Week #02 (Jan.7-13, 2019)

Self-Examination + NEW MUSIC!

 

Week #02 (Jan.7-13, 2019) - SELF-EXAMINATION + NEW MUSIC!

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" - Jeremiah 17:9

This statement is so very true. What makes the heart so deceitful is that our underlying motivations are rarely visible and in fact, are often cloaked in seemingly righteous intensions. However once in a while, God is gracious enough to peel back the layers and show us our true motivations. Let me illustrate with a story.Earlier this week, I was hanging out with a friend. He’s a fellow creative who’s medium of choice is filmmaking. We both have big dreams along with the talent and drive to match our ambition so it’s always interesting when we get to catch up. We encourage and motivate one another as we each give our progress reports and plan more collaborative projects. During our most recent meeting we got into the topic of what we ultimately hope to accomplish with our careers and why. After sharing his goal of wanting to be one of the top video directors in order to provide opportunities for upcoming talent, I shared mine. I said “I would like to ascend to the heights of the music industry so that people can see that it’s possible to be a Christian, live with integrity and still compete (and win) at the highest levels”. After all, most (if not all) of the models of “success” that the world has seen in entertainment have been non-Christians. So why not be a model of Christian integrity and material success? Sounds like a noble goal doesn’t it? And perhaps it could be. Except in that moment it wasn’t noble at all because my underlying assumptions behind that statement were false. Let me explain.After we said goodbye and I went about other business, later on that day, God reminded me of that statement and began probing me. Questions like, “Why do you want to be a model of Christian integrity and material success? emerged. After some soul searching I realized that I was starting to believe that lie that having someone who was successful by the world’s standards, who was also a Christian would somehow lend legitimacy to Christianity as a whole. As though God needs a celebrity to give him legitimacy and credence. He clearly doesn’t. In fact, we see several times in the Bible that God uses the unexpected and unimpressive to accomplish his mighty purposes. We see examples like; Joseph sold into slavery yet becoming second in command in Egypt, David the shepherd boy becoming king of Israel, Paul a poor itinerant preacher responsible for penning over 60% of our new testament, even JESUS the unimpressive carpenter being God in the flesh on earth to die for the sins of humankind. God reminded me of all of this. And then I remembered this quote from John Piper, 

“I believe with all my heart that what the world needs is radically bold, sacrificially loving, God-besotted “freaks” and aliens…The world does not need more cool, hip, culturally savvy, irrelevant copies of itself.”

Now although he was talking about Christians compromising their purity for the sake of being culturally relevant, I still think there is something to be applied from this quote to my specific context. Basically, this quote reminded me that while material success can be nice and helpful in some ways (money and influence can be great tools), it is not a requirement for people to see truth and beauty in the Christian message. God doesn’t need a successful Christian to accomplish his purposes.Am I saying there can be no good motivations for desiring a life of Christian integrity with material success? NO! I’m sure there can be good motivations for desiring such. Is it possible to have a righteous desire to be a Christian operating in integrity at the highest levels of a given industry, in order to show the power and beauty of the Gospel? Perhaps. I’m just saying that for me, in that very moment, my specific assumptions that powered that statement were wrong.The funny thing is I’ve corrected people for this false assumption, and here I was falling into the same trap. It just goes to show that no one is above temptation and we all need to be watchful. I’m just thankful that God brought it to mind and corrected me.So I had to remind myself of what my real mission is. I think I can say that I honestly want people to see that God is a REAL God for REAL people with REAL issues. Worded slightly differently, God is a Real God, for Real people, in Real life. I GENUINELY want people to see that His truth speaks to every area of life. I want to help draw a tangible connection between God’s great truths and people’s everyday realities in order that they might know He is near. He is not far off.All in all, I write this to illustrate that heart checks are constant and continuous. You might win one battle, but inevitably the war rages on. The enemy will once again test your motivations, so it’s important to remain alert and perform self-examination periodically to ensure you don’t lose sight of the vision.Until next week, #KnowItsRealP.S. After doing some soul searching, what assumptions/motivations lay at the heart of your vision? They can be good or need improvement. I'd love to hear from you.

NEW MUSIC!

Well techincally, it's not avaiblable yet, but will be in a few days. This coming Tuesday, January 15, 2019, I'll be releasing my first new song since XXY. It's called "Sight" and I collaborated with Seattle-based Sajan Nauriyal and Kenyan artist, Proud Refuge. I'm super excited to debut it, so be sure to check it out on January 15.....OR join the digital street team to hear it BEFORE then.

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