Why is that some artists who consider themselves to be Christians don't think it is important to maintain integrity in their careers? They wouldn't deliberately or blatantly lie to your face of course - that's what managers & agents are for.
That probably sounds pretty blunt but unfortunately for at least some it is true. The thing you need to understand is that the people you choose to represent you will create your reputation. If you want to be someone who keeps your word then you need to choose management & agents who are equally committed to that principle rather than, for instance, cancelling a show they have committed you to because a better paying gig comes along.
One international band in particular that I have had the pleasure of working with have always impressed me in that every person on their team (management, booking agent, tour manager & the artists themselves) seem to share a very consistent set of values & integrity - even when it costs them. If this has impacted me so considerably I can only imagine the impact it would have with non-Christian people in the industry who are not at all used to such behaviour.
For a very small percentage I actually believe they deliberately choose people who can do their dirty work for them while they plead ignorance. But to be fair I think many honestly don't realise what is going on in their name. I would challenge any Christian artist to make sure that neither of these is true for them - know how you are being represented & ensure it is consistent with your own values.
So without a doubt one of my greatest struggles is simply that of self-discipline. I guess that isn't so unusual, I suspect most people would have to admit the same thing if they were being honest.
I am not particularly talking about the 'big' things, although they can have their moments, but I regularly make bad choices when it comes to the 'little things'. I am more likely to drive to work than walk, more likely to have seconds of food I enjoy even if I'm pretty full and if I am considering whether to buy chips or not there is a good chance NOT is going to lose. Most of these things are not really the end of the world on their own but they do represent a pattern in parts of my life of giving in to things more than is good for me.
While spending a day recently doing a lot of driving (which always gives me a lot of time to think) I decided to deliberately spend one month focusing on making the better decisions more often & November seemed like a great time to do it (after all it will be over before Christmas this way!). So was born the idea of sayNOvember - a month of trying to say "NO" more often to the the things I usually say yes to. It's corny, I know, but then most good gimmicks are!
I didn't initially plan for it to be more than just a personal challenge, but having shared it with a few people (my wife & our home group) it turns out that some others like the idea & want to join in so I agreed to blog about it so they could comment on what they want to achieve. At least having some others involved & putting it in writing will make it less easy to just pike out.
Ideas like this can so often end up being very religious and guilt driven; that is not something I have any interest in. For me it is simply a chance to try to get into the habit of making better choices more often. Feel free to join in if you want but make your own decisions on what you would like to challenge yourself to. If you choose to make them public don't let it be a guilt thing if you don't get it perfect, a bit of transparency & honesty just might make us all feel human & real (God forbid!).
My challenges... In addition to a general commitment to making some better choices more often I have also decided to give a couple of things up completely for the month of NOvember...
Chips (particularly potato crisps) are a bit of a weakness of mine so I am going to give them a miss for the month & although I might have some hot chips in moderation if they are served to me as part of a normal meal I will be keeping them to a minimum as well.
BEER! Drinking too much at any one time is not something I have a problem with but I do enjoy a few beers on a regular basis & am especially fond of beeroclock (Fri avo's when work finishes!). Being something that can really control people I have also decided to pretty much give drinking alcohol a miss for the month as well.
Twitter A few of us are into Twitter so will be tweeting on & off about our successes (and failures) throughout NOvember using the hashtag #saynovember - if you decide to join in then feel free to also join the conversation.
The last ten days have been the most difficult I can remember for a very long time, culminating I guess with my Grandma's funeral in Caloundra yesterday. I hope you will see a resurgence in my blogging in the next few weeks as I have a lot on my mind but for now here is the tribute I shared on behalf of all the grandkids at the funeral:
This morning we were trying to help the great grandkids work out what they wanted to say about Grandma today but they were finding it hard.So we asked them some questions to hopefully help: What did they remember about her? What did they love about her?Later when I sat down to write this I was also struggling so I asked myself the same questions & found I still had a problem.
All I could think of were words like “loving”, “caring”, “compassionate”…”nice”!Lovely words I guess, but it all seemed so trite – like the list of clichéd words I might use if I was trying to speak nicely of someone I didn’t really think that much of.
Surely that wasn’t how I felt about my Grandma?Surely I could find some cute stories, or deep insights to really demonstrate that she was genuinely special to me – how would my cousins feel if this was the best I could come up with on their behalf?
Just one year ago my sister Deb & I still had all four of our grandparents – quite an achievement at 35 & 33 years of age – but on Saturday evening just gone Mum rang to tell me that the doctors expected Grandma only had maybe 2 hours.I got in the car in Toowoomba straight away but about 90 minutes later, when I was only half way to the Coast, she was gone. Today, Deb & I have no living grandparents & in less than 12 months I have attended all four of their funerals.
One thing I have discovered is that at funerals everybody is remembered differently – different words of affection, different ways that their lives impacted others, different achievements…and different things that might be avoided because everyone wants to remember the best now that they were gone. But spending time with family this week in preparation for the funeral I have noticed that there has been nothing to avoid – it seems that all the memories that everyone has of Grandma are good, they are ALL special.
I realise now that the words that came to mind about my Grandma are not trite, they are just simple, because she was simple – uncomplicated in how she chose to live.She lived focused on what mattered to her, and that was all of us, the people that God put in her life.
My Grandma loved people with everything she had & everything she was.She was often in the background, she was quiet & unassuming.She was little in stature but she was not little in love – she loved extravagantly at every opportunity, she loved people the way she knew her God loved her.She was “loving”.She was “caring”.She was “compassionate”.The simple truth is: she really WAS “nice”!
I loved her, as I know all of her grandkids did, as everyone here did – she was simply beautiful, soft & cuddly, unconditionally loving.She was the perfect Grandma &, while I know she is happier now that she is with Grandpa & her Jesus forever, for those of us now separated from her for a time she will be terribly missed.
I doubt there is anyone who does the Christian event/production/volunteer/crew thing in one way or another that doesn't at some point find themselves trying to remember WHY they do it. It might be 5am on a Sunday morning or standing in the pouring rain ankle deep in mud but we've all been there.
There are a lot of things that inspire me to do what I do. It is a lot of fun most of the time, there is a great sense of cameraderie with the amazing people I get to work with, sometimes there is even a bit of glamour to it all but there are other times when it is almost too hard and none of those things are enough.
At a recent meeting for Carols in the City (one of the many events I am involved in) the following verse was shared with us by Wendy Francis & it really hit me for the first time...
1 Thesalonians 1:3 "We continually remember before our God and Father your WORK produced by FAITH, your LABOR prompted by LOVE, and your ENDURANCE inspired by HOPE in our Lord Jesus Christ." (emphasis mine)
I was reminded that I didn't start this journey for recognition - my labour was prompted by LOVE.
I don't stack chairs, roll cables or stand in the rain for money, fun or even primarily for friendship - my work is produced by FAITH.
AND - when I am sore, tired and feeling unappreciated I keep going because of an endurance that is inspired by HOPE.
1 Corinthians 13:13 "And now these three remain: FAITH, HOPE and LOVE. But the greatest of these is love." (emphasis mine)
This is a great quote from Spurgeon on the sacred v's the secular that I read recently on James Macpherson's awesome blog (http://jamesmacpherson.blogspot.com/)...
"THE SEPERATION at what is called, “religious,” from the, “secular,” is one of the greatest possible mistakes. There is no such thing as a religion of Sundays, and of chapels and churches.
"At least though there is such a thing, it is not worth having. The religion of Christ is a religion for seven days in the week—a religion for every place and for every act! "And it teaches men, whether they eat, or drink, or whatever they do, to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and to the glory of God! I pray that you may be kept from falling away from that religion, and that you may be kept up to the mark in serving the Lord in all things and attending diligently to the little commonplace matters of daily life."
So how then is it possible to be an artist & consider yourself to be a Christian but not to consider yourself a "Christian artist"? To me that is like not wanting to be considered a "Christian human"!
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." (Thoreau)
Well I doubt life is going to give me the opportunity to live in the woods in 2009 but I do hope that I can learn to live just a little more deliberately this year. Of course, when I say "life" what I really mean is the choices that I make & the priorities I create.
The problem is that I seem to keep two separate priority lists.
There is the 'official' list, kind of the written down list even if it isn't actually written down. This is the list I would rattle off to you if you asked me to 'list' my priorities.
Then of course there is the 'actual' list. This is the list that would be created if someone could watch me non-stop for a month & then wrote down what appeared to be my priorities. Unfortunately, on this list computer games, TV & doing nothing at all rate a lot more highly than they do on the official list and other things like family, God & the poor seem to slip somehow.
But my problem is not primarily that I don't genuinely value things like my family & my God but that, well, I am lazy! No surprise to some of you I am sure (Mum!) but it is true - I would rather sit than stand, lie down than sit, sleep than just lie down!! (Thanks Drew)
This is my greatest challenge - choosing what to do with my time in a way that reflects the things that really matter to me deep down inside. Happening to life instead of letting life happen to me.
So as 2009 kicks off I am not making any resolutions, after all I already know what is important to me, I am simply going to try to live more of the minutes in this year deliberately than any that has gone before!
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