the rock and THE CANYON

I think I understand now why bands break up. Please let me explain.

Being around the same small group of people for so long takes its toll. You begin to notice many things about people. You notice the good things and the bad things. The temptation then is to take the good things for granted and to dwell on the bad things.

It’s not just that we’re together all the time, but we “work” together all the time to. We all have separate roles that collectively compile that which is our program. We all care about our program and how it affects others. So within all that lies more opportunities for noticing bad things, or having disagreements of opinion.

I can understand how all of that could tear a band apart. Not to mention that “real” bands write their own music and must decide upon the direction of their band, unlike CTI. But amidst all of the temptation towards negativity resides our sole, and original, purpose. Our purpose is to share God’s message with others, and to please Him through our efforts.

The other day we played at the church of a CTI alumnus. The audience was fairly mixed, but largely 40+. Afterwards, we got nothing but compliments on how much they liked it. Nothing pleases me, the sound guy, more than old people telling me how much they loved it! All of their encouragement was a reminder to focus on the bigger picture.

“…for those down in the valley with the dirt and the bugs. That is where the real work of [artistic] creation happens, not up in ivory towers or scenic overlooks, but with blistered hands and stained clothes. Still, in the dirt it is easy to lose perspective over time. Easy to see rock rather than canyon, thread rather than dress – easy to be so focused on the single word in the lyric that you can lose sight of the song or of why you make music in the first place.”

-Michael Gungor from The Crowd, The Critic, and The Muse

He may have been talking about being an artist, but the point applies here too. A CTI program is crafted with details (the rocks), but its purpose is bigger than that (the canyon). Its purpose is something that can’t be seen in the day-to-day minutia. We must step back and remind ourselves why we do this. I think that’s a great exercise for anyone in any situation – to re-examine why we do the things we do. Wouldn’t want to end up lost, not knowing how we got there would we?

I hope we can all learn to step back from time to time, and examine what we’re doing. With our job, school, ministry, whatever. Are we doing it for ourselves, are we doing it for others, are we doing it for God?

Opportunity for Growth

Lately I have been feeling a bit disengaged. From ministry, from the people we meet, and even my team. I wasn’t being (I hope) antisocial to the point of being a disappointment to my team or our contacts, but it was poor stewardship of the ministry opportunities before me. So I prayed for the problem to be gone, because apparently my first response to an issue that I’m causing is to ask God to fix it right up.

There’s a line from the movie Evan Almighty that always stuck out to me. While the movie isn't the greatest source of theological truths as a whole, I think this particular line is thought provoking. Morgan Freeman (God) is talking about how if someone prays for patience, do they think they’ll just wake up with patience or they’ll be given opportunities to be patient. Same deal for love, pride, and other such issues. If we prayed for patience, and simply woke up a more patient person, where would the personal growth be?

As an example, no great musician is great by chance. They were probably born with a good sense of rhythm, or an ear that’s finely tuned, but they certainly worked to attain their great musicianship. I think that’s just the way things work in life. So by asking God to magically grant us some good quality that we desire, we’re not only asking God to go against the nature of things (and therefore, His nature), but the next time an issue comes up, we’d just ask for more God magic. Where's the growth? If a parent gives a child everything he/she requested, would they end up being spoiled or having a firm grasp on the importance of “things”?

So back to my disengagement. We just spent a few days at a retreat with middle school aged kids. We got there, and they put us on different “teams” with the kids in groups of two. Later, they mentioned splitting off into our teams to do an activity in which, “each team has been given two adult leaders, and they’ll know what to do”. “Great”, I thought, “who are the adults on my team I wonder?” Soon thereafter it dawned on me that we were the group leaders who “knew what to do”.

If that retreat wasn’t an opportunity for me to engage, then I don’t know what is. We spent those few days working with the kids all the time on various activities. It was crazy, stressful, and altogether really fun. This was my opportunity for engagement. I am thankful for the answer to my prayer, and thankful that God gave me an opportunity for growth and not an easy way out of my problems.