Weird and embarrassing and fun — all at the same time.”

You don’t have to hang out with me very long to know that I almost always have a notebook within reach.

It’s a habit I’ve had since I was about 13. That’s when I finally realized that I forget almost everything that I don’t write down. When I fill up a notebook, I put it on the shelf, and start another.

Funny thing about these notebooks is how my relationship with them changes over time. My current notebook is like a bank. I deposit ideas, thoughts, and doodles for safe keeping — and hope for future…um…”interest.”

When I thumb through previous notebooks, they’re less like banks and more like mirrors. I see my past reflections, a blurry image my former self, and that view shows me some of what I’m like today. How I’ve changed. How I’ve grown or slipped. What core passions link my present decisions with my past desires.

Sometimes the image in the mirror makes me smile or laugh out loud. Sometimes it’s sobering wake-up call to see what I was and what I’ve become.

garageband for ipad

I was itching to try out recording with my new (to me) guitar last week when I came across an old notebook. There were some quotes to remember, some books I wanted to read. And here and there were a few lines of verse and some chords.

So I fired up the ol’ iPad and gave it a whirl. I remember playing this song at my little country church a few weeks after Christmas about a dozen years ago. Refreshing myself on the picking pattern was like crawling inside the attic and finding boxes of old photos from high school. Weird and embarrassing and fun — all at the same time.

Life was simple. Dreams were big. Odds were long. Risks were easy.

I had a good heart back then.

We celebrated Thanksgiving simply, in a tiny, pinewood cabin. Sarah made food, because she is awesome. We were surrounded by what makes us happy. Things like: mountains, trees, warm fires, books, our crazy pup, and each other.

It was the perfect backdrop for gratitude.  Simplicity distilled our thanks.

Away from the conveniences of the city. Away from flickering screens and battery powered devices that chirp, buzz, blink, and click. Away from all those things, my mind was refreshed with the insight that I wasn’t really thankful for blessings. I am thankful because of blessings.

Remove all that makes my life easy, fun, and productive and I still have just as much cause for gratitude. Why?  Because I experience just as much grace from the One who gives.

Plus, Sarah and Lewis got in lots of nature walks.

Click the pic for  an interactive panorama of the cabin:

And here are some photos….

Let’s be honest. Most of the time, IMs are for impromptu movie references and swapping LOLs.

But, every once in a while, you actually have a deep, useful instant message exchange that gives you an idea or helps you see something in a new way. I had one of those conversations with two friends this week….

We started out poking a little fun at the typical “inspirational women’s ministry speaker.” We ended up with a sad and true observation about how we all love inspiring stories of grace…as long as they’re not in the present tense.

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They think it forms the walls and lid for our minds and souls. The box shelters us from evil. Creativity — thinking outside the box — represents some kind of disruptive assault on all that is right and good.

We Christians have a hard time knowing when to be orthodox and when to be groundbreaking. There’s not much room for creativity when it comes to theology. It’s a set system. And that’s ok. But, it’s harmful to let our fixed theology calcify our minds.

The easy and lazy path is to be conservative in everything and fight change of every kind.

If you’re the kind of person that is threatend by change, I’m not judging you. I’m just inviting you to consider that you’re predisposition to favor the status quo (to be conservative) may be the function of other factors — your personality, your past experiences, your personal preferences.

In other words, if you don’t like Jackson Pollock, it’s not God’s fault.

Using God to back up your own ideas warps our world’s understanding of what God is like. And,  it makes you look silly:

“Christians are not always viewed as creative people, either by ourselves or the secular world. We tend to limit ourselves and what we are able to do with the talents and gifts God has given.

For example, for years may magazines and Sunday school publications bought their Bible art from a lithograph service. The little line drawings were safe, predictable, and dull. Then one publication decided to try something different. A Jewish artist was hired to illustrate Bible stories. She did an unusual job. The pictures seemed to come alive on the page. But no sooner had Christians opened their first issue than they began to write protest letters. “These pictures look too Jewish,” the letters declared. “The don’t feel Christian, you know. Some of the people in them aren’t smiling.” The artist’s work went into storage and the conservative readers breathed a sigh of relief; modernism had been stopped.

“In the world of art, we have chosen religious propaganda over genuine creative work. Yes, we are interested in pointing people to Christ, but that noble goal gets rather downgraded when we thing the Holy Spirit can’t work through excellence.” [1]

This is talking specifically about art, but the underlying principle applies to Christian’s aversion to change across the board. Using theology as a box to shelter us from having to make decisions about life in the contemporary world would be laughable if it weren’t so sad.

Some of the most deeply spiritual and meaningful contributors to our understanding about God were also among history’s most creative minds. They did not view theology as a box. They saw it more as the mind’s north star. A fixed reference point essential for keeping their explorations of creation on a healthy course.

Theology didn’t hold them back. Theology wasn’t a protective shield from the harsh realities of life. Theology was their map to adventure and their guarntee that, wherever they might roam — physically, intellectually, creatively — all they had to do was look up to get their bearings and find their way home.

So, before we close the lid on a creative effort let’s consider: Is this really theology at stake?  Or, is this my box talking?

God is big. He doesn’t need our box. Let’s be conservative only when necessary.

[1] From: Creative Teaching Methods, LeFever, 1990

“This life…is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it; the process is not finished but it is going on. This is not the end but it is the road… — Martin Luther

It’s happening.

I opened up this banjo, tuned it, and recorded a little sample with my iPad. I don’t know many chords yet, so I picked something simple in honor of olde tyme church….

I’ve always liked the punchy twang of the banjo. It’s got a drum head. And strings. And it doesn’t take batteries or light up. Nothing says “I’m kickin’ it old school,” like lickin’ it on five strings of folk fun! You didn’t see much banjo work in mainstream music for a while, but the sound is coming back with bands going for that vintage-y sound. Mumford & Sons is one of my favorite examples.

For me, this banjo is a journey back to my roots. Simple life. Simple folk. Simple faith. There’s an honesty in the sound that resonates with my thirst to approach life with authenticity and energy and to abandon cynicism in favor of hope.

Steve Jobs on corporate culture:

“If you want to hire great people and have them stay working for you, you have to let them make a lot of decisions, and you have to be run by ideas, not hierarchy. The best ideas have to win, otherwise good people don’t stay.”

How many institutions, organizations, and causes lose good people due to frustration about bad ideas and pet projects being favored ahead of good ideas?

The kind of people who are driven to excel in their fields, those who sacrifice deeply in order to contribute significantly to their world through their work are rarely motivated by money. No price is worthy of their life’s calling. To make an impact, to succeed in a meaningful way is their pursuit and their reward.

Such passionate innovators have little patience for an environment that values playing it safe over playing to win. They feel little loyalty toward those who are not loyal to the task at hand.

Why?

Because winners don’t like playing for losers.

ABC posted the image briefly to photo sharing service Instagram before hastily removing it. However, they couldn’t delete it before yours truly was able to snap this screen shot.

Can you spot the flub?

What’s in a name, anyway?