You never know. You just never know. If there is something I believe in, something I truly believe is important and the world needs to hear it, something even that I feel God has called me to do, then I need to promote it shamelessly. I need to tell everyone. Politicians, in my opinion, have the wrong idea about many things, but promoting is one thing they have a grasp on.

We are in the midst of an election year and every four years the one thing that amazes me about the presidential election is the intensity of the campaign. The campaign and the spreading of that candidate’s ideas and influence is the soul goal of everything they do. Everywhere they go, everyone they see, they share their vision, they tell their story, and they make their dream known.

I wonder what might happen if we as artists, and as Christians, went on a campaign to spread and gain support for the ideas, dreams, and inspiration God has planted in our hearts. I’m not talking about sidewalk preaching or street evangelism. I’m talking about the project of vision that has been stirring in your soul that you’ve been trying to keep private for who knows how long.

I know we’re not going to rent an RV and go roaming the countryside promoting our blogs, but everywhere we go there are people, people in need of something to believe in. This is something politicians know, that people are hungry for something, or someone, to believe in, so they appear in front of everyone they can and they say, “I’m your guy”.

Politics however, simply cannot solve all of our problems. Politics and make plans, and start organizations, and create laws, and bills, and acts that will help to better the physical condition of our world, and that is great. But there are matters of the heart and soul that politics just cannot touch the way art and spirituality can.

Art is a powerful thing, and if it is done well, it provides an emotional change or spiritual awakening for the viewer. The Gospel is the same way, to know Jesus Christ creates a change in our heart, and that change of heart can, and will, be a catalyst for world shaping visions that will help to better the physical conditions of our world. Simply said, God gets down to the heart of the matter, and tells us what to say with our lives, so that we can change the world.

The problem with artists, however, is that too may of us keep our talents, our light, under a bushel. Because art is so personal, we are afraid to “put ourselves out there”, but what we are really saying is we are afraid to promote the message that has been spoken into our heart about what the world must hear, and what the world must know. That is the weight that our creativity carries. Politicians try and change minds, while we change hearts. The heart is the heart of the matter. It is the core where everything lives and breaths and to promote your creativity is to bare your soul to a world that can be dark and hurtful. But if we suffer long, and continue to create, every time we do bear our hearts, we invite a little light, and a little healing into this world.

And trust me, you never know, you never know who is going to be listening.


-jon

Going into my senior year of college I have two coinciding thoughts that I’m sure make me the perfect candidate for an asylum.

First, I think, ‘wow, look at all I’ve accomplished at only twenty-one’. A very humble thought.

Second, I think, ‘wow, I’m already twenty-one, and I haven’t done anything worth while’.

This, I believe, is the heart of the aspiring artist.

Now most people may look at the two thought quotations above and very quickly discern that the thinker is crazy. But if they were to take a moment and dig deep into the memories of their past, as well as into the aspirations of their future, they would see that they live their lives from within the same tension.

This tension, I believe, is a necessary one. Artists are addicted to dreaming. We visualize entire scenarios, sculptures, pictures, stories, tales, fables, photographs, autographs, buildings, way before they are even a possibility.

In a world that is saturated with non-dreamers who are constantly saying, ‘Be realistic. Look at the economy.’ Both artists and leaders are saying, ‘Screw the economy, I got a vision that’s gonna rock this world’. These are the crazy folk among us, artists, and leaders. So if you are a leader in the arts, look out, cause you’ve doubled up and are probably a dream cokehead. But unlike actual cokeheads, the world needs more dream addicts.

To return to the tension we spoke of before. An artist, in order to be fully present in the present, must always remember and be satisfied with their past work, while maintaining a righteous frustration at their lack of future work. This is the only way to create in the moment.

We must always remember where we came from. The creative building blocks from which our talents were birthed are the very foundation for our earth changing visions. And to forget about them, or to be unsatisfied with them is to either forget the past, and therefore repeat it’s mistakes, or to be living in the past, and therefore be unable to move into the future. We must be at peace with our past mistakes, as well as past successes as an artist in order to create in the present.

This peace in the past acts as an opposing force to the wild tidal wave of future aspirations, in order to achieve balance in our artistic lives.

The future is as uncertain as the ocean, and dreamers like artists are often drawn into the most dangerous of waters because as we know, the greater the storm, the greater the catch. The future ahead of us can be daunting when we look at our list of life goals and realize that there are so many that we have yet even begun to explore. And yet it is this uncertainty, fear, and adversity that spurs the artistic leader forward into the future, and therefore, into greatness. The storm clouds ahead do not turn us around, but instead act as a welcome sign drawing us into the next great idea to change our culture.

It is the artists who truly shape the culture. Politicians shape the law and geography, businessmen shape the economy, but artists shape how we live within the law, geography, and economy.

Balance is not always necessary in the life of an artist. But it is certainly a starting place from which the begin creating. Tension is left to be managed, rather than resolved. The artist who can find it within themselves to live in the tension of being satisfied with the past, and completely unsatisfied with the future, will truly learn how to live in the present. For as Paul says, “Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may apprehend that for which also I was apprehended by Chris Jesus.” Philippians 3:12.


-jon

This is the opening to my first book, CAMP: a memoir manifesto of the summer camp generation. It is set to hit the bookshelves whenever I finish it and can find someone crazy enough to publish it. Here is the opening of the book as it stands right now...enjoy...

"When I was in second grade, my mother sent me to an all day sports camp. The rec-center near our home in Ann Arbor, Michigan did a yearly camp providing a general rinse education to the town’s youth on how to play all different kinds of sports. All kids were welcome, regardless of their athletic ability, or desire to play sports, or even their desire to attend the camp. I for one, who had already chosen baseball as my sport and was already playing it competitively by that age, was not excited about going. This is the first real memory I have of summer camp.
Upon showing up to camp I was placed in a group two years ahead with the fourth graders. Being born at eleven pounds, eleven ounces, I always was much bigger then all the other kids my age, and this being a sports camp, they thought it was safest if I was kids more my size. Truth was, even at the fourth grade level, I was still one of the biggest, and being forced into an age group where I knew no one did not do much to improve my attitude about camp. Nor did the fact that baseball was not even offered at the camp. To my disappointment, slow pitch softball and kickball were the closest I would get to exercising my true talents.

At the end of each day, campers were taken to the indoor pool to go swimming. It was treated as somewhat of a reward by most of the counselors. But to me, it was just another reminder of my inferior age. Because I was younger then the other kids, they had all already passed the necessary swim test allowing them to swim in the deep end, while I only qualified for shallow swimming. The lifeguards, however, did not realize that I was much younger then everyone else, and I was not about to call attention to the fact. So, I was left with a choice, endure the humiliation of standing alone in the shallow end with my float-ies, or take my chances in deeper waters.

To this day, I still don’t fully understand why I chose the deep end. I can just imagine my mind screaming, “No! No! You idiot!” as I shuffled to the edge of the pool. But my heart was set on being just like everyone else, and I took it upon myself to take a leap of faith, hoping that in the half second before I hit the water that I would magically learn to swim. In the moments that followed, two sets of hopes were dashed. If you didn’t guess already, I did not magically learn to swim. And as I hit the water and immediately began screaming and flailing, everyone in the pool, or perhaps everyone in the greater Ann Arbor area, discovered that I was indeed younger then the rest of the campers. Because of my hysteria, I had to be pulled out of the water by two female life guards and examined by the rec-center EMS (Emergency Medical Services). The feeling of drowning was terrible, but compared the humiliation I felt afterward, I may have been willing to negotiate a trade.

Why did I jump in the deep end knowing I couldn’t swim? I’m not sure, but I’m guessing that people, including myself, have done crazier things in hopes of being accepted into the crowd. For the rest of the week however, I was not allowed to be part of the crowd as I was forced to stay, humiliated and alone, in the shallow end of the pool. My worst nightmare had come true, save for the float-ies." 

As a young actor about to head off into the dark, cruel, real world of the American theatre, I have often wrestled with the old adage above. “You don’t have to go into ministry to do ministry.” I know this to be true of course, and I have seen and heard about many examples of this in my life, but very few hit as close to home as this last week did.

This past week, my college roommate, and one of my best and strongest brothers in Christ took the stage as Jack Kelly in Broadway’s new hit musical, Newsies. Not only that, but I was lucky enough to win the ticket lottery and see him perform in his first evening performance as a Broadway star. Out of probably one hundred names, my name was chose. The Lord was smiling on me that day.

I sat in the audience and marveled at what a rare feat this was for a young actor, to have only graduated college three months prior, and now to be headlining one of Broadway’s hottest shows. This is not something that happens everyday, or ever for that matter. From the start I had a feeling that the Lord was doing something really special, although I was unable to see how at the time.

During the performance, I sat next to his fiancé and we began talking about what a wild ride this has been. She began to explain to me, as silly as it sounds, how much his Twitter account had been blowing up with followers over the past week. In just one week, he had gained nearly 1,000 followers on Twitter. For Kanye West, this is a normal day, but for a kid from Ohio who just got out of college, this is crazy. At first, I simply viewed this as a cool statistic about how popular my friend was getting. But then, as I stood outside after the show watching him sign autographs, I began to realize the spiritual implications of what was going on here.

Every night, when he takes the stage in front of over 1,000 people at the Nederlander Theater, he is gaining influence. In our culture that is overly saturated with negative news media and social media, he has the chance to be a positive force in those mediums. He has the opportunity to be a positive role model for the young actors who come and see the show. He can tweet Bible verses that go out to more and more people each day. He is now a leader in the Broadway community, and therefore, one of the more influential people in all of New York.

The sheer potential for influence that began to flood my mind was almost too much to handle, and as I watched my brother sign autographs and take pictures, I realized that the Lord could not have picked a better person for the job. His ability to meet people, and talk with them, and make then feel comfortable and loved is truly a gift that the Lord has given him, and now he has the ability, and responsibility to exercise it on a much larger scale.

This testimony was an answer to prayer for me, showing that we all have a place to serve people on their journey towards Christ. Some are presenters of the Gospel, and some are simply meant to be influential and grab the attention of the masses, while others are meant to grab the attention of an individual. We all have a different place to serve and a different calling to fulfill. The Lord has callings to give out and favor to bestow, now if only His people would open their hearts to receive their anointing, and run to fulfill their mission.

Go see NEWSIES!

-jon

Sometimes it is so clear when God orchestrates something on our lives, or someone. Very few places have I experienced this more powerfully then at camp. I view it like this. Each one of us, as a child of God plays a different melody with the lives we lead. Our differing strengths and gifts and the way we relate to one another provide the instruments needed in order to create this melody. And out there, all over the universe there are billions of other melodies walking around, and God as the divine orchestrator will bring our melody in line with another to create a beautiful harmony, so that our life creates a dynamic, sweetly blissful opus that not only is a blessing to others, but it brings glory to God.

There was one summer where this happened to me unmistakably. I showed up to high school camp one summer already knowing every single camper on my team, except for one girl, we’ll call her Jamie. Jamie was a sweet girl, shy, with beautifully circular eyes. We met one another, and for some reason, I had the hardest time for the whole first day remembering her name, so I made it a point to always say hello to her whenever I saw her.

I cam to find during the audition process that she was a talented dancer as well, and when we were casting late one night it came down to deciding between her and one other girl for the final spot in the ‘specialty dance’ group, a group that would spend almost all of their rehearsal time with me.

The specialty dance is always one of my favorite parts about camp. I get to work with eight to twelve of the most talent dancers in camp, it’s a great artistic and ministry opportunity that you don’t get with the larger groups of twenty or bigger.

While we were casting, we originally made the decision to go with the other girl, who I knew from years previous, so I thought she would be a safer choice. But then, right before I got up to go to bed, the director told me that she needed the girl we had just cast for a different role in the show. So we made the adjustment, and at the last second, Jamie was added to my group, making sure that we would spend almost all our rehearsal time with one another for the rest of the week.

As the week went on, Jamie and I continued to run into one another. On Tuesday night, the counselors threw a dance. But not any normal dance, normal dances are not allowed at camp. This dance was a surprise wedding reception for a lucky chosen bride and groom. We sent to campers to change, and us counselors scrambled to set up lights, streamers, music, and a dance floor, as well as choosing the wedding party, planning the schedule for the reception, and of course, creating an entire wedding slide show, complete with Photoshopped Facebook photos of the “bride and groom” and their happy relationship together up to this point.

As you may have already guessed, Jamie was chosen as our bride, and because she was on my team, I was to play part of “father of the bride”. I gave a speech telling about Jamie’s birth story, and we shared a daddy daughter dance, during which I told her how proud I was of the woman she had become. It was hilarious, and one of the most fun dances I have ever been to. But little did I know, the words I spoke to Jamie during I dance, while playing the part at the time, I would truly mean them later in the week.

Rehearsal continued, and as I got to know the girls in my group, I discovered that all of them had been training in dance class for quite some time, all of them, except for Jamie. As we were learning choreography, I noticed that Jamie was having some trouble. She had all the ability she needed to do the moves, but she would allow herself to be psyched out if she were to miss even one step. After one rehearsal I took her aside and I said, “Are you intimidated?” Clearly mercy is not one of my gifts, but she looked at me as if she knew exactly what I was talking about.

“No,” she said, I’m just completely insecure about pretty much everything.” Her tone was matter of fact, and completely without emotion, as if this was a state she had been living in for a while.

“Well you shouldn’t be,” I told her, “You can do all of these moves just as well, if not better then everyone else on that stage. You’re good, and it’s beautiful when you do it. Don’t beat yourself up if you get one step wrong.”

I could tell this meant a lot to her, and that she may have been in the verge of tears, so we both did our best to finish our exchange for she was not one who liked to cry in front of people, and I was not one to comfort, another gift that is admittedly not my strongest.

The stage was then set for Thursday night, the last night of camp, most commonly referred to by counselors as faith night, and more commonly referred to by campers as crying night. I was to be giving the salvation message and I was going to tie it in with feet washing and planting ourselves in the living water of Jesus.

Now first of all, God moved in incredible ways that night, I saw and heard the Holy Spirit physically and tangibly in others. I heard people encouraging one another and praying for one another in ways that I knew were beyond our earthly capabilities. While viewing all of this, at one point I looked over and I saw a young girl who seemed to be weeping with exceeding passion. The only reason this sight struck me so hard was because I had looked over at this girl only five minutes before, and she had been totally fine, the only difference now, was the Jamie sat behind her, laying her hands on the girls back, and was praying for her.

It was at this moment that I began to see the orchestrations of our loving God. I saw her mouth moving at a frenzied speed, that, along with the other girl’s emotional reaction only could be explained in my mind by one thing, Jamie had received the gift of intercessory prayer, a gift that I myself have been given from time to time.

I soon turned away and began to pray and talk with other campers who needed a place to let go of their burdens, and about twenty minutes later I turned and Jamie was standing right in front of me. It took only a moment of our eyes locking before the water in her eyes boiled over into a full sob.

“I don’t feel worthy to have anyone wash my feet,” she said, “I try so hard, and I want to love God more, but there is no way that I could live up to the Christian standard.”

My heart broke as I heard this, yet I felt God place a very simple, beautiful answer on my heart for her. “None of us are worthy enough to have our feet washed,” I said, “But Jesus desires to do it anyway, not only because He loves us, but so He can plant us in that love.”

“And as for this ‘Christian standard’, the only standard that any Christian is held to is that we love God and accept His free gift of grace.” The standard is not to be perfect, the standard is to accept your natural imperfection and accept the gift of perfection through the grace of Jesus Christ. These were obviously the Spirit’s words in me and not my own. I have never been very eloquent in my speech.

I relayed this to her, and I could still sense her hesitancy. So I continued, “Here is what we’re gonna do,” I said, “I have not washed any feet tonight. And I would be humbled and honored, if your feet were the only ones I washed.”

From there the two of us walked over to the baths together and I washed her feet with tears streaming down both of our faces. I’m not sure if it was as clear to her as it was to me, but I was realizing in that moment that God had set us up specifically to meet one another. He had been orchestrating our lives in just the right way so that when our two melodies collided, we would create a beautiful worship hymn to his great glory. He’s doing it all the time, we just have to open our eyes to see it, cause when we do, He will open our ears to enjoy the music.


-jon

I am blind to you, O Lord
This world makes me blind to you
And I don’t know if I can survive
I don’t know if I can swim in this lake
I don’t know if I can survive in this water
I don’t know if I can make it through this storm
I know you’re present everywhere God,
but I can’t see you move here
I can’t feel your touch here
It separates me from you
And I cannot be in this world without you
Cause if I am, it will swallow me
And I will die
I will die
I will die
I will die if I do not die
I will die if I do not die day after day
This world will swallow me
And I will swallow it
As I swallow it, as I take of it’s fruit, it swallows me
And I am torn, I am torn
And my sight is lost
I loose sight of the victory that’s already been won
And the person that I’m going to become
I don’t know
How do you shine a light when the darkness is so thick
And there’s no air
How does a light survive when there’s no air
There’s no breath
It’s so deceptive
How do I do it
How do I be a light when there’s no air
Can a light survive in a dark room with no oxygen
Cause that’s what I am in this world
What glory is there for you here God
What glory is there for me to give you
It is not plain to me
I cannot see your face through the fire
Through the rain I am blind to your presence
How weak am I?
That I can speak to you so boldly, and speak of you so boldly
And in the blink of an eye I am lost from your sight
I have hidden myself from you
This armor that I wear is the armor of a fig leaf
Covering my shame
I am a paper warrior
I am a plastic warrior
So easily torn down
So easily torn down
So strong sometimes
Yet so quickly removed
I am a paper warrior
A glass warrior
So fragile
To live in this world, it’s not easy
To be so utterly alone
So utterly alone
Is this the call
Please
Is this the call
Cause I don’t know if I can carry it
Cause I don’t know if I can answer it
If this is the call Lord, I don’t know if I can answer
Through my own power I cannot
Through your strength I can
I am so weak
I am so weak
My strength is an illusion for it is only the strength of Christ in me
Never once have I been strong outside of his perfect power living in me
Never once
Never once have I been strong outside of your power because I look at myself and know that I am so weak
I am so broken
I am filthy
How can I see such great things
And turn and do such evil
I am nothing
I am nothing without you
God this is the testament to your glory
That this paper warrior
This weak sinner
This evil, evil person
Can do any good for your kingdom
I truly know you use the least of these for I am the least and I have been chosen
That is a miracle
That is amazing
That is what the power of your Holy Spirit is
That you come into a broken down Chevy and you turn it into a Mustang
You come in to a leper and you make is the most beautiful creation on earth
You take the form of a baby in Bethlehem, and you make him a king
And none of it happens outside of your power
None of it happens outside of your power
There has never been good in this world, there has never been love in this world, except by your power


-jon

I begin with this title hoping to peak your curiosity. Truth be told, there is not much talk about sperm on a Christian blog, or any blog for that matter. It stems from a sermon I once heard from author Tony Campolo,  while talking to teenagers he used an illustration that went something like this…

Did you ever want to see what a sperm looks like all grown up? Then look at yourself in the mirror. Yes, the truth is hard, but at one point in our lives we were all once a sperm. Not only that, but we were one in five million sperm. And there was a race down a long dark tunnel. And there was an egg at the finish line. And you won! It was you against five million and you came through with the victory! You made the Olympics look like nothing!

And as funny as it is, it is also science, and it is also God’s plan. We hear all of these amazing stories about people when they were born, how because of one rare disease or another they had a two percent chance to live and they came through. We look at these people and say, well, they really must be here for a reason. But what about the fact that all of us, each and every one of us, had a one in five million chance of being born and we came through? What about that? What about the fact that each and every one of us is a divine miracle?

Some people may try and say that things were just random, and maybe that is true, but it is not what I believe. You know what I believe? You are not a mistake, you are not here by accident. Think about it, if your mother had a headache that night, you might not even be here today. (Think about that one, you’ll get it later)

Don’t try and tell me that your life is a mistake because the chances were so low, the deck was completely stacked against you and still, somehow, you can through. And not only somehow, but for some reason, and I believe it was for a reason, a very specific reason. And the Lord confirms this truth in Jeremiah chapter one when he tells the prophet, “before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and set you apart and appointed you”.

For Jeremiah, that appointment was to be a prophet among the nations. But for you, and for me, and for all of us, there is no telling what that appointment is. But what we do know is that for you, and for me, and for all of us, there is an appoint. There is a divine appoint that God has placed upon your life, no matter who you are, and your responsibility, and the reason you are here is to discover that divine appointment, and to devote your life to following and fulfilling it.

When you can commit yourself to doing that, I believe you will see God begin to work powerfully in your life. Because the other great thing about your divine calling is that God does not just pick us out from the sperm pool, choose the calling, and then leave us on our own. The Lord desires for you to find your calling so that He can partner with you in creating a better world. He desires for His Holy Spirit to dwell within us and to work through us in order to do His redemptive work in this world. He is active, He is moving, and He is in love with his children, desiring what’s best for them.

I wrote something a few summers ago for camp. That summer, I felt that the Lord was calling me to storm the hearts of these students and take back their identities for the Lord. In process of praying about how to go about that, the Lord breathed two spoken word pieces into my heart, one for the boys, and one for the girls. They have since become infamous, at least among the hundred or so people who own them, as a source of encouragement for those who are struggling with their purpose or their self worth, and I would like to share them with you now.

I share these words with you, knowing that they are meant to be spoken, but I pray that as you read them and pray over them that the Holy Spirit would speak them into your heart and that you would know without a shadow of a doubt that this is exactly who the Lord has made you to be, no matter who you think you are. Even when you were a tiny sperm, the Lord looked in a school of five million and He point you out and said, “I want this one. I choose you.”
(click on the link below to see the poems)

GUYS

GIRLS

-jon