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not creative?

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In the midst, of all of my talk about “creating” and “creativity,” this morning I stopped by Seth Godin’s blog and enjoyed his thoughts about being creative or not creative in a post, entitled, Creativity and stretching the sweatshirt. Good stuff. But let’s be honest, when Seth blogs, it’s usually good! Here is a portion of the short post, read the rest if you feel so inclined too!

1. If you want to be creative, understand that you’ll need to get to the edges, even if the edges have moved. Being creative means immediately going to the place the last person left off.

2. If you are “not creative,” if you are the sort of person that gets uncomfortable being creative or has been persuaded you’re not capable, don’t worry about it. Just stretch the sweatshirt in your spare time, watch the creative things other people have done, keep up with the state of the art. Then, when you do your “not creative” thing, most people will think it’s pretty creative indeed.

It would seem the question is either, “Do you need to get to the edges?” or “Do you need to stretch that shirt your wearing?” Hmmmm…

inspiration…

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I have a deadline! Don’t we love deadlines? Maybe we (I) don’t but they are very real! So you can see below that I’ve been doing some creating! It’s been fun, but I wish I had not procrastinated on the front end, so I could enjoy it all a bit more! But seriously I really have enjoyed this. I LOVE CREATING! STAY TUNED FOR THE FULL PROMO VIDEO! I think I will upload it in the morning because it’s exporting now, and it’s at 40% and had two hours left. Anyway, in the midst of trying to keep the HD format and figure what how it works with vimeo, I stumbled (that’s the word I like to use) upon some videos that make me want to create more! Here you go! Enjoy 4 videos, that I loved, I hope you love them too!


London (harder, better, faster, stronger) from David Hubert on Vimeo.




Landfill from TimmY on Vimeo.


A Thousand Words from Ted Chung on Vimeo.

a morning cup of kava with eugene

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That morning cup of coffee is with my new, dear friend, Eugene Peterson, and sadly it doesn’t mean I sit and have coffee with him in person, but through his writing. Last fall, I read The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction, with my pastor, Phil, after good friends, in Athens, Greece, recommended it to me. I really enjoyed the book, but now it would seem that the words of Mr. Peterson are penetrating my heart in a way that they did not, when I read The Contemplative Pastor. My director (Billy) and I are reading are now reading A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society. I know another long title! I love long titles!

The title alone seems so timely for myself and for the world you and we live in. I’m only a mere two chapters into the book and I’ve already have had so much to ponder, pray and meditate on. I wanted to share some quotes that made me go, “hmmmmm, that’s good!” Or, “ouch that stings a bit!” I hope these move you as well! Swing by a bookstore and pick this book up and enjoy a morning cup of kava with Eugene as well!

“Many claim to have been born again, but the evidence for mature Christian discipleship is slim. In our kind of culture anything, even news about God, can be sold if it is packaged freshly; but when it loses its novelty, it goes on the garbage heap. There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness.”

“Meanwhile the world whispers, ‘Why bother? There is plenty to enjoy without involving yourself in all that. The past is a graveyard – ignore it; the future is a holocaust – avoid it. There is no payoff for discipleship, there is no destination for pilgrimage. Get God the quick way; buy instant charisma.’”

Ah, there is so much more, but we will leave it there for now. What hit you about those quotes? Any reactions? Here’s to setting forward on the long, rugged path of discipleship, that the world, and even much of the quick-fix, Evangelical church shuns!

late night procrastination…

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Oh my… So I am somewhat the media department for AIA||Czech Republic and that has meant that I’ve slowly acquired the tools to create quality pieces for us, as well as ways to express myself creatively, and much more. During my trip back to the States, I acquired another couple of pieces to add to those tools and I’m stoked to use them. I’m currently working on conceptualizing, shooting and editing a promo for the Czech Project, but in doing so I’m trying to learn how to use these tools while I’m in the process of creating. I’m thankful for the world we now live in that allows me to find and consume information and etc. so quickly but it could also lead to hours of sitting and “learning” (let’s just call it that, it makes me feel better, but in reality it’s procrastinating a little, I guess!). In that I stumbled upon the videos of a guy, named Ugurcan Kara, on vimeo and I love what he is doing! He is using something called the “Magic Bullet Look,” which I’m trying to figure out how to join in this look, but do it under a budget. Anyway, I wanted to share two of his videos that have served as inspiration and procrastination at the same time for me! I really want to do some projects like these, just beautiful work! Enjoy!


balon from ugurcan kara on Vimeo.


bittersweet from ugurcan kara on Vimeo.

my afternoon prayer walk

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I [heart] Prague! A LOT! Actually a butt load, to be exact! One of the things I do often here is go on prayer walks, especially when I’m struggling a bit with staying on mission and getting after things here. So today after I loaded up my new opencard, with a year metro pass, I walked from Václavské námestí to Malostranská and prayed, prayed, prayed… While listening to a little bit of this:

So good… Just thought I would share this with you! Be a revolution today!

the city – morning encouragement

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A Church for the City (Reprise) from The Austin Stone on Vimeo

This morning while I was having my breakfast and morning blog read, I started with one of my main blog reads and it took me to another read. I stumbled upon the video above. So good. So good. Check out Kevin Cawley’s post A Church for the City, he’s got some great links about doing and being the church in the city. Okay, now time for me to go into my city…

two harrods living in prague…

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…the adventure (or experiment) begins today as my lovely sister boards a plane bound to London and then a second bound to my home, now her home, Prague! I’m so excited. Megan has started a new blog, where she will chronicle the next two years as she manages the hub office for what she dubs “urban-chic, swank, boutique hostels” here in Prague (Czech Inn, Miss Sophie’s & Sir Toby’s). Please pray for her as she says good-bye to our family, Tom (her boyfriend) and friends. Please pray she would have a great two years here in Prague and that God would blow her away! Thanks for stopping by!

for you football geeks out there…

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So I just read Billy’s (my director) newest ESPN the Mag, he received, and there was an article, entitled Shock to the System, that intrigued me. The article was about the Wildcat offense, that the Miami Dolphins ran at times this season, and also the growing change in the football world. I was intrigued by this offense called A-11, that two high school coaches in Northern California designed. From what I read about it and from googling it would seem to be catching on. I’m not even sure how it works yet, or even if it works within the rules of NCAA, but it’s intriguing, check it out.


Here are some other articles I found online about the A-11:
Checking in with the A-11 offense and checking my list
The A-11 offense: Ridiculous, or genius?
Who’s on Line? Even the Referees Don’t Know

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