I don’t want to have a derivative life: No mimicry of other’s personal aspirations; no living from someone else’s script. A vicarious life is a borrowed life. I want to offer the weight of my own heart and the artistry that proceeds from there in ways that are not driven by sales outcomes, market expectations, or religious sub-cultures. I must be me. That is the nature of incarnation - the self-revelation of God through a Body of bodies who can only represent him faithfully if they are themselves.

As the Poet Gerard Manley Hopkins once said, “What I do is me: For that, I came.” As Gary Barkalow of Ransomed Heart Ministries asks us, “What is in you that is so unique, that if you don’t live with it, the Kingdom of God will live without it?”

The recent podcast of the Kindlings Muse, hosted by Dick Staub, features a round-table discussion with three artists from different disciplines, discussing what it means to live one’s authentic life as an artist/writer/musician/film producer, and the inherent struggles and joys that come with this path. Click here for podcast.

I’ve been looking for people’s stories for my upcoming book, Recover Your Good Heart. I’m trying to discover whether their church experiences and Christian journeys have really offered them the actual good news, or a false substitute. Their responses are painfully telling:

I wish these folks’ stories were unique to them, but sadly, they are all too pervasive in churches today. We simply are not being told the actual Gospel that sets the heart free. Rather, we’re given a false, shame-based substitute that leaves Christians in their grave clothes.

“We do not want joy and anger to neutralize each other and produce a surly contentment; we want a fiercer delight and a fiercer discontent.”
-G.K. Chesterton

The Gospel is a gospel of appetite.
If one isn’t hungry or thirsty, the Gospel cannot help them. I’ve noticed this especially with Christians. There’s a sad irony about that: Those who know the Lord are often the least hungry and thirsty - being satisfied with too little, contented with fast food spirituality and not the richer fare of the Bridegroom’s table. As Scottish poet George MacDonald lamented, “Man finds it hard to get what he wants, because he does not want the best; God finds it hard to give, because he would give the best, and man will not take it.”

What are we reading these days? Look at the best-seller lists for Christian publishing; there are exceptions, yet much of Christian publishing is no more noble or helpful, than the nearest “life coach” offerings on news magazines or talk shows.

What are we watching? Christian television pundits and preachers are the new celebrity culture for the church. Are they offering us the richer depths of the Gospel or a superficial and therapeutic gospel where being blessed with a life that works is the goal? This blessing-centered gospel is more a result of American consumerism than it is biblical joy. In any case McSpirituality leaves us under-nourished.

What are we listening to? Frankly, I can’t even listen to most contemporary worship music today, as it drones out unthoughtful variations of the same tired and cliche’d three-chord progressions. We, the Church, once offered the most respected, insightful, and creative work of the day. We were once considered the cultural creatives who could represent God to culture without dumbing down our artistry or the Gospel. But now, we’ve settled for insipid and pedestrian efforts at glorifying a God, who, by contrast, loves to create and creates because he loves.

We have lost our appetite.

Yet there are signs of hope. If you want to find out more about cultural creatives - those who offer art, music, writing, and thinking that is not mired in trite mimicry - go to Dick Staub’s site, www.kindlingsmuse.com where you’ll find interviews with some of these standout cultural architects. Not everyone has lost their appetite.

You can read a brief article I wrote for a great website called Walkable Neighborhoods. Walkable Neighborhoods “promotes livable, walkable communities that are vibrant, unique, and economically viable places to live, work, and play.”

The article I wrote concerns the number one issue for Christians and churches in the coming decade. The article is called, “Walkable Church.” Click here.

Here’s what I’m currently reading:

1. Unspoken Sermons, George MacDonald. This is by far one of the richest works I’ve ever read. MacDonald, a 19th century writer/theologian, was perhaps C.S. Lewis’ greatest influence. You will feel more alive and connected to God as you discover page after page of glorious truth.

2. The Spirit of the Disciplines, Dallas Willard. Jesus claims that his yoke is “easy and light” yet most of us experience discipleship as something heavy and austere. Willard’s book examines how apprenticeship under Jesus can transform us that we might be restored and free.

3. Alaska Bear Tales, Larry Kaniut. This book will make you think twice before entering the back country of Alaska, Montana, or Coastal Canada unprepared. Bears are unpredictable and may attack, so the gory encounters in this book are not for the squeamish.However, there’s the curious story of the hunter who had come to shoot a monster Alaskan brown bear known to frequent a particular coastal area. The bear never showed, so the hunter went down to the beach to take a nap, hoping the bear would return later in the afternoon. The hunter was awakened by a wet snout at his head and a massive stump of grizzly fur standing next to him.