. A career path that I believed was going to lead me to be a writer and creator for a living was suddenly and voluntarily derailed. I’m not saying I wasn’t genuinely called to that because it is the path I pursued and eventually embraced when I became a youth pastor a few years later. But within 5 years of achieving what I thought at the time was my calling, I walked away from it and into what felt like a vast wilderness where Jesus seems silent.

I don’t think there’s anything more threatening to your personal identity than to achieve your calling and discover that maybe it wasn’t your calling after all. The scariest question in the world is the question of “Who am I?” Without an answer to that question, we’re left desperately searching for the answer, and what we do find is often disappointing.

I’ve recently been reading a book that I feel confident I can say will be my favorite book of 2014. Skye Jethani, in his book Futureville, reveals the Christian cultural assumptions that lead people to believe that Christian ministry is the only noble calling for a believer. I wish this book would have been around 15 years ago, though I probably wouldn’t have gotten it at that time anyway.

Futureville has been a liberating book because Jethani seems to understand culture better than anyone I’ve come across and how an authentic biblical vision of God’s intent for the world impacts the way we live within the culture. Futureville is a game-changing book for understanding the Christian narrative and how it impacts how we live in the world. When we understand God’s end goal for the world, the things we do today have incredible meaning hold the potential seriously impact the world. I seriously love this book because it’s reminding me of things long-forgotten.

Many people define themselves by what they do instead of letting who they are define what they do.

This was the great lie I fell into as a young Christian. If I became a youth pastor, and that became my identity, then I was following a noble calling. Certainly a much nobler calling than being a storyteller.

Of course, when I became a youth pastor, I soon discovered that there’s an implicit hierarchy of noble callings even within the church world, and youth pastor is pretty low on the totem pole. You want to be taken seriously? Then trying being a lead pastor, or a deacon, or a worship leader, or maybe even a children’s minister. Ironically, even as a youth pastor, I couldn’t help being a storyteller, using story as a vehicle to teach the Bible almost every week.

Defining yourself by what you do can get pretty exhausting and it’s an absolutely unhealthy way to live. When you define yourself by what you do, there will always be someone whose identity is better than yours. In an unending cycle of comparison, no one really wins.

I’m a high school English teacher now. It turns out that part of my identity is revealed in my desire to understand students and help them find something bigger than themselves to live for, so maybe being a youth pastor wasn’t so far off from God’s calling for me after all. I get to be creative in my classroom and I get to have really good conversations with students at times about faith and Jesus’ desire for their lives.

Though I think all of us are always on a journey to discovering our core identity, I think I can see that part of who I am has always been revealed in being a writer. I love creating stories and I love communicating through writing, so while I teach writing during the day, I write when I’m not teaching.

Early in the morning. During lunch. After school. At night.

I told myself that 2014 was the year that I would become a writer, and so far, I’m doing exactly that.

I’m doing it because who I am is somehow tied to it.

I’m doing it because in a world where Jesus is making all things new, being a storyteller is a noble calling.

I’m doing it because I have a family who needs me to be who I am and provide for them.

I’m doing it because after fifteen years, the dream hasn’t gone away.

What is one thing you desperately long to do because you feel it reveals something about your core identity?

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Futureville Photo Credit: Thomas Nelson Publishers

¹ I wouldn’t call Scream the most brilliant piece of storytelling ever now, though I do think that the original trilogy overall told an interesting story and emotional story even in the midst of blood and horror. Plus, one of the first dates I went on with my wife Lindsey was to the final movie in the original Scream trilogy. She got to see me grow out of my horror movie-obsession phase. I haven’t seen Scre4m. For me, the story was finished in 3. I’ve grown up in my taste for stories, but I still have an appreciation for the way Scream made me believe I could be a storyteller and sparked my love of the trilogy format.