To begin, I love the Mighty Ducks. Why? I’ll get to that later. Now for something completely different.

In my opinion, the U.S. Government runs terribly when the two dominant political parties focus too much on their differing convictions on policy and reform. It seems to me that Washington runs much more efficiently, and more for the benefit of the people, when all leaders, regardless of where they fall on the spectrum, firstly focus on what binds them all together, a common love for country and a desire to make the U.S.A. a better place.

Pardon me for making a church to state metaphor, but I believe that church works in a very similar way. The most clear calling for the church, in my mind, is to introduce people to the person of Jesus and to make God’s name great among the nations. How can this be done though, if those of different denominations spend the majority of their time fighting over smaller issues of theology and belief? Unfortunately, this latter scenario seems to be the reality of late.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t discuss our differences in these areas. I obviously believe that maintaining sound theology is important, but I also believe that the most important theological belief is one that hopefully all of us in the Christian church share, that Jesus Christ is the hope of the nations. This truth should supersede all else. It is the vital truth of the Christian faith, and it’s what binds us all together.

So when our main message to the world centers around our disagreements rather than the one agreement that matters most, we grossly misrepresent how the body of Christ is supposed to exist. This can be extremely counter-productive to our shared mission of making God’s name great. I have never heard a testimony that said, “I was never really interested in Jesus, but when I heard his followers arguing over whether tattoos were sinful or not, it really made me want to learn more about him,” and I don’t think I ever will because dis-unity scares us away. Unity attracts us because it’s what we were created for. It is in unity with other human spirit’s and with the Spirit of God that our spirit finds it’s home.

If we spend so much time fighting each other, we will eventually forget about the real battles that matter, the battles we are called to fight each day, the battles against sickness, and poverty, and spiritual brokenness. The church should be known as one unit that moves in one united flock to serve the purposes of God in this world.

So why do I love Mighty Ducks? Because…

“Ducks fly together!”

Let’s be a church full of ducks.

A few weeks ago I sent out a tweet that said, “Beauty is not subjective, it is an intrinsic quality specifically woven into every daughter of God.”  I believe this to be true, not just for women, but for all people.

In a strange way, the word “beautiful” actually has a somewhat negative connotation in our society now. Because magazines and tabloids have placed a standard on what it means to have beauty, we now use the term “beautiful” as a high rank on the subjective scale of physical appearance. “Oh, she’s hot, but she’s not beautiful.” “She’s not pretty, she’s beautiful.”

Perhaps it sounds incredibly cliché of me, but I don’t believe in any pre-requisite for qualifying as beautiful, whether male or female. Beauty has been woven into each and every one of us by our Creator. We are “fearfully and wonderfully made,” “God’s handiwork.” It’s not something that some women have and some women don’t depending on how regal or plain their face might look, it’s a fact, it’s hardwired into each and every one of us. To be beautiful is to be whole, to be complete, to be the amazing person that God created you to be.

But how can that be true when I don’t ever feel beautiful? I do all I can. I work hard, I read a lot, I try and be my best self, but I rarely feel like an extraordinary person who was divinely created. That’s because the process for discovering that beauty is completely counter intuitive.

The Gospel itself is the most counter-intuitive movement to ever take place on earth. What type of movement tells it’s followers to die in order to live, to be last in order to be first, and to love those who don’t love you? And what type of movement has a leader who actually does all that? Jesus’ death was just as counter-intuitive. The cross is, at the same time, the most broken and the most beautiful picture ever painted, because on it, Jesus exchanges our brokenness for His beauty.

So as backwards as it may sound, discovering our God given beauty only comes through confronting our man given brokenness. The symbol of the cross means that there’s a trade on the table, your brokenness for Jesus’ beauty. It’s the most unfair trade in the world, but God is always willing to make it because of His great love for us.  It is only through making that trade that we begin to discover the beautiful person we were created to be, in Christ.

Beauty then, is nothing more and nothing less than the light of Christ shining through the heart that has made that trade and discovered the power of beauty through brokenness. 

“When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.” –Nehemiah 1:4

In the beginning of the book of Nehemiah, the Israelites have just recently been granted return from exile in Babylon. Upon their return to Jerusalem though they come to realize that their city is in ruins, with it’s wall broken down, and it’s gates burnt up.

This may not seem like such a big deal to us, but this was God’s city. This was the place where the Spirit of God was supposed to dwell, it was supposed to be the shining city on a hill that caused all other cities to shrink back in fear because the favor and the glory of the living God dwelt there. Having broken down walls and burnt gates was not an accurate depiction of the power, might, and awesomeness of God.

For some reason, the narrator of this book is a man named Nehemiah, a cupbearer under King Artaxerxes in the citadel of Susa. At the beginning of the book, Nehemiah is visited by one of his brothers, Hanani, and informed of the current decrepit state of Jerusalem’s walls. In an instant, Nehemiah’s reaction is one of absolute despair. He sits down, weeps, mourns and prays for days on end before God in heaven.

This may seem a bit overdramatic, but what Nehemiah experiences in this moment is extremely profound. If we break it down, Nehemiah is experiencing something that all great influential leaders experience, a broken heart. At the beginning of a movement, at the root of a revolution, there sits one man or one women who looks at the world or a community or a company in it’s current state and says, “something is not right here” “something is not as it is suppose to be.” A broken heart is where great movements start, and it’s where leaders are born.

Nehemiah was not a wall builder when God broke his heart for the wall at Jerusalem, he wasn’t even a leader, he was a cupbearer. He did not have the proper skill set in order to mobilize, plan, and execute such a bold feat of construction, but that did not stop Nehemiah from listening to his broken heart.

The prayer of “break my heart for what breaks yours” is extremely popular in contemporary Christian culture, and not just because of Hillsong United. Christ followers today long to bring justice into the world. We long to have moments like Nehemiah where our hearts break and we say, “something isn’t right here.” In order to set things right though, in order to usher God’s justice onto the scene, we must act, and that is where most of us get severely caught up. We look at the problem or circumstances that are breaking our heart and we say, “well that’s not really my wheelhouse”, “ministry wasn’t part of my major in college, I don’t have the skill set.”

Something I constantly repeat to myself every day is, “Don’t stop at heartbreak.”

Heartbreak is not the end of the journey, for most heroes of the Bible, heartbreak was just the beginning for them realizing God’s call on their life, regardless of skill set. The revolutions of scripture were not brought about by those who were qualified for the job, they were brought about by normal men and women whose hearts were so deeply broken that they stopped at nothing to set things right.

Nehemiah certainly did not have the skill set to build a wall, but his devotion to God was so deep that when God broke his heart for the cause, his skill set no longer mattered. He was used to mobilize and entire community of misfit exiles come and re-build a wall, and guess what, most of them were not wall builders either! The majority of the wall’s builders were priests and goldsmiths, not construction workers. Occupation and skill set did not matter though, because hearts had been broken, and a fire had been ignited.

What breaks your heart?
It might be your calling, regardless of your skill set.
A broken heart is not the end of revolution, it’s the beginning.

If we stop and heartbreak, we lose, and injustice wins. But if we allow heartbreak to be the spark, we can bring about unimaginable change, and we can set things right.

Seth Godin, who’s a master blogger and an even greater master of marketing, talks a lot about growing your personal brand. A brand is pointless though, Godin says, unless generosity is one of it’s core values. This doesn’t mean that everybody is their own charity, at least not monetarily speaking. The idea of building a platform or a brand of generosity is that each of us have thoughts, talents, ideas, and messages worth sharing and worth spreading, and in todays’ society it has never been easier to gain that type of platform on a global scale.

The simple reminder today is that each of us, regardless of the size or reach of our platform, has a responsibility to share and give what we have generously. If you have fifteen thousand followers on social media and the only message you are spreading is shameless self-promotion, I would urge you to reconsider, and to find a message worth spreading, thoughts worth sharing, and ideas worth growing.

Change does not solely stem from those who have the political or financial power to affect it. Change finds it’s roots in the hearts of normal men and women who have a message and an idea that they refuse to let die until those that have the power finally listen. The is the kind of power and responsibility that comes with growing a personal brand.

A platform without a message is like a king without a kingdom. Without citizens to defend, wars to fight and problems to solve, he will simply sit in the splendor of his own palace until he himself becomes as lifeless as the throne he comfortably rests on.

You were created to create, and once you’ve created, you are called to share generously with the world around you. 

A few months ago, my friends and I at The Anima Series launched a little project called the 10x10 Campaign. The idea was to produce a collaborative worship album feature ten different tracks from ten different local Chicago artists. Part of Anima’s mission statement is the give local artists a global platform for Christ, but this project, for me at least, also has it’s roots in something much deeper.

In recent years I’ve had numerous conversations with friends and fellow artists expressing their extreme frustration at the lack of variety on the radio. I personally don’t listen to the radio much, but all I needed to do was turn on KissFM for ten minutes to understand what they were talking about. The majority of the “hits” were set at the exact same tempo, using very simple, if any, chord progressions. I’m not trying to sound like one of those pretentious mainstream music haters, but one cannot deny that popular music today has a very specific sound which it rarely strays from.

I for one was not as concerned with the make-up of the songs, but rather, the content of them. So as I went searching for music with a bit more of a redemptive message, I found the “sound” featured on the “Christian” music market was even more painfully limited. I started to notice this, not only on the radio, but in our churches as well. Right now, as it stands, only three types of music seem to be allowed into the “Christian/worship” label. Gospel, hymns, and contemporary
  worship, and rarely even do all three of these styles show up in the same church, album, or radio station..

Now I am not here to bash any of those three styles. I think they have given birth to some pretty incredible music in fact. But it’s clear to me that “Christian/worship” music has become just as limited in it’s sound as the more “secular/mainstream” alternative. It is interesting to note that music is the only type of medium that is compartmentalized into genre’s based on it’s sound. In every other form of media,(TV, film, literature) genre’s are decided by on content. In music, if it sounds like rap, it’s rap, whether the rapper is talking about sports, drugs, or women. This is the reason for such limited styles among Christian musicians.

Musician Michael Gungor says it incredibly clearly. Gungor believes, and I agree, that worship music, is any type of music created for the glory of God. In this way, worship music should be the only genre of music that is defined not by it’s sound, but by it’s content. The 10x10 album seeks to do just that. By using the extremely diverse talent found in Chicagoland, we hope to join the movement that is seeking to redefine worship music, and begin to broaden people’s scopes on what it means to create for God. I’m not saying that the music of the 10x10 Campaign will be the best music you have ever heard in your life. But you can be sure that it will challenge some of the standards that you have set on what worship music should sound like.

We have just one week left before our fundraising efforts must be completed. We are barely halfway to our goal as we stand right now, so we need your help to make this dream happen. If God places it on your heart, I pray that you would be obedient to that call and give of your resources and invest in the future of Christian music, and art in general. If can paint a more accurate and beautiful picture of Him to the world, then perhaps more people would come to know Him. That is out goal. That is what you’re investing in. Thank you so much! Have an awesome day!


Click HERE TO DONATE!

If you’ve ever doubted creativity, please consider…

God, in all three parts, is divinely and supremely creative. Out of all the possible actions that God could have taken first, the very first verb of the Biblical narrative is to create. Creation, and creativity, are the divine source, the root, from which anything and everything that ever walked, talked, or inhabited the universe flows from. Where there is no creativity, there is no progress. Where there is no creativity, there isn’t even a beginning from which a process can be born. Without creativity, nothing that has ever existed would have had the chance to exist.

If you’ve ever doubted creativity, please consider…

God reveals Himself first and foremost as a creative being. Before all-knowing, before all-powerful, before loving, compassionate, awesome, fearful, great, Son, Holy Spirit, or even before Father, we receive a glimpse of Creator God. This description precedes all others.

If you’ve ever doubted creativity, please consider…

Creativity is play. It’s recreation. Meaning re-creation. Meaning that when we exercise our creative gifts, in whatever arena, in those moments, we are truly living as children of God, created in His image, called to be His imitation. Never do we more strongly bear the image of the original Creator, than when we answer the call deep within us to play.

To create for God is to pour out what has been so carefully poured into you.

How can we deny and overlook the need for great art and creativity in the church when from the beginning of time, the number one way to praise God was through the singing of music and the playing of horns and instruments?

If you’ve ever doubted creativity, please consider…

One does not have to be an “artist” in order to be a creative being. What we consider “art” is not the only form of creativity, but all creativity is artistic in nature. The innovation needed to run a business, the perseverance and imagination needed to raise children, the extra personal touch that makes the ordinary teacher and extraordinary educator, it all stands as it’s own form of art. Creativity is the vital link to unlocking the best we can be in everything we do. We were made to imagine new ideas and to put them to the test.

We were made to create.

Becoming an adult doesn't happen when you hit the right age. Becoming an adult is a process, slowly endured as one continues to gain responsibility. This doesn't automatically turn on at the age of eighteen. For some, the responsibilities of working to support yourself, paying your own bills, and finding a career are bequeathed to them at the age of fifteen or sixteen, while others are in their forties and still have not taken hold of all these responsibilities. At whichever point one does though, by my definition, that is the point where one truly enters full fledged adulthood.

I am currently, in my life as a recent college graduate, beginning to take some of those big steps in this season. I was blessed enough in high school and college to have parents who assisted me in many financial matters, legal matters, and other responsibilities. I am very grateful for that, it freed me to focus on pursuing my education with very little worry. Now though, at my ripe old age of twenty-two, I've decided that over the next few years, it's time for me to completely take the reigns on the adult responsibilities of life. The process has been anything but easy thus far, and I am just beginning to realize how many responsibilities there actually are, and how they all need to be negotiated at the same time! Wherever we may be in this process to adulthood though, I believe there is a valuable lesson to learn, either for the first time, or to be reminded of. 

Churches talk a lot about the practice of tithing. For some readers, tithing may not be your thing, but if you would indulge me for a second, I'd like to unpack what I believe the heart behind this age old tradition truly is, at it's roots, so that we might come out on the other side with a renewed perspective on our "adult responsibilities".

In the Old Testament book of the law, the Israelites were commanded to give the first fruits of their crop as an offering to the Lord. Why? 
Because the church said so? No. 
Because that's what religious people are supposed to do? No. 
So they could build a baseball field where those first fruits used to be, allowing dead baseball legends to emerge from the fields? Unfortunately, no. 
This command to give the first fruits of the harvest to the Lord was issued to remind the Israelites of one simple truth. 

Nothing we own is our own.

Everything we receive, whether it's our crops, our paycheck, our jobs, relationships, cars, blessings, or televisions. None of it is truly ours. The Bible tells us that every good and perfect gift comes from God (James 1:17) This includes spiritual blessings and material blessings as well. So often we view everything we own as our possessions, our property that we have earned. While we may have worked very hard in order to receive some of these things, at the end of the day all they really are is exactly what the writer of James calls them, gifts. Everything we own has been lent to us by God for the purposes of using it to give Him glory. I say this, not to promote that everyone give away all your earthly assets and responsibilities, but in the hopes that you might come to the same realization I did concerning them. 

To use the example of a paycheck, I find that the more tightly I hold onto that money, and the more I micro manage it, and save it into the exact right spots and count every penny every day, the more I worry about how I might not have enough. But when I shift my perspective, and I begin to view that money not as something I earned, but as a gift from God that has been lent to me to use for His purpose, when I realize that nothing I have is my own, for some strange reason, anxiety escapes me. This expends far beyond finance and material possession. When we micro manage our dreams and callings from God, anxiety is bound to overtake us because we are relying on our own flawed strength. But when we truly entrust and give everything we have up to The Lord, anxiety has no room, because now we are relying on His power, the same power that created the heavens and the earth, the same power that parted the Red Sea, and the same power that conquered the grave. 

When we begin to view everything we have as a gift, we begin to realize that our"adult responsibilities" are not to make it all work perfectly for our own gain. Our only responsibility is to acknowledge the gift we have received and offer it back up to God for His greater Kingdom purposes. The outcome is His job.

At the restaurant where I work we always have our pre-meal meeting. I know this is normal at most restaurants, for the staff to meet up before the rush begins, but our pre-meals can get a little intense, running at times forty minutes to an hour. I don’t really mind it. I get to sit in a booth and listen to experts talk about wine and food, and I get paid for it. And to sweeten the deal, every now and then there is a great lesson hidden somewhere in the pre-meal speech.

Our manager went around and asked us the other day, “Why do you like working in this industry?”

My real answer was, “I don’t.” My true aspirations are to one day be able to support myself completely a writer, actor, and creator, and in the mean time I work any job I can find to make a little extra cash. My manager knew this. What kind of stupid question was that? I don’t like working in the restaurant business, I have to.

As we went around the table though, I listened to some people who were there because the hospitality industry is their career of choice. I listened to five or six of my co-workers unpack why they do what they do. After I made up a somewhat BS answer and we finally got to work, I spent the rest of my shift reflecting on that question of why from an artistic point of view.

To me, the question of why is probably to most important question an artist needs to ask themselves every single day. In a world where the human spirit longs to do something greater than themselves, something that provides for the needs of his or her fellow man, nothing can be more seemingly narcissistic than wanting to be a writer and an actor. People paying to read my words, and to see me on stage, just so they can applaud me, and write me some good reviews. Unless the question of why is asked, all artist run the risk of slipping into this narcissistic bubble.

Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the greatest composers to ever live. His hundreds of musical works, including what is popularly known as “Here Comes the Bride,” could serve as an easy excuse to reserve all praise and fame for himself. Bach, though, we a master at answering the question of why. At the bottom of every work he ever published he signed it “to the glory of God alone.”

You see, what Bach knew is that the gifts he used to create such heart stopping melodies were just that, gifts, given to him by the Creator of the world for the purpose to using them to give that Creator glory. Bach understood the answer to the question of why? Why do we write? Why do we act? Why do we sing, account, serve, drive, or practice law? There are many reasons why we do what we do. It brings us joy. It makes us money. We’re hoping to marry our boss and get more money.

The most important reason, the “so that” that belongs at the end of each and every thing we create is simply this…to the glory of God. This is the driving force that can fuel each and every life, and it’s a much more dependent fuel to run on than our own. My own personal, relational, or financial gain is just the icing. The real cake, the real reward, the real reason, is giving glory to God alone.

I’ve never really been able to say that I have a legitimate “life verse”. I know Christians are supposed to. But I don’t think I’ve lived long enough to say what specific words in scripture have and will define my life. I have, however, had what I like to call “seasonal verses.” These are sections of scripture that I’m led to for a time, and during that time I lean on them heavily for encouragement, hope, ect. These verses change every few weeks, months, or years, depends on how long the season lasts.

One verse that’s been in season for the past two years or so, ever since I discerned this call to write, is Daniel 12:3. It says…

“Those who lead many to righteousness shall shine like the stars forever and ever.”

Beautiful imagery, yes, but have you ever thought about what that actually means?

Light travels at such an intense speed that we cannot even measure it with our normal units like miles per hour. Light is measured in years. One light year is the distance that light can travel in one earthly year, about six trillion miles. The furthest visible star from earth is a supernova, thought to be nearly 35 light years away. This means that if that star were to burn out, it would still appear in the sky, giving light to the earth, adding to the beauty of the cosmos, for 35 years after it’s death.

Pretty cool. But that’s nothing compared to the stars in other galaxies. Using infra-red imaging, the Hubble telescope has captured images of galaxies that are 13 billion light years away. If those stars were to burn out, from our perspective, they would continue to shine for 13 billion more years.

This is why Daniel 12:3 is so attractive to me. Jesus lived over 2000 years ago. He never held public office, never wrote a book, he lived and ministered in an area smaller than the state of Connecticut, and his main followers were hated tax collectors and unschooled fisherman. Yet the influence of Jesus’ life is still felt more strongly today than any other figure in all of history. He may have been killed, but he continues to give light to world, to add to the beautiful portrait of God’s coming Kingdom. His was a life that shines like the stars.

I’ve been praying that God would use me in such ways where His influence through my life might shine like the stars as well. That the words that I write and speak and that the encouragements I give would give light to the world long after my flame has burnt out. Where I run into trouble though, is how I unlock such incredible influence. Because I desire God’s glory to shine through me in such powerful ways, I often find myself stuck in the lie that I need to do more in order for my life to truly shine like the stars. What I have discovered though, is that if there is something that will last longer than the things I do, it’s the things I pray. Prayer is the key to living a life that shines like the stars, because once we’re gone, there is nothing more we can do. Once we’re gone, all that will be left are the prayers we prayed for those to come after us. As Mark Batterson would say, “it’s the difference between what you can do, and what God can do.”

Whatever your “life verse” may be, my guess is that it has something to do with bringing God’s kingdom. I want to do all I can to usher the glory of God into this world, but with prayer, I invite God into the equation, and then He will start doing all He can. And that is much, much more.