Genius!

I have been reflecting lately on the nature of my gifts.  What am I good at doing?  Where do I have the potential to achieve greatness?  And by what standards?  Is it really worthwhile to pursue this excellence?  Tonight, I came across an excellent TED Talk exploring a similar question.  What do we do when our creative ability is suddenly nowhere to be found?

Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love) discusses how over the past few centuries, creative artists across all genres (writers, painters, musicians, etc.) who have offered up masterpieces have faced depression and feelings of unworthiness when they find that their special talent is gone or seems to have faded away.  We put extraordinary expectations on these people (and they in turn place those on themselves), often identifying them as “geniuses”.  When their talent seems to have run dry, we begin asking the same question they ask themselves - ”Why can’t Joe Artist produce greatness anymore?”  We wonder why this “genius” suddenly seems so ordinary.

Gilbert offers a different perspective.  What if “genius” comes from outside ourselves?  Maybe it’s not that we are geniuses – perhaps we only have genius.  Perhaps the ability to create something truly remarkable depends more on what comes to us than how hard we work at it.  I think this is brilliant!  Each “work of genius” is not just from the artist.  Sure, the artist shows up and does his or her job, but the greatness of the work comes as a gift.  The artist is never actually producing greatness, only delivering it.  So then, there is no need to feel failure when the genius doesn’t come through again.  Yet we also have to remember that we can’t be prideful and take full credit when it does.  Gilbert has an interesting take, and while I would look at this from a Christian perspective where God is the one offering each gift of creative genius, I still tend to agree with her assessment.  We nurture creativity by being thankful for it, not by freaking out and trying to produce it.

I have recently come to realize I may be wasting a God-given gift in my life for writing.  But what does a gift like that look like?  Do I now have this ability to pump out phenomenal prose, or whip up some stellar slam poetry, or pen lyrics for the next hit broadway musical at will?  Hah!  If I did, let’s just say Dan wouldn’t be the only Brown topping the best seller lists.  It’s not that easy.  It still takes hard work.  Right??

I can’t help but think that while I may work hard, the only way I could create something truly great and truly meaningful in anyone’s life is if God chose to create it through me.  There’s no room left for pride about what I’ve done.  But there’s also no room left for feelings of failure at what I haven’t accomplished.  All that’s left is just me.  Just some random human being.  Not a human doing.  And that is where I meet God and discover who I really am in Christ – not inside my success, but completely distinct from it.  All I do then, is open myself to God to work something through me. Which is all any of our gifts really are – God moving through us.

If you’ve got some time and are at all interested in creative arts, watch Gilbert’s talk.  Let me know what you think.

I’ll Be Write Back

In the spring of 1995, I took the writing portion of the now defunct TAAS (Texas Assessment of Academic Skills) test.  I was a nerdy 4th grader who loved almost everything about school.  Except writing.  I hated writing.  Couldn’t stand it.  But my teacher told me that I wrote well.  She told me I should work on my writing, because if I did, I could be a very good writer someday.  I didn’t want to hear it.  I only wanted to focus on reading and math.  And besides, I was going to be a pro baseball player or an astronaut someday, so why did I need to write well?

Flash forward 9 years to February 2004.  Here I was, a 19 year old kid at Texas A&M, finding myself struggling through math and science classes as an engineering student.  Not only was I not on the fast track to becoming an astronaut or ballplayer – I was having trouble with what I thought were my strongest subjects, and I was starting to realize I didn’t really want to be an engineer anyway.  Somewhere along the way, my aversion to writing had faded.  I wrote a few papers in high school that I actually enjoyed.  And I got good grades.  And over the course of a few months in college, I realized I actually enjoyed writing.  I decided to give myself a place to write.  Somewhere I could write about both my profound contemplations and my reflections on mundane life.  And so it began.  The Cheese (this blog) was born.  As a quick look back will reveal, my first posts followed the “write down everything that happened today” model that was so prevalent early in the blog craze.  Over time, I suppose I realized that not everyone cared that I snoozed 13 times before waking up, and so my writing improved significantly as I matured (or so I was told).  Blogging has not only given me a chance to share ideas, to express feelings, and to ask questions with other people, but has also provided me a medium to reflect on life.  I can barely express how transformational writing has been for my own life.

From the very start, however, I have been the textbook example of an inconsistent blogger.  I will go months without posting anything.  Then suddenly I will write something every day for 2 weeks.  Then I disappear again.  The last time I posted something here was almost 10 months ago.  It’s been nearly a year since my mind churned and my fingers rapidly tapped across a keyboard or my hands cramped up from holding a pen too tight.  I miss writing.

I have come to realize over the past few years, by reflecting on my own life and listening to encouragement from some friends, that God has given me a gift for writing.  I certainly don’t have a gift for hitting a 95 mph fastball.  I don’t have a gift for organizing.  I don’t have a gift for fashion.  But we all have gifts, and one of mine is writing.  This past week, that really hit me again.  Why waste such a gift?

Words, both written and spoken, help us exchange ideas.  Words help us understand our world and how we interact with it.  Words help us communicate and work together.  Words help build relationships.  Words bring hope, bring peace, bring pain, bring sorrow, bring joy, and bring love.

As I seek to know God in my life, I discover that Jesus is referred to in the Bible as “The Word“.  He is called “the author of our faith”.  God writes his promise of love on our hearts.  It is my hope that I can learn to use my gift for writing to reflect that creative nature.

I am no Shakespeare.  I am no Homer.  I am no Augustine, no Jane Austen, no C.S. Lewis.  It isn’t my dream to become a legendary writer and publish books to influence centuries of thought.  But I have heard from too many people that I have a gift.  I want to use it for whatever purpose I can.  So here I am again, offering my words to the infinite abyss of cyberspace.  May these words find you out there and encourage you to find and use your own gifts.

“Well”, It’s November

It’s November!  Winter is upon us in full force here in Anchorage.  Okay, maybe not full force.  But we’ve had some days with temperatures in the single digits.  Brr.  To cope with the cold – and the shorter days – I am doing my best to stay busy.  Working with youth really helps with that!  

One of the aspects of my job at Trinity is to write devotions and articles for various events and publications.  We just made a change with our church newsletter, The Well, and I will get to consistently write articles for spiritual inspiration, which is something I really enjoy.  Hopefully this will encourage me to be more consistent in writing down my thoughts.  I have considered starting a weekly online devotion for the youth at Trinity (or anyone else interested).  We’ll see if that happens.  For now, here is the article I wrote for the November issue of The Well.  

This summer I was blessed with the opportunity to be a part of the mission team to Anaktuvuk Pass.  Our team led daily Vacation Bible School as well as nightly youth group.  Over the week, I witnessed growth in each one of the youth from Trinity and I saw them demonstrate incredible leadership skills throughout the trip.  It was amazing to see how well the team worked together.  Each person brought their own gifts and openly shared them with the people of AKP.  A few of the youth were great at leading games and creating energy for the kids, and others were awesome story tellers or music leaders.  Some of the youth were incredibly patient in helping control the inevitable chaos of VBS.  Although everyone was a little different, God brought us together as a team to share His love more effectively.  

Scripture is filled with images that describe the church as the “body of Christ”.  We are all given different gifts and abilities, just as our bodies have parts with different roles. 1 Corinthians 12 helps us see the value of each person and their gifts within the church: “If the body was all eye, how could it hear?  If all ear, how could it smell…but God has combined the members of the body giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”

We each have a special combination of gifts and passions that make us unique.  When we discover and embrace these God-given gifts, we can find great joy in using them.  Surely God gives us gifts for our own enjoyment, but I have discovered that the greatest joy is often using my blessings to bless others.  I get really excited when I see the people of God (especially here at Trinity) using their gifts together for the overall benefit of the church and the world.  I am only here today because of the people God has placed in my path that have joyfully shared their gifts with me and used them to help build me up.  

It’s mind-blowing! God created each one of us as individuals in His own image.  And yet we are all bound together as a community, a body.  Everything we do affects the people around us.  So let’s challenge one another anew to discover and celebrate one another’s gifts.  Use your gifts to glorify the Lord together with this body!

How does this make you feel?

 

When I see pictures like these of really happy looking people, it tends to cheer me up and make me smile or even laugh along with them.

 

 

 

 

When I see images of people truly hurting and suffering, I can’t help but feel sad, too. The pain in their faces seems to crawl out of the picture and into my own heart.

Lately, I’ve been reflecting on the contagiousness of human emotions. When we see people hurting, it is natural to feel sad. When we are around people laughing and smiling we usually feel happier.

I am not saying we should ignore the pain and sadness in the world because it will hurt us too. In fact, I believe just the opposite. To have compassion on someone is to come alongside them in their suffering and share it with them. But to share our joy with others can be great, too. When we share suffering, we split it. When we share joy, we double it.

This one of my favorite videos ever. It is awesome to see people all around the world sharing in one of the most joyful expressions we have. DANCE!

So how do you feel now?

Skis!

It’s official.  I am a northerner now.  I bought my first set of skis today!  After last night’s lock-in, I went over to West High School for the annual Anchorage Ski Swap.  It was awesome!  Since I know pretty much nothing about skis, I had one of the youth meet me there and help me pick out a good set.  I was getting some advice from some people, and I realized how incredibly cheap I am.  Most of the skis were pretty great deals, but I had found a couple that were really inexpensive and was trying to decide between the two, and even though the guys were recommending one set, I really wanted to buy the other set… because it was $5 cheaper.  Five bucks.  That’s ridiculous.  Haha.  Anyway, I eventually decided to shell out the extra cash and picked up my first set of skis and boots.  I am ready to hit the slopes!  Pictures soon.

What is it?!!

I have been pondering doing something new that will make some people question my sanity.  Which for me I guess is nothing new.  I recently decided to go through with it.

“With what?” 

 

You’ll see soon…

Want a hint?  ”Just think outside the box” – does that ring a bell?

Had a bad day?

We are studying Job at Trinity and in our home groups. That dude had a reeeeal bad day. It made me think of this.

 

The saddest part by far is the melted blender.  Brutal.

So how do you handle the hard times? Maybe we should all just laugh hysterically?!

Time Difference: time for something different?

I have no idea what that title means.  I was just thinking about the time difference here in Alaska and tried for some word play.  I don’t think it worked.  But then again, word play never works, cause play and work are opposites (I could use your philosophical explanation of work vs. play here, Justin).  Unless of course, you work with youth, in which case they often collide in mass chaos!  

Fun Alaska fact of the day – almost all of Alaska is on one time zone, even though it is wide enough to span across 5!  Alaska time is an hour behind Pacific, 3 hours behind Central (not 6, Mom…).  It’s not exactly like I am on the other side of the world, but sometimes it feels like it.  College Football starts at 7 am.  National debates happen in the middle of the afternoon.  And it is really hard to stay in touch with people who are going to sleep when I get off work.    It is “tomorrow” for most of you right now (whoa!).  When you look at the map, Alaska is just kind of out there, pretty isolated from the rest of the country.  The culture here really feels like that sometimes too.  

Before I took the job up here, one of the things they told me is that the staff is like a family, because most of them live so far away from family.  I am finding that to be true.  It has been 5 months (to the day) since I have seen family (or friends from Texas) – by far the longest I have ever gone.  It is kind of hard sometimes, but the staff has really embraced me up here.  The young adult community at Trinity is amazing as well, and I have made some pretty good friends in my short time up here so far.  

I am excited though about visiting back “home home” for Thanksgiving.  Sometimes I just have to kind of pinch myself and go, “Whoa!  I live in Alaska now!”  It’s cool.  But different.  

And so I enter month 6 of life in Alaska.  How will it stay the same?  How will it be different?  (and now the title kind of makes sense…)  Peace, friends.

back, fools

So I once read somewhere a quote that someone had found from a link to a blog about an article about a book, which said you should never explain or apologize for not blogging lately, cause nobody really cares, and if they do they are annoyed that you wrote that.  Or something like that…  So because of the wise words of some random person that somebody heard about and told someone I knew or something, I have no explanation for not blogging.  I just confused the crap out of myself though…

Anyway, life in Anchorage has been pretty good.  It is nice to get settled in and have a new city start feeling like home.  Mostly.  The fall here was absolutely amazing!  The colors were beautiful and the weather was awesome.  Notice I said “was”.  Yes, fall is gone already.  We have had two fairly heavy snowfalls already and I just have this gut feeling that there will probably be a little more before the year is done.  I just kind of have this knack for predicting weather.  Must be genetic or something.  Check out the progression of Alaska over the last month or so:

That is just crazy.  I am enjoying it though.  It is something new.  And ski season starts up soon!  I am heading out to the annual Anchorage “ski swap” this weekend to try and find a good deal on some used skis.  I am pumped!

In other news, the job is going great.  I really love working with youth.  All the youth at Trinity are awesome, and soon I will get to add another aspect to my job – substitute teaching in area schools.  I feel like it is just a really cool idea to help build relationships with students, teachers, and other youth staff.  It is such an unbelievable blessing that I get to work with youth full time.  Wow.  

I’ve been playing my guitar a lot more lately.  I play in the band at church and I have also been jamming out on my own more.  I started taking lessons again at the beginning of September and I have learned a ton and really improved quickly.  It is really amazing how much faster I progress when I have someone teaching me techniques instead of just trying to figure out specific songs on my own.  I know that during the few months that I took lessons back in 2003, I progressed more than in the 2 years before that and probably the 5 years since.  I feel the same way this time.  I am starting to understand music in a much deeper sense and finding ways to incorporate basic scales better and jazz things up a little.  It’s really fun.

I’ve started playing in an adult city soccer league (indoor) and I am discovering once again that I am completely out of shape.  After our first game, I was huffing and puffing and wheezing a little and I got the hiccups for about 11 hours.  That was weird…  I have met some new folks (including another Fightin Texas Aggie, whoop) and I enjoy competing even at a sport I pretty much suck at.  

Anchorage life is pretty good.  It is kind of hard sometimes to try and keep my heart into what I am doing where I am when my mind wanders to people I miss far away.  But I really truly believe this is where I am meant to be right now.  And that is awesome.  

I’ve got a fun announcement coming up here in the very near future.  So check back soon.

Oh, and my fun thought of the day.  I bet that unless you are from Alaska, I am your westernmost friend.  Just let that sink in.

As always, visits are welcome.  And encouraged.  That’s right, I am inviting you – yes, you, blog reader – to come to Anchorage.  World class skiing and snowboarding, northern lights viewing, and more in the winter.  Unparalleled outdoor activities in the summer (hiking, fishing, World Beard Championships, etc.).  So come one, come all, come to Alaska.  You’ll love it here.  Okay, I am officially a huge nerd.  Peace.

Let The Games Begin!!

I LOVE the Olympics!  This is one of my favorite times of every other year.  I think I skipped two straight weeks of classes during the last winter Olympics.  Just kidding, Mom.  Yep, I didn’t skip anything…

Anyway, last night’s opening ceremony was amazing!  The performances were brilliant, and as always, the march of athletes was simply breathtaking.  Today, I have been watching since I woke up.  It’s kind of funny how I can enjoy watching sports I really know nothing about (badminton, fencing, rowing, etc).  But I have found that even more special than the competitions are the medal ceremonies and the raising of the flags to the national anthems.  Those are the moments that seem to define the Games.  I just watched the first medal ceremony in Beijing involving Americans.  The U.S. swept all three in women’s fencing today.  But as I watched the flags go up, I had a very different experience than I have before.

Instead of feeling national pride like I usually do when they raise the American flag and play the Star Spangled Banner, I felt a little bit of “world pride”.  There was a sense of excitement at how people from around the world not only engage in friendly competition, but then honor their fellow athletes – even from “enemy” nations – as they rejoice in their victories.  That people from around the world still stand and honor the American athletes for the heart and determination it took to get them to such a global stage, even if they don’t agree with the country’s politics, is an incredible picture of the greater meaning of the Olympic games.

Yes, the competitions between the world’s greatest athletes are often exhilarating.  Yes, the country medal count is exciting to follow.  But the Olympics are not about the games.  They are about the peaceful relationships that transcend the competitions.  And at a time when it seems much of the world is in the midst of great conflict, the Olympics are such a beautiful oasis of peace and friendship across those lines.  It is an event that sparks a great sense of global pride.  There is bad in all of us, that is to be certain from looking at the state of the world.  Yet events like the Olympics, while not perfect, prove to me that there is great good in all of us as well.  I don’t know how anyone could be a part of something like last night’s opening ceremony and not get goosebumps.

There is a great commercial series on during this Olympic season.  Visa has some ads following the Olympic paths of some athletes with a common theme of “Go World”.  That is the feeling I get while watching these Beijing Games.  While I am definitely rooting for America and some specific athletes, I am pulling even more for Beijing 2008 to spark movements of peace and reconciliation around the world.  We pray for peace all the time.  Let’s take time these next few weeks to celebrate one of the greatest enduring expressions of that search for peace.  Go World!