Sometimes the best performances don’t come from the best of performances. Anyone who has ever sung at a funeral for a loved one knows it.

Remember 2 things: You can be technically perfect without being excellent, and you don’t have to perfect to be excellent. Pursue excellence.

 

I dig John the Baptist. I actually think I might be scared of him were we to meet in person. I have this image of him as kind of a UFC-looking, bulky, hairy dude. I imagine myself being nervous and saying something awkward and sarcastic (my default) and his head would just whip around to glare into my soul through my eyes with his fireball vision and my bowels would just release on cue. Clearly what I’m saying is my imagination could do with some qualified care ministry. I also like him because he, as my dad would say, called a spade a shovel. He told it like it was. He wasn’t intimidated by anybody and said cool stuff like, “You brood of vipers!” (Luke 3). I confess, sometimes I even imagine him cussing at people. But that’s probably not right and I really do likely need to spend some time under the wing of a trusted professional.
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My mind is an odd place to be sometimes.

I have some strange trains of thought, on occasion, I’m sure you do too, but we always feel like the only one.

One of the things I’ve occasionally bumped up against is the idea that if I enjoy it, it must not be from God. Sounds dumb, no? Well, maybe when I type it like that it does, but in the confines of my innards it can be a real tete-a-tete for me sometimes. To explain what I mean, it’s the idea that I get myself into this vicious thought cycle often when I’m doing something I believe to be God’s will or even just making a decision of any significance. I get this not-so-merry go ’round thing happening where I think, “Is this really what I’m supposed to be doing, or am I just convincing myself of it because I enjoy it?”, or, “Is that really what I should do or do am I just rationalizing it because it’s what I want to do?”, or even, “Uh oh, this is starting to be fun, I better check myself and reassess things.”, and so on.

Sound familiar? Anyone? Of course not, I know. But humour me anyway. (more…)

 

So glad to hook you up with a special guest for this post. If you are a church creative type, this cat is likely no stranger to you (and if he is, he shouldn’t be). Happy to have Mr. Stephen Brewster at the wheel today. He’s the Creative Arts Pastor at Crosspoint Church in TN and the wields a razor-sharp blog and twitter feed stuffed full of inspirational gems for the creatives among us. When it comes to creativity, he embodies the buzzword – Hustle.

That’s exactly what I asked him to share about. (more…)

 

Here’s a post I did as a guest of Chris Vacher (@chrisfromcanada) for his blog series called “Summer Blog MixTape”. He invited a few folks to write a bit about how a particular worship song had impacted them or their church of late. Be sure and scoot on over to his blog and check out all the posts, there’s some great stuff there. Here’s my post about a song called “Here for You”: (more…)

 

It was hot. I remember taking a picture of the thermometer in the “luxurious” (old) Chev Blazer that towed our band trailer as it read “42″ (degrees celsius. 108 for our American friends.) But, it could’ve been worse. I was happy to be there. Getting the chance to play at a couple of big American Christian music festivals on this trip made the embarrassing flop sweats bearable. (more…)

 

If you’re a blogger (or tweeter) – especially the type who occasionally shares advice – I have a challenge for you. Really, I have a challenge for me, but I don’t want to be alone. (more…)

 

I’ve been struggling today.

Struggling with the assassination a terrorist. Struggling with how I’m “supposed to respond” to it. Struggling with how I actually am responding to it. I feel like I’m supposed to be happy, right? Justice was served for those thousands of people and their families. Wasn’t it? As I read the tweets about God coming through and serving His justice in this, I’m supposed to retweet and add, “/Amen!!”, right?

I’m struggling today.
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I have a cold. I have for over a week now. Since I am a man, this means I have become a martyr. Cue the over-exaggerated sighs, the constant achy sounds like “ugh”, and general across-the-board slow motion. All these tactics are generally employed by the sick man in order to garner sympathy from sick man’s spouse. However, sick man’s spouse is impervious to his onslaught. She has an impenetrable defense wrought with eye-rolls and condescending smirks. It’s a mismatch from the outset. (more…)

 

Earlier today an exchange on Twitter caught my eye and I had to jump in on the convo.

Derek Webb and Robbie Seay were talking about The Man, The Myth, The Legend….Mr. Fred Rogers. (more…)