“It’s just how they are.”

Many people blame chronic lateness on personality. “That’s just how Steve is,” they’ll say; “that’s how he’s always been.” This is along the same lines as being a “disorganized person” or a “perfectionist.” I often hear people chalk up chronic lateness as though it could be one of the extremes on a personality test. “I’m extroverted,” they’ll say, “I’m intuitive, emotional, and I can’t seem to show up on time to anything.” It’s funny, though, that nobody seems to want to make a personality trait out of showing up on time. Sure, there are those who show up way too early for everything, and we make excuses of the same nature for them. But when a person continually shows up right on time, we don’t feel the need to explain it away because it doesn’t seem like a character flaw.

How much do you care?

It’s funny how people always feel the need to excuse their lateness. No matter how awkward it is, everyone seems to want to offer some convoluted and unreasonable explanation for their tardiness, even if it’s obviously deceptive. The reason is because everyone understands tardiness to be a form of disrespect. It shows that you care more about your alternative activities than what you would be doing at the meeting, job, date, or whatever you might be late for. “Chronic lateness” is just a term we use to describe someone who happens to be involved in a lot of activities they don’t actually care about.

If I were chronically late for dates with my wife, she would be understandably pissed, but not because I’m late. If I’m late for a legitimate reason such as a stroke or death, she won’t be upset that I’m late. But if I’m constantly showing up late to a date because I was working late, she’ll be justifiably upset because I broke a promise. I promised that I would care about my relationship with her more than I care about work, and when I constantly put work ahead of her, I break that promise.

When you actually care, it shows.

Working with teenagers, people (usually parents) often ask me how difficult it is to deal with their short attention span. My response is always the same. Teenagers do not have a short attention span because of their age. Teenagers can sit for hours at a time completely glued to Modern Warfare 3 without even blinking, but when it comes to listening to a lecture about geometry they suddenly become easily distracted. The difference in their attention span is based upon whether or not they care about the subject matter. Geometry does not interest them, fragging their friends does.

In the same way, everyone shows up on time to things they actually care about. If it’s an interview for a job that you really think you’ll enjoy, you’ll find a way to show up on time. If you’re a total geek, and the hottest girl you’ve ever seen agrees to go on a date with you, there are very few powers in the universe that could stop you from showing up on time smelling much better than you normally do. A person who really enjoys their job has no trouble with the snooze button, no matter how early it is.

Call it what it is.

A person who is chronically late is a person who has decided to be involved in things they don’t care about very much. Fear of failing at things you care about can get you involved in a lot of things you don’t care about. Fear of disappointing people can cause you to get involved in a lot of things you should have said “no” to. Whatever your motivation, if you find yourself showing up late to things all the time, you should probably consider bowing out of some things. In addition to being a relief to the people with whom you’ve developed your reputation, you’ll find this practice to be incredibly freeing. Suddenly, you’ll have time to do things that actually motivate you to get your lazy butt out of bed in the morning.

Basically, the country is experiencing revival. Churches are full of Christians who want to grow in the knowledge of the gospel. Political leaders are turning to Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Cultural change is happening at a rapid pace. But many churches are being pastored by men who have been Christians for only a few years and have almost no training in biblical study, theology, or leadership.

What will Pastor Doug be doing?

My pastor is has been gifted with the skills, knowledge, and passion to train church leaders. He is going with a group to lead a conference where Ugandan pastors will be trained to lead their churches during this critical time. He will be updating all of us at home via his blog: The Walk.

What can you do to help?

Pray for Pastor Doug. Logistically, he will be going to work during and almost immediately after a very long plane ride. There is an eleven hour time difference so he will likely be suffering from severe jet lag. Further, he has been experiencing pressure in his ears and will very likely have a difficult flight. As far as his material is concerned, much of what he will be teaching will translate well to Ugandan culture, but many things will need careful explanation. He will need a sharp and intuitive mind while he is there. Finally, he will likely be burdened with concern for his home church which can tempt him to lose his focus on the tasks God has set before him.

We must also pray for the pastors that God has placed under Pastor Doug’s care. They are critical leverage points to spreading the gospel in Uganda and they need our continual support. Let us remember to pray for those who diligently labor for the gospel of Jesus Christ in Uganda and beyond.

“With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel,” Ephesians 6:18-19

This is a picture of many of the contents of my desk. I’ll point out a few specifics about the picture and then draw a contrast between the sword and everything else.

I used the bowl and the spoon to eat lunch today. I find that if I wash the bowl immediately after lunch every day and put it back in my drawer, it’s ready for me to use the following day. It’s not easy to find the motivation to do so, especially when I hate washing dishes, but the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks of a short walk to the kitchen.

I am currently using the computer to type this blog. I am well-practiced at using this machine. I use it almost every day of my life and I wield it well. Where I work, I am the go-to guy for all things having to do with computers and it always pays off to learn new things on that computer.

The book that you can barely see in the upper right corner of the picture represents my daily struggle to add to my knowledge. I hate reading books. But I cannot argue with how helpful it is to habitually read difficult books. So, while I will occasionally choose something easy to read, I mostly end up reading sections from a pretty difficult but helpful book every day.

Then there’s the sword. I love this sword. It’s a replica of Peter’s sword from The Chronicles of Narnia that my wife bought me for my birthday. The question I always get asked is, “is that a real sword?” Yes. It’s real. It functions exactly as any other real sword would when sitting on a desk. But I’ve never used it. I’ve never learned to wield it and even though I’d like to, I’ll probably never have the time for the daily practice that will be required to develop my skills as a swordsman. This makes me a little sad, but I suppose that when I’m older I’ll look back on my life and be glad that I spent my time reading a great book rather than practicing swordplay.

And now for the point. If I never washed my bowl, developed my computer skills or read any books, it’s very likely that my life will go on without any problems for quite a while. But a few years later I’ll probably look back and think about all the time I spent doing other things that weren’t so important and frown at the mold in my bowl, the dust on my computer and the cobwebs in my mind. Every successful person I’ve ever known practices habits that will make them successful. Almost everyone who is wealthy has spent years building wealth through a series of habitual decisions that are financially wise. People with healthy marriages have built romance over the years with a well-planned regular date night and daily authentic communication. Wisdom is groomed by the habits of the wise. Guitar skills come to those who practice the guitar. If you want to be successful in a certain area, you must practice the habits that will make you successful.

If I hesitate with household chores like dishes, laundry, etc. then it will build up over time until I have a really messy house. But if I regularly practice the habit of washing a dish when I’m finished with it, then all I’ll ever have is clean dishes. If I wait until I’m smart enough to read tough books or to challenge myself intellectually, then I’ll be relatively ignorant for most (if not all) of my life. But if I read part of a book that’s really tough for me every day, then I’ll steadily grow in my intellect over time.

So, what say you? How do you widen your chest?

The gravity of his statement struck me immediately and I began to ponder its implications. Is his assumption about the relationship between politeness and productivity accurate? Is it true that a certain measure of rudeness is actually beneficial for the common good? My gut reaction was absolute disagreement. Now that I’ve had some time to think about it, I still disagree but I now do so with more passion and resolve.

Before I continue, I’d like to establish a foundational principle about politeness. Humans have value. This fact flavors every human relationship from the one I share with the guy at Starbucks to the one I share with my wife. Politeness is a way of showing another person that you believe that fact to be true. Despite the popular opinion to the contrary, there is no level of intimacy that renders politeness insignificant. In fact, since my relationship with my wife is all the more valuable, politeness becomes all the more important.

Regarding politeness as the enemy of productivity, I’ll readily admit that the omission of certain social conventions allow for a decreased down-time between tasks that accomplish what some would consider to be valuable work. However, I don’t see the resulting scenario as a net gain in terms of the common good. Having not participated in any valid scientific inquiries, I cannot support my claims empirically. (I hardly see how any verifiable observations could be possible, given that there appears to be little consensus on the definition of the “common good.”) But I find it likely that the whatever the “common good” is, perhaps even in the most cynical minds, includes some form of thriving relationships between humans. Such relationships would only be possible with a systematic, cyclical method for exhibiting the belief in the value of human life in the form of practical respect and courtesy.

While there may be a select group of cynics out there who are content with substandard relationships and above average productivity, I do not plan on joining their ranks any time soon. In fact, given the prevalence of depression and melancholy that arises out of interpersonal relationships falling into disrepair and the corresponding effect such emotional conditions have on one’s efficiency and workload capacity, I suspect Joe Cynic will have a tough time proving that relationships can be burned as fuel for the productivity barbecue. Even if that is the case for one such Joe, I suspect he’ll end up eating alone. As for me, I’ve always felt that barbecues were social affairs.

If Moreland is right, and I think he is, then we’ve got a lot of work to do. Humans, I mean. We know so very little about reality. Most of us are quite well-educated in fiction. We know all sorts of details about movies, television shows and books. We’ve all got a pretty good idea of how we’d like things to be. Most of us could go on idealistic rants for hours at a time trying desperately to believe our way out of reality. Often, I think we’re convinced that these rants will eventually get us farther along in our quest to alter reality. We change our perception, we adjust our perspective, we switch our careers, our hobbies, our families, our passions. But in the end, the only thing we’ve really changed is ourselves. Reality remains constant.

And when you stop and think about it, have we even managed to change ourselves that much? I don’t think so. Throughout recorded history humans have always been motivated by the same notions. We are, in a word, predictable.

I just spent the afternoon walking around Hollywood Blvd. taking in the sights. The streets are full of people who are radically different in so many ways. Different ethnicity, different backgrounds, different clothes, different personalities and some radically different ways of interpreting the world around them. Yet, they all sort of blend together in my mind. We’re all very much the same. We all live in the same reality. And, whether we like it or not, reality marches on without the slightest pause to ask for our input or approval.

No matter how hard we try, we’ll never change what’s real. The truth is the truth. It is objective, generally observable and it never seems to take notice of our differing beliefs. And how hard we push against the motionless rock!

The people I saw today, as diverse as they are, all have one thing in common: they all live in the same reality. And since that reality isn’t going to change any time soon, we had better start figuring out how to live in harmony with it because this bird is losing feathers every day and I’m starting to think we’re going to need more than snappy quotes and blogs.

I think we need a Savior.

“I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me.” – Jesus of Nazareth

Can anyone tell me what the gospel is?

I have a basic understanding of most of the major hand tools and a few power tools. I have enough spatial and mechanical reasoning skills to work through a lot of DIY projects.  I’m familiar with the basic components of an internal combustion engine and I can diagnose a few of the more simple problems that come up from time to time. Last but not least, I’m not afraid of sweating, crawling on the ground, jacking up a car, and getting my hands, arms and pants dirty. In fact, I enjoy these things from time to time.

But I’m a musician

I don’t know much about the parts of a car I haven’t physically explored, and while I can read a manual and study the illustrations, I lack the years of experience under the hood that mechanic has. I can follow instructions, think critically about a mechanical problem and come up with a reasonable solution, but I don’t always have the tools or the expertise that I need to solve a problem. If you want to know what a wrestplank is, I’m your man. If you want to know what kind of tools you need to replace your ignition cylinder in a 1991 Chevy Suburban, you shouldn’t ask me. So in order to get the expertise I need, I decided to try…

The easy way

Since I ran out of my budget for fixing up the old beast, I turned to my handiness and willingness to get dirty in order to replace my ignition cylinder. I thought to myself, “Self, how hard could this be? With the right manual and tools along with the helpful advice from one of the gearheads at the local auto parts store, I can dig in there and fix it. No problem.” So after a few minutes at the local library reading up on the subject, I went to the auto parts store and asked the less-than-bathed man behind the counter if he had an ignition cylinder and the tools I would need. I said, “Will I need any special tools to remove the steering wheel like a ‘Steering Wheel Puller’ or something?” And he said, “Yeah, I can loan you the right tool for a $25 deposit. You’ll also need a clamp to remove the plate behind the steering wheel. But I can’t loan you one, so you’ll have to buy it for $14. If you use these tools properly you’ll be finished in about 25 minutes.” That would have been a great time estimate if he had actually said those things. But he didn’t.

The hard way.

What he actually said was, “Uh… I think there’s just a little thing under the steering column that you push in and it should just slide out. What kind of car do you have again?” After about 20 minutes of the runaround, these not-so-car-savvy guys convinced me to buy a part and a Chilton manual that doesn’t address this topic (a fact I would have known before purchasing if it hadn’t been wrapped in plastic).  Fortunately for me, I had done my research well at the library and I was now a genius on the subject of replacing an ignition cylinder in a ’91 Suburban. Four and a half hours later, after six separate trips to three separate auto parts stores (none of which had a knowledgeable gearhead behind the counter), I finally fixed the problem.

The Solution

What turned a 25 minute job into a 4.5 hour job? The guy at the auto parts store doesn’t know anything about replacing an ignition cylinder in a ’91 Suburban, and instead of admitting that and polling the audience or phoning a friend, he did what all other horrific customer service representatives at auto parts stores do: he faked it. He placed my problem’s solution beneath his seeming like an expert on his priority list. He’s not a horrible human being, just a horrible customer service representative.

Stick to YOUR guns

I’m a musician; that’s a large part of what I do for a living and I’m pretty good at it. If you walk into my office and you want to know about secondary dominants, I’ll tell you everything you want to know. I’m also a worship leader (I hate that term, but I use it for clarity’s sake), so if you want to know exactly what role each Person in the Trinity plays during a corporate worship service I ought to be able to speak intelligently on the subject. You shouldn’t expect me to know everything about it (He is God, after all), but you should expect me to know more than the average Joe and if I don’t, you should expect me to admit that and know a book you can read or a person you can ask in order to get your answer. My point is this: do what you do with excellence and integrity. Are you a worship leader? You ought to do what it takes to become great at what you do; read a book, practice the guitar, get a mentor, whatever it takes. Are you a teacher? Get your pedagogy on! Are you a mechanic? Do great work and stand by it. Are you a plummer? You ought to plum like nobody’s business. Are you a customer service representative? Serve the customer! Do your job well and it will pay off in the long run.

A sniper understands this concept really well. I’ve never been a sniper, but I imagine one thing is probably true of all snipers: they try to do a great job as though their life depended on it. They’re gonna be the best darned sniper they can be! Why? Because if they don’t, it matters. If it doesn’t matter to anyone else, it matters to them… a lot. A sniper doesn’t have to play the piano well. A sniper doesn’t have to change the ignition cylinder in a ’91 Suburban. A sniper sticks to HIS guns. He doesn’t worry about other people’s business. His business is to shoot a gun.

I probably won’t need to replace an ignition cylinder for a while. If I ever do, I’ll probably be pretty good at it. But as handy as I may be with a tool box, I don’t want to be a good mechanic. I want to be a good worship leader, youth pastor, husband and father.  I’m going to stick to what I’m supposed to do and I’m going to do it to the best of my ability. One day, maybe someone will (be foolish enough to) walk into my office and ask me a tough question about the things I do for a living. If that day ever comes, I’m determined to have a decent answer. But even if that day never comes, at least I’ll have done my work with excellence.

There’s a level of focus that an experienced driver achieves that far outweighs that of the inexperienced driver. It’s a well-known fact that teenagers are particularly distracted by a number of other things while driving, not because they are a certain age, but because they have a certain level of maturity as drivers. The longer they drive, the more near misses they experience and the more they realize the need for a higher level of focus than they have previously been capable of maintaining. As four-dimensional awareness increases the likelihood of mistakes decreases so that, when it comes to driving a car, there’s just no substitute for mental clarity.

The same is true in musicianship. One of the most noticeable differences between a seasoned musician and a novice is the presence or absence of wrong notes (see Note below). The fact is, while an experienced player plays a wrong note from time to time, you hardly notice them. There are two reasons for this. First, an experienced player focuses with greater clarity and consequently plays less wrong notes. Second, an experienced player maintains such a level of focus that when a wrong note is played, they are able to immediately apply their knowledge and skill to supplement their playing with other notes that make the first wrong note seem less wrong. As a result, only a well-trained ear can even tell you where there might have been a wrong note, if there was ever one in the first place.

Note: There’s no use arguing with the notion of wrong notes in this blog. If you are in agreement with the hypocritical masses that there is no such thing as “wrong” notes, “bad” art and “ugly” creations then you will certainly gain no ground with me in the comments thread. Yes; I realize I’m sanding against the grain of the collective consciousness. The collective consciousness is wrong: there is such a thing as a wrong note, ugly creativity exists, and cute little children can lose a soccer game, even if they’re having fun.  Most people don’t want to admit this because they were sad when they lost their soccer game/played a wrong note and they’re trying to make a case to diminish their own embarrassment. The motivation is understandable, but hardly objective.

4 Steps to Increasing Focus

1. Realize you’re not focusing as well as you could be

If you think you’re focused as well as you should be, you’re probably the one playing the wrong notes. I realize that there comes a point when you should stop second guessing yourself and just rest on what you’ve learned so far in order to play well. Paranoia isn’t the answer. But is that really the problem? I think our tendency is not toward paranoia but toward complacency.  Check yourself before you wreck the rest of the band.

2. Play mental games

I think one of the reasons beginner and intermediate musicians lose focus is boredom. If this is yet another G-D-Em-C song and you’re so comfortable with the chords that you find yourself starting to wander down the mental rabbit hole, engage your brain with the changes. The G-D-Em-C progression that elementary songwriters love so much is well loved for a reason: there’s a lot of things that can be done with it. There’s a lot of crazy transitions that can be pulled of by the bass player who’s applying just a little mental energy. Inversions are always a quick way to get started spicing up the changes, and you can even get crazy with non-diatonic theory such as secondary dominants. For the truly adventurous, discover what a little tri-tone substitution can do to rock n’ roll. If you’re on the keys or the guitar, take a (careful) stab at polytonality. If the folks you’re playing with don’t appreciate these little  embellishments, think about what you could try while you’re playing to keep your brain focused on the changes and try them out some other time. If your brain is engaged in twisting up the chords, you’ll find yourself focused more carefully on the music being played.

3. Change it up

Spice up the rhythm a little. Get eye-contact with the drummer and try to get him to follow you into a salty funk pattern on an otherwise sappy ballad. Maybe you’ll throw off the guitar player at first, but eventually he’ll follow suit. There are certainly times to be predictable and there are times to be innovative. Learn the difference and take the right approach for the context. But playing songs the same way every single time is the express-lane to boredom. When you’re bored, you’ll lose focus. When you lose focus, you’ll play wrong notes. Which would you prefer, having your band mad at you for trying new things, or playing wrong notes?

4. Stay off Facebook for a while and have a lengthy conversation about a single topic with a real person.

“What does this have to do with music?” you may ask. I’m glad you asked. The rapid exchange of unrelated information in small amounts that is found on social services like Facebook has destroyed our ability to focus. Many people have already stopped reading this blog because it’s getting too long for them to maintain focus. We’re not used to the kind of interaction and mental clarity that is required to play good music anymore and if you want to become a good musician, you’re going to have to develop those skills. The best way I can think of to develop your ability to focus is to force yourself into a long conversation about a single topic with a real person. Yes, it will be hard at first. But you were designed by God specifically for relationships, productivity and creativity. If you’re younger than 25 and you’re a participating member of the newly formed world culture, those muscles are very likely in danger of complete atrophy and you’ll need to get to work on them before you’ll become a seasoned musician.

It’s Worth It

It’s important to note that even the most well-meaning musicians lose focus from time to time. If that’s the case for you, admit it to yourself and move on. If you practice these techniques regularly, you’ll find it easier and easier to focus on the music you’re playing. You’ll be able to sustain focus for longer periods of time during which you’ll listen better, play better, and have better creative ideas. Lots of people learn technique on their instrument, lots of people (though less) learn solid music theory, but I’ve only played with a few people who have developed great skills of musical focus. Those people are a joy to play with.

“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.” – Philippians 3:20-21

For the Christian, believing lies can make the road home seem longer than it actually is. In this post, I will attempt to point out a couple of lies that I believed up until just recently. My creative bones are screaming at me to develop a series of blogs/sermons/lessons organized around juxtaposing commonly believed lies with the truth of God’s Word. But until that happens, I’ll just mention a few lies that I find to be pressing in on me lately. I hope reading them encourages you to tell Satan exactly where to get off.

Lie #1: God will make us happy at all costs.

One of the reasons so many people believe this lie is because it’s so close to the truth. In fact, some of you may have already decided you disagree with me. But the truth is, God wants us to be pleasing to Him and will go to great costs to accomplish that. Since our purpose is to be pleasing to God, doing so will make us eternally happy. But God will not take all extremes measures to make us happy. God will not become “not God” just to make us happy (which is the measure that I would often suggest). In my arrogance I tend believe that my happiness is the best thing for me, but my happiness will and should often be sacrificed in order to bring more glory to God. And God is faithful and mindful of me, so that through my suffering He brings glory to Himself and teaches me how to please Him and thereby gets me that much closer to eternal happiness. He even manages to sneak in a few temporal pleasures every now and then. But the purpose of my life is not to be happy, but to bring glory to God. Happiness is not the goal (as some loud voices of our day would have us believe) but a perk along the way.

“For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” - 2 Corinthians 4:17-18

Lie #2: In order to please God, Christians will have to go without a few nice things that other people have.

Satan really has our number on this one, so pay attention because this is tricky. People who easily believed me when I said that happiness should often be sacrificed in order to please God will probably find themselves believing this lie. This lie sounds so very humble and holy until you compare it with God’s Word. The truth is, God rewards those who walk in righteousness with every good thing. Christians do not “have to go without” nice things in order to please God, rather they are freed to please God by the absence of things which would not be good for them. The temporal pleasures that God denies to the righteous Christian will, when pursued, have turned out to not be very good at all. But the pursuit of righteousness will reveal God’s gracious blessing of every possible good gift. This all sounds like whitewash until you read and understand the Bible.

“For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” Psalm 84:11

Lie #3: My circumstances are a little messed up, and God should fix them.

This one isn’t that subtle. But for some reason people still seem to believe it. The truth is, God is wise and sovereign. What’s happening to you is completely within His reign, and there is no better way for Him to get more glory. That’s what you have in mind when you suggested to God that He change the circumstances, right? His glory?

“Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker— An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say, ’He has no hands’?” – Isaiah 45:9

The Long Road

Recently, I’ve been thinking that the road is longer than it should be. Certainly, my citizenship is in heaven, but that does not mean that I’m not where I belong. God is wise, God is sovereign, God rewards those who walk in righteousness with every good gift and God wants me to be pleasing to Him. Furthermore, God has given me everything pertaining to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). When I consider these truths, I realize that this “long road” is much more than tolerable; it is exciting. Walking this road in righteousness is the best way that I can please Him right now. One day, perhaps soon, the best way for me to please Him will be in another world. But until that day comes, focusing on the truth will help me to realize that the road isn’t nearly as long as it seems. Jesus will come at the proper time. Though I anxiously wait for the appearing of my Savior, my responsibility is to please Him here and now.

1 Timothy 6:13-16