Creative Direction Part 1

As you may or may not know, I have recently joined the team at Over as the Creative Director. Now, personally, titles don't mean much. A title is a title is a title. But it's what you do with that title that really makes a difference. I think this is why I've never tried to brand myself under a different name. I've always felt a greater sense of freedom by branding myself and being able to change at will. So I feel like one of the greatest lessons I'm going to learn this year is how to inject that same sense of freedom and liberty I've had on my own into a different brand/company. On one hand I feel a great amount of pressure and on the other I feel total freedom. Whether or not I like the title "Creative Director" it comes packed with responsibility. But the great part is that I can trust myself to lead by my past experiences. I'm not pretending to know it all, or that I'll always make the right decisions, but that I will learn from my mistakes and celebrate my victories.

One of the reasons I decided to take this position with Over is I started thinking more about my future than just the here and now. While I experienced some great success last year on my own, I am really excited by the leaps and bounds I will make this year with my new team. It may sound weird, but I am not the smartest person on our team, and I think that's the perfect place to be. Otherwise, what's the point? However, more than knowledge and skill, my team is full of grace and hearts of gold. That right there makes all the difference in the world.

How much is too much

What if we dared to believe that what we have right now is enough? I know contentment isn't generally associated with us who are creative. My friends even run a great blog about discontentment. It's like somewhere along the way we all agreed that this uneasy feeling inside, this need for something greater, was going to be our fuel. But when your fuel is only really an emotion then what happens when that emotion is gone? You can't run on fumes for long. So there has to be a better way, a more sustainable way. Contentment is key. Yes, Contentment. I think there's a greater place to live and work from. A place of fulfillment and firm foundations. Being content (or discontent) isn't dependent on our outer circumstances, it's an internal issue. You can't fix a problem by only addressing the symptoms, you have to find the root cause. But the struggle and the pain to get to the root is all worth it. Getting your heart in line first and allowing your emotions to follow is a better place to live life from.

Do it Again

This morning as I braved the cold morning air on a dog walk my thoughts went back to this beautiful G.K. Chesterton quote I read yesterday:

Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.

Specifically my attention was turned to the way the clouds were drawn in the sky. And the way the sun rises every morning and we take it for granted. But I take great comfort in believing that God doesn't take these things for granted. I have to believe He loves waking us up every day with the same thing, but in a completely new way. It's almost as if He is trying to teach us something.

Then I thought about my own work. What I do day in and day out. What I get tired of doing over and over again. What I wish I could be doing instead. Focusing on the future instead of the here and now. But the truth is that there is joy in the monotony of the everyday life. In my own experience, God has been found more times in the mundane rather than the extraordinary. Not saying He isn't there in the magical things, because He is, but I think He loves to hide himself in the ordinary in hopes that we may go searching for Him.

So what things are you growing tired of doing over and over again? How do you think God might be speaking to you through the mundane tasks of life? Hopefully this helps stir up some questions and thoughts and dreams in your own journey. I know it sure did for me.

Thoughts on Instagram

Ever since waking up Tuesday morning in central California all I've heard from friends, both online and off, is smack talk about the new terms of service from Instagram. I posted a question that same day on Zerply asking, "What do you think about the new IG ToS? Instead of just complaining about it, what do you propose as a better alternative?" I've read through all the comments and agree with most, but I've been slow to offer my own opinion on the matter. For one, who am I but another clang against the cymbal when I speak negatively about not just a company, but the people who actually make up that company. So instead I want to offer my opinion from a different perspective. Are we so naive to believe that a free app could, and would, continue to serve us forever without asking anything in return. How's that old saying go, "nothing is really free". Yeah, that still remains true today. Nothing that's happening here should surprise us. The problem isn't so much that companies like Facebook, and now Instagram, want to use our information to sell it online for their profit. The problem is that we don't care because we have become too dependent on these social networks to fill the voids in our lives. Sure, we have good excuses like it helps us stay connected with family and friends, both far and near. But what ever happened to sitting down and writing a letter? Or what about the telephone? You know, that thing you use to connect to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc..

So what's the solution? Do we band together and form the "Instascram club" and delete our accounts? Do we post photos on Instagram with comments about waiting until the new Terms go in to effect and then we will be leaving for good if they don't do what we want? Do we just stand by and do nothing? No, no and definitely not. To be honest it's kind of hard to say if there is a solution. I mean, it feels good to see that Kevin Systrom has already taken note of the outcry from the IG community and begun to rethink the verbiage of the terms, but to me that just feels like putting a bandaid on a giant flesh wound. They might as well just post a photo of a giant sucker if we're to believe that is the solution. Honestly, the damage has already been done, Instagram is now under the giant thumb of Facebook. I'm not judging them for the acquisition, heck I don't know who wouldn't take a billion dollars. But what happens from here on out is directed by their end goal, making money.

I think what we have to ask ourselves is do the benefits, of using Instagram, outweigh the consequences? Only then can you make a decision for yourself. Don't be just another angry member of the mob. Think for yourself. I have a friend that has already deleted their account, with good reasons, and I respect that. I have other friends that are looking at other alternatives to share their photos. I too have been thinking about other avenues of sharing my photos. Flickr has a new app that is pretty nice, but I still yearn for the ease of use that has made Instagram such a success. But my soul is old and it twists and turns with all the choices that technology offers, so I'm considering reverting back to analogue (for a time) and get my hands on some prints. That tradition of loading the film, adjusting the aperture and actually pressing the shutter never gets old.

The C Word

It is a very common word in our culture. One that is filled with great hope, but never fulfills its promise. A word with great purpose, and even beautiful expression, but still doesn't quite sum it up. A popular catchphrase that gets thrown around in many different circles, but never completes what we are searching for. I'm talking about community.

The problem with community

Here is a definition of community:

a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals:

Did you catch that? A "feeling" of fellowship. Dang! And what do feelings do? They come and go, just like the wind.

But let me back up a second. I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with community. There is a lot of done good in this world via communities coming together. But I fear that we, the church, have come to place our trust in it over Jesus. The word, the idea, of community has become such a catch phrase lately that it makes our ears perk up, and our hearts gravitate towards its warm glowing light. We hold it up on a pedestal and seek it out in our lives. We're told things like "you need to plug in" or "you need to find your community". But that all sounds like a marketing jargon to me.

What's better than community then?

What if there was a better way of living? What if there was a more natural expression of people living together and sharing life? What if it were as easy as giving up trying to find where you fit in and just rest in who you are?

Here is a definition of family:

a person or people related to one another and so to be treated with a special loyalty or intimacy

God has only ever called us in to family. Through the Holy Spirit we have now been adopted in to His family. There no longer exists a "feeling" of fellowship, but now we have true fellowship; both with the maker of Heaven and Earth and with each other. Wow! Is this sinking in? I'm so excited just sitting here punching the keys on my keyboard. It's in this simple revelation of family, that we can move past our feelings and settle in to our sonship. It is in family that we find true purpose for our lives. It is in family that we can rest in who we are and just be ourselves. And it is in family that we see how God loves us.

Compare and Contrast

Community wants to tell us we can all trust each other, but family knows that you have a specific order to the relationships and authority in your life.

Community wants to make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but family knows that feelings don't rule our position as sons and daughters.

Community wants to teach us to build bigger and grow larger, but family is all about building each other up because we have great affection one for another

Stacked Relationships

My wife and I just returned from an amazing weekend in Kansas City for the last Village Gathering of the year. What is a village gathering? Good question. It's a small gathering of kingdom-minded people who are all learning to walk together in Jesus. That description is so vague it does not do it justice, but then again words fail when talking about Jesus. Anyways, on to the point of this post, stacked relationships. What does that mean? What does that look like? How do I stack my own relationships? I can only give you my thoughts based on experience, so you should definitely take my words with a grain of salt and just pray about what I'm saying. See if God speaks to you more about this on your own time.

What does this mean?

Driving through Kansas, on our way home, we listened to Ben Pasley talking about concentric circles of relationships. (Do yourself a favor and subscribe to his podcast.)

But what I want to focus on here is what we currently believe to be true about relationships; which is they are all flat and one-dimensional. Social networks like like Facebook and Twitter have misled us to believe that we should share everything with everyone and shouldn't leave anybody out. The current mindset is this; "I need to increase my followers/friends because that means I am important and everyone should listen to what I have to say." I know, because I've been there. But this is just nonsense. The more followers/friend you have does not equate to you being more than you already are. You, alone, are awesome. You, alone, are most valued. We need to learn how take back the relational grounds in our life and give them proper order.

What does this look like?

I think Kansas, in all its vast plains of nothingness, is actually the perfect analogy here to help us get a mental image about "flat" relationships. Like Kansas, flat relationships have no depth and no real order. Everyone is on the same basic level. In this environment you can look out and find those you've known for over 10 years on the same plain as those you've known for only about 10 minutes. That doesn't seem to make sense, because you wouldn't say things to a person you just met as you would to a trusted friend of over 10 years. Well, at least you should be guarding your heart from sharing too much information with acquaintances. That's a hard lesson I've learned. The flat land also leaves you open and vulnerable to attacks. There is nowhere to run and hide. The only option would be to go underground.

So if Kansas is the perfect analogy for "flat" relationships, then I would have to say that Colorado, in all its many splendor, makes the perfect analogy for "stacked" relationships. And by "stacked" I am talking about giving proper order to those people in your life. Yes, proper order will involve excluding people from certain "stacks" in your life. But do not be afraid, this is the best way to protect yourself and those you love. Just like a mountain provides caves and crevices to take shelter in, so too does giving proper order to your relationships. But not only will it provide protection, it will also free you up to really invest in those you most care about and love. Remember those toys we played with as kids, the one where you had to stack the circles from largest to smallest? This is the perfect image for what I'm talking about.

As you can see from the image, the widest circle goes on the bottom and then you have the smallest circle on top. So too is it in the realm of properly ordered relationships.

How do I stack my own relationships?

This is where you have to roll up your sleeves, dust off your heart and take a really good look at it. You have to be willing to be shockingly honest about people and where they fit into your life. Here is a really practical approach to properly placing people in your life:

1. Write your name (and spouse, if applicable) down in the center of a piece of paper. This is the most "holy of holies" when it comes to relationships. Protect this space at all cost. Then draw a circle around that.

2. Write the names down of people you most trust around that inner circle. This can include, but not limited to, friends, family and pastors. These are people you trust with your heart. These are people you make time for even if you don't have any time to spare. These are the people who you love. Now draw another circle around all these people.

3. Write the names down of people you would call friend. Maybe these are people you like to spend time with on occasion. People you would make plans with to grab a beer, a coffee or dinner. These might be brand new relationships with folks you feel a connection with, or people you've known for a while but don't get much time together with. But you know that your relationship with these people are pretty much surface level. You don't give or expect to get the depth of your journey from these relationships, and that's okay because you've already identified those above. Draw another circles around these people.

4. This is the outer atmosphere. In my life, these are people I know online or may have met once or twice in person. These are people I like to talk with on occasion but our relationship doesn't hold any real weight. It doesn't mean I'm not happy or excited to talk with them, but simply means I don't trust them with the weighty things in my life. I don't open up to them about my personal life and I sure as hell don't trust them to protect me when the storms come. These people are more commonly referred to as acquaintances.

In closing

These are broad brush strokes when it comes to the intricate details of our relationships. And while we may never fully understand how to live together in harmony, there is simply no excuse not to try. I think that's why Hebrews 12:14 tells us to "make every effort to live in peace". I am certain we will mess up. I am certain we will both hurt others and get hurt in the art of building relationships. But we have a secret weapon. Grace! Give it freely.

Freelance Week #39

Hello. Let me begin with an apology for my lengthy delay in these posts. I have received nothing but wonderful feedback from you guys and I just want to express my deepest gratitude for your continued support and encouragements. Hearing the impact it has on you really motivates me to keep writing. Now only if I could figure out how to slow down time or add more hours in a single day. But I'm not complaining, I'm just learning how to manage my time better. So without further ado here are some things I've learned lately:

On Work

Work is good. Sometimes it doesn't even really feel like work. That is one of the biggest blessings about what I do. The fact that I can draw things and design things and people want to pay me is amazing. I was having a conversation with a friend this week at lunch and he was saying that even though he may complain about taking pictures of lawyers he was still done with work by noon. I love that positive mental attitude. Because I know good and well how easy it is to complain when our work turns mundane and not really that exciting. You see, I have this theory that all of us (creatives) have a life-long struggle with contentment. We can't help it. It's in our nature to always want something more than what we have. We always wish to be somewhere else we're not. We always strive for the best and are the first to criticize ourselves when we're not. But the truth of the matter is that we just have to keep making. The second we put our pencils down is the same second in which we start to get frustrated. I can only speak for myself here, but the seasons in which I neglect my creativity is the same season I feel most discontent with everything around me. Creating is about more than just the finished product, it's about the journey of self-discovery through the creative process.

On Life

Learning to separate life and work is a daily challenge. It's more than just the time away from home and the number of hours I put in everyday, it's also about how much time I give thought to work even when I'm at home. And I think this is why I've been truly blessed with friends who don't do what I do. Whether I go spend time with Jason, Keith or Tim I know that we can still connect on a level much deeper than what either of us do for a living. But there's also a reason I have friends like Matt and Brenton who are very creative and share in my passion to always be pursuing the next best thing. There is a balance to everything in life. We can't be too far one way and neglect the other side. Things aren't black and white in this world. There are a million different colors in this world and it takes a heap load of grace to see them all.

On Faith

If faith without works is dead, and if we receive salvation by faith not by works, where does that leave us? Could it be that we're called to a place of rest now? I remember writing about this before earlier this year, but one of the best ways I can explain this is from a conversation I had with my friend Ben Pasley. He explained in a very simple way that we work because it's something God called us to enjoy, not to merely provide for ourselves. God is ultimate provider, all things come from Him, and all we have to do is trust Him. But all this talk of trust and rest can be quickly taken out of context. The promise of rest God offers us is one that speaks to our identities in Christ, and frees us up from striving to make people like us. So then it doesn't matter what we do, how good we do it or whether or not it's better or worse than the next guy. It's always been about doing it for the glory and honor of our Heavenly Father. That's the kind of faith I want to live in.