How to Pick Your Religion:

thanks to @human3rror for finding this.

Storytelling vs. Promotion

I’d rather tell a good story than sell someone on an idea. But can I accomplish one without the other? I toggle this line of being part-marketing guy, part-artist. It’s not easy - especially because creativity and promotion are so intrinsically linked. I’ve worked for companies that kept me awake at night thinking “all they care about is promoting their product without any regard for its integrity.” And I’ve thought, “I don’t want to tell that story.” I’ve also seen organizations become so scared to do anything that might remotely look or feel like promotion, that they sacrifice communicating a great story to an audience who could really benefit from it

sto⋅ry
1 [stawr-ee, stohr-ee] noun, plural -ries,verb, -ried, -ry⋅ing.
–noun
1.a narrative, either true or fictitious, in prose or verse, designed to interest, amuse, or instruct the hearer or reader; tale.2.a fictitious tale, shorter and less elaborate than a novel.3.such narratives or tales as a branch of literature: song and story.4.the plot or succession of incidents of a novel, poem, drama, etc.: The characterizations were good, but the story was weak.5.a narration of an incident or a series of events or an example of these that is or may be narrated, as an anecdote, joke, etc.6.a narration of the events in the life of a person or the existence of a thing, or such events as a subject for narration: the story of medicine; the story of his life.7.a report or account of a matter; statement or allegation: The story goes that he rejected the offer.

pro⋅mote

[pruh-moht] 
–verb (used with object), -mot⋅ed, -mot⋅ing.
1.to help or encourage to exist or flourish; further: to promote world peace.2.to advance in rank, dignity, position, etc. (opposed to demote).3.Education. to put ahead to the next higher stage or grade of a course or series of classes.4.to aid in organizing (business undertakings).5.to encourage the sales, acceptance, etc., of (a product), esp. through advertising or other publicity.6.Informal. to obtain (something) by cunning or trickery; wangle.

So my question to you is simply this: What’s the difference, in your mind, between storytelling and promotion?

At what point does a tweet, a blog, a film, an ad, etc, cease to be a story and become a billboard? At what point to you tune out or tune in to a great story? At what point are you sold on an idea?

Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life…

C.S. Lewis & My Flannelgraph Faith

I’ve never been much of a sentimental guy. But I also haven’t had much to miss until recently. A year out of college and into the work force will make you think about everything that’s worked to define you over the past 23 years. 

It still catches me off guard when I think how I spent those first 23 years impatiently anticipating their demise so that they might make room for the rest of my life with all its freedoms, responsibilities, titles, and significance. Now that those years are finally here, I find my mind retreating every so often to places, memories, and people from the past that can never be replicated. 

As another summer slips into oblivion and a new season rushes in, I take stock of all the “misses” I’ve experienced this year. I’ve missed a woman. I’ve missed the clutter of a crowded dorm room. I’ve missed Innocence, which seems to smell faintly like burnt charcoal and occasionally takes on the color of grass stains.  

I think these notions are directly related to our quest to know God and be known by Him. To get glory, to see heaven, to inhale eternity. For so long my idea of heaven seemed, frankly, boring – a selfless, sexless, worship service that lasted for eternity with the occasional weird looking winged creature flying around to keep my mind occupied. It wasn’t until reading the words of C.S. Lewis in his book, The Weight of Glory,  that I began to think differently:

We usually notice it just as the moment of vision dies away, as the music ends or as the landscape loses the celestial light. What we feel then has been well described by Keats as “the journey homeward to habitual self.” You know what I mean. For a few minutes we have had the illusion of belonging to that world. Now we wake to find that it is no such thing. We have been mere spectators. Beauty has smiled, but not to welcome us; her face was turned in our direction, but not to see us. We have not been accepted, welcomed, or taken into the dance. We may go when we please, we may stay if we can: “Nobody marks us.” A scientist may reply that since most of the things we call beautiful are inanimate, it is not very surprising that they take no notice of us. That, of course, is true. It is not the physical objects that I am speaking of, but that indescribable something of which they become for a moment the messengers. And part of the bitterness which mixes with the sweetness of that message is due to the fact that it so seldom seems to be a message intended for us but rather something we have overheard. By bitterness I mean pain, not resentment. We should hardly dare to ask that any notice be taken of ourselves. But we pine. The sense that in this universe we are treated as strangers, the longing to be acknowledged, to meet with some response, to bridge some chasm that yawns between us and reality, is part of our inconsolable secret. And surely, from this point of view, the promise of glory, in the sense described, becomes highly relevant to our deep desire. For glory meant good report with God, acceptance by God, response, acknowledgment, and welcome into the heart of things. The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last. 

Could it be the things that mark us as humans – nostalgia, desire, significance, the stuff that people deal with in reality, have been instilled in us by the Creator FOR The Creator? Could it be that heaven is less like the Magic Kingdom and more like the satisfaction of what we just can’t seem to stop longing for here on earth?  Too often I settle for flannelgraph depictions and forget that redemption is for real life. That the God who created space, stars, and seraphim also cares about what’s going on here on earth down to the microscopic soul. When thinking about your own life and the lives of people around you let the truth that God’s redemption is for today not just for eternity change everything about the way you live. Just some thoughts from a guy waking up to this stuff.

Phil Wickham: A Look into Heaven & Earth

Hey, go on over to ConversantLife.com for a sweet video interview I did with Phil Wickham in the studio while recording his new album, Heaven & Earth, available now for download and in stores Nov. 17th. Props to Brandon Setter for the epic cinematography/editing job he did on this.