Executing Ideas

We are about to go to our friends’ house to watch the Super Bowl. There are a few things I want to tell you.

Although this seems like a really big deal, it isn’t. It’s just that the people in our country don’t have anything to get excited about all together anymore. We used to get excited together about fighting against the British and stuff, but we haven’t all gotten excited about the same stuff in a long time. So we get all worked up about this game instead.

You are not less of a person because you can never play in the Super Bowl. Men are the only people who play. Sometimes the reporter on the sideline is a woman. And I’m sure someday soon a woman will be anouncing the game or in the studio at halftime and another will be running the sidelines as a referee. But the players are all men, and that will not change. I really hope and pray that you will do something more important with your life than play a football game (or report on one or referee one).

Don’t be like the women you see. You will see women dancing on the sidelines of this football game, my love. They will not be wearing many clothes. They will be amazing athletes, maybe even as amazing as the men on the field. But their whole lives go into being beautiful, and that’s kinda sad. You’re way more important than just having smooth skin and showing it off. You’re a lot more valuable than a pretty face. The shape of your breasts and butt and your ability to dance don’t give you your worth as a person. No matter how gorgeous you are when you grow up—and I have no doubt that will be really, really beautiful, since you already are—please know that your mind and your soul matter more.

There are a lot of men you should avoid. There will be some really funny and cool ads on during the Super Bowl. We’ll laugh and look at each other with our mouths wide open. But commercials sometimes kind of lie, saying things that are not true. I’ve heard about the ads that are going to air tonight—GoDaddy, Kia, Doritos, and the rest. They show women mostly naked. They do this because they think men really want to see that and that men are dumb enough to buy something because a mostly-naked woman was in an ad. A good man decides to really love one woman, not just her body and not lots of women. That’s the kind of man that I hope falls deeply in love with you one day. I love your mom and don’t look at other women naked. And trust me, you don’t ever want to be with a man who just wants to see other women naked.

You can always talk to me. This is some big stuff. You can ask me anything, and I will always make time for you. You’re the best.

Love,

Daddy

What else would you say to girls and young women about the messages around the Super Bowl?

Leave a comment below.

My buddy Matt is a fantastic photographer. And he recently shot me.

There’s a good chance you’ve read Blue Like Jazz: Non-religious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality (Thomas Nelson, 2003). Don Miller’s sold over a million of ‘em.

But he and Steve Taylor have adapted it to be a film, and it’s coming out in the spring, on April 13, 2012. Steve (and a swell guy named Dave Palmer who runs Dunk Tank Marketing) came to Madison a couple weeks ago and let some of us at InterVarsity screen the rough cut of the film.

It’s good.

Let’s be honest here, a lot of stuff produced by Christians is either indistinguishable in quality or content from anything else or ham-handed efforts to proselytize make it painful to watch (especially if you’re a thoughtful follower of Jesus).

But Blue Like Jazz comes through:

• It’s funny (a major victory for adherents to a faith that is plagued by its adherents).
• They don’t assume the audience is stupid.
• It doesn’t shy away from issues (or the language) of college students.
• There is a bear suit, a robot protest, tall bikes, and puppets.
• It’s genuine and believable, even with a sort of modern day fairy tale feel.
• The music is great.
• It raises questions without easy answers.

And that’s the real strength of Blue Like Jazz. Yes, it’s a good film on it’s own merit. But in the film, Miller and Taylor have made some space for honest conversations about what my friends believe, the crazy stuff Jesus said, and how the Christians often are way off in left field (and not in a good way).

So reread the book, maybe give it to someone for Christmas, and get ready.

Let me know if you have any questions.

It’s early Sunday morning. The last few weeks have been intense. Chrissy and I pushed to submit our manuscript on Tuesday. I had taken time off in October, so my workload was heavier than normal. Stuff around the house was backed up and pushed off until November. And now it is November.

I have worked early. I have worked late. I have worked over my lunch hour. I have brought work home. I have slept less. I have worked hard.

Today, I rest.

There is precedent in the Hebrew Bible for this, of course—keeping the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments. But we Protestants often short that one a bit, because Jesus picked some grain on the Sabbath. (His friends took the Sabbath very seriously, right?) Then he said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27—Please note, I think the Sabbath was made for women, too.)

So for people like me, of good Germanic and Scandinavian stock, take this to mean, “Yes! We don’t need that stupid day of rest! We can get 14.28% more work done if we work that day!”

Thanks a lot, forebears.

Because of this, of them, of my own frenetic self, I like work. I like starting things, making things happen, finishing things, interacting with ideas and people. But this day of rest was made for me.

• It makes me acknowledge that I’m insufficient to do all that I want or all that I “should.”
• It’s good for my body, as I sleep a bit more and I usually use the off hours to exercise.
• My family appreciates it, as I spend more time with them and have a good attitude for them.
• I volunteer to serve at my church, even arriving early and staying a while afterward, just to hang out with people.
• Friendships are deepened, too, as we often make it a social day.
• I’m just happier because I get to lay around and read or go for a walk or play games (and because of all the other good stuff on this list).

Today, I will teach kids at church. We’ll come home and make a big brunch for some friends to come over and share. Then, I think we’ll all hang out and drink tea before going for a walk in the big park next door and letting the kids enjoy one last beautiful Sunday before the snow flies. These friends will leave and I’ll read a book that’s sat on my shelf for months. Maybe I’ll nap. The kids will talk me into twister and I think I’ll make a pizza from scratch. I’ll watch a movie, kiss my wife, and go to sleep early.

As we’re all up early with the extra hour from daylight savings time, what’s your Sabbath going to look like?

My wife, Chrissy, and I are writing a book, to be published by IVP next fall.

Up to this point (for the last year and a half), the working title for the project was Amazing Days: Living the Extraordinary in the Midst of the Mundane.

We knew we wouldn’t end up keeping that, but we used it to capture what we wanted the book (and our life!) to be about. A couple weeks ago, we landed on a new title. Today, we agreed on the subtitle.

This is a big deal.

A book title needs to catch people’s attention. You need to honestly represent the content of the book. The title is a promise of what a book will deliver. It can’t be too long. It must be memorable. But if you get too creative, you don’t tell the reader anything (or worse, you give the wrong idea). The cover design and the back cover copy (more about these in the next couple of weeks) also do a lot to these ends, but you need to have a good title.

So as is customary, we included several title ideas in the original book proposal our agent took to publishers. They were pretty bad. Dave, our longsuffering editor (and excellent writer in his own right), sent back some title thinking to us from the team at IVP, to show the sort of vision they had for the project. We kicked around several options (out of about 70 that came out of various brainstorming sessions) and agreed on one a couple weeks ago.

We let that simmer for a bit. Then Dave and the crack creative team at IVP sent through a list of subtitle options. Life happened and we didn’t get around to replying. So today, Dave wrote with a specific subtitle. A few emails back and forth and we landed on a subtitle.

Once assembled, our title has a hard job:

• Connect with our prospective readers’ needs
• Promise wisdom for living life in the U.S. intentionally despite the normal ruts
• Show the journey we’re on, re-entering North America after years abroad
• Do all this in a lyrical, poetic fashion.

Impossible? Nearly.

But we did our best:

This Ordinary Adventure: Settling Down Without Settling

What do you think?

Today, I got up shortly after 5:00 AM. I reviewed my email while the kettle heated up for my tea. I checked the news. I clicked through a couple blogs and found a couple items of interest.

And then, I wrote.

Or rather, I edited.

Editing sucks.

The manuscript for our book is due three weeks from tomorrow. I am working on the third chapter right now. To get into the right mindset, I skimmed through the first two chapters. I arrived at the pages I’m working on and slowed down.

I read. I reread. I looked at my notes of what major changes I need to make. I inserted a couple phrases. I tried to add a section that’s very important, but it came out like a middle school essay, all pimpled and ganky.

For two hours of effort, what I have gained is a sense of my general inadequacy.

It was a very good morning.

1.    Call yourself a “writer.”
2.    Make a big cup of coffee.
3.    Put on a scarf or jaunty cap.
4.    Buy a big notebook and nice pen.
5.    Sit and watch people.
6.    Chew on pen.
7.    Think a lot.
8.    Angst.
9.    Marry a writer.
10.    Have a couple kids.
11.    Go to interesting places.
12.    Talk to fascinating people.
13.    Take notes.
14.    Get motorcycle.
15.    Ride motorcycle.
16.    Crash, but not too bad.
17.    Google “motorcycle travel magazine.”
18.    Write an article.
19.    Get a camera.
20.    Learn to take decent pictures.
21.    Email three editors.
22.    Pray.
23.    Send article and pictures to the one who will “pay” you with motorcycle gear.
24.    Call yourself a “motorcycle travel photojournalist.”
25.    Repeat steps 11, 12, 15, and 16 for a few years.
26.    Write column for that magazine.
27.    Make sure your writing doesn’t suck.
28.    Approach other motorcycle magazines.
29.    Fake it ‘til you make it.
30.    Get Honda to give you a better motorcycle for three months.
31.    Tell other companies that Honda gave you a motorcycle.
32.    Ask other companies for gear.
33.    Get free helmet, jacket, pants, gloves, boots, etc.
34.    Ride through eight countries in eight days in Africa.
35.    Over three months, write 15 articles about “8 in 8.”
36.    Meet deadlines.
37.    Write web articles for that cool magazine for free.
38.    Pitch pieces for print version of that cool magazine.
39.    Meet deadlines.
40.    Make sure your writing doesn’t suck.
41.    Encourage your writer-spouse to write a book.
42.    Make sure your spouse’s writing doesn’t suck.
43.    Meet Famous Author (FA).
44.    Ask FA to endorse spouse’s book.
45.    Get name of Famous Author’s Agent (FAA).
46.    Learn that FAA also represents George Foreman and Chuck Norris.
47.    Flip out.
48.    Help market your spouse’s book.
49.    Move back to the U.S.
50.    Visit offices of that cool magazine.
51.    Try not to say anything stupid.
52.    Especially, “You guys are all so cool!”
53.    Travel and speak to audiences about spouse’s book.
54.    Happy.
55.    Jealous.
56.    Write regularly for that cool magazine.
57.    Meet deadlines.
58.    Make sure your writing doesn’t suck.
59.    Get a job to support your writing habit.
60.    Give up your free time to write.
61.    It’s 6:09 a.m. as I type this line.
62.    Make another big cup of coffee.
63.    Regret goofing off during English classes.
64.    “Remember that time when…”
65.    Focus.
66.    Open a Facebook page for your writing.
67.    Start tweeting.
68.    Focus.
69.    See which of spouse’s ideas FAA thinks is best.
70.    Give spouse a backrub.
71.    Ask spouse if you could co-author FAA’s pick.
72.    Spend months writing the book proposal and first three chapters.
73.    Wait months for FAA to sell the book to a publisher.
74.    Sign contract with cool publisher.
75.    Don’t really think about it for a few months.
76.    Take a week off of work.
77.    HOKBOC: Hands On Keyboard, Butt On Chair.
78.    Write thousands and thousands of words.
79.    Yes, another big cup of coffee would be great, thanks.
80.    Also, paint your living room.
81.    Add your words to spouse’s words.
82.    Rejoice that the rough draft of 43,862 words is almost long enough.
83.    That’s 190 pages.
84.    Post the good news on Facebook and Twitter.
85.    Focus.
86.    Sleep.
87.    Think good ideas.
88.    Write them.
89.    Convince people they should pay you for your good ideas.
90.    Repeat steps 85-87 until you die.
91.    Die happy.
Drink all the coffee you want

Boiled down goodness, for you to simmer in…

1. We live in a world that’s crying out for better leadership. @billhybels
2. Nothing rocks forever. @billhybels
3. If you can’t predict the future, create it. –Len Schlesinger
4. Little bets and baby steps make all the difference. –Len Schlesinger
5. The world you see outside of you will always be a reflection of what you have inside of you. @corybooker
6. Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you say. @corybooker
7. Catalytic events are never nice, easy, or comfortable. @revdocbrenda
8. Pray for a divine mandate, name your catalytic event, mobilize people to go! @revdocbrenda
9. Competence is no longer scarce. –Seth Godin
10. I’m not a psychopath—I’m wearing a tie! –Seth Godin
11. There’s no map for being an artist. –Seth Godin
12. If it’s worth doing, why aren’t you doing it now? –Seth Godin
13. The world is begging for you to lead. –Seth Godin
14. To love is to give, to give until it hurts. –Mama Maggie Gobran
15. I’m just dumb enough to believe God can do anything. @stevenfurtick
16. If the vision isn’t overwhelming to you, it’s probably insulting to God. @stevenfurtick
17. One of the reasons we struggle with insecurity is because we are comparing our behind-the-scenes with others highlight reels. @stevenfurtick
18. If we aren’t careful we can become addicted to the narcotic of success and growth. @billhybels
19. I don’t know a single leader who ever regretted taking a tough assignment from God. @billhybels
20. May God grant that we are worthy to stand beside sisters and brothers standing in faith in the hard places. @wess_stafford
21. In silence you leave the many and are with the One. –Mama Maggie Gobran
22. We choose whether to be a nobody or a hero. –Mama Maggie Gobran
23. I would much rather deal with anger than apathy. @m_rhee
24. Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. @m_rhee
25. People are either wise, fools, or evil. You must deal with each differently. @drhenrycloud
26. It takes guts to do what leadership requires when you’re dealing with a fool. @drhenrycloud
27. Humility is the noble choice to forgo your status and use your influence for the good of others before yourself. @johnpauldickson
28. Humility is beautiful, generative, persuasive, and inspiring. @johnpauldickson
29. Enter the danger. @patricklencioni
30. People are hungry for those who will tell them the kind truth. @patricklencioni
31. Your job is not to look smart. It’s to help your team do more and better. @patricklencioni
32. The only thing worse than someone farting in a meeting is someone pretending they didn’t fart in a meeting. @patricklencioni
33. We, the Church, need to become cultivators of human potential and narrators of the human story. @erwinmcmanus
34. We need a revival of great storytelling. Whoever tells the best story wins the culture. @erwinmcmanus
35. Sometimes the truth is lost in a bad story. @erwinmcmanus
36. An ordinary human has never been born. But most of us die as tragically ordinary humans. @erwinmcmanus
37. Evil men don’t ask permission to create the future. @erwinmcmanus

Special things to @timschraeder and @paulsteinbrueck for their notes that supplemented (and confirmed) mine. See the Willow Creek Association Blog, too!

I’m totally shattered by these two days. I have a lot to think about:

Bill Hybels and Henry Cloud: sometimes you need to deal with very hard management and personnel issues.

Len Schlesinger: little bets and baby steps with people you want to work with end up as really big things.

Brenda Salter-McNeil: we need to go to Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and we need to be the GLOBAL Church.

Seth Godin: today, you control the means of production and you need to be different. Be the artist.

Steven Furtick: believe God for big crazy things.

Mama Maggie: contemplative humility and extreme service. No easy callings.

John Dickson: humility is beautiful, generative, persuasive and inspiring.

Patrick Lencioni: we need to be naked, not fearing embarassment, loss, or failure.

Erwin McManus: the Church must tell the story better and seek excellence.

I’ll close with McManus: “Evil men do not wait for permission to create the future. But godly people often do.”

What is your biggest thing to chew on in the next few days?

John Dickson spoke today at the Global Leadership Summit. Here’s what he had to say:

Humility is the noble choice to forgo your status and use your influence for the good of others before yourself.

Humility will not automatically make you great. And being great will not make you humble. Humility makes the great greater.

Here are five characteristics of humility:

1. Humility is common sense. None of us is an expert in everything, so we understand our limits and thus need humility. Within the Church, because the Bible trumps all other knowledge, Christian leaders sometimes think they know about topics and fields way outside their area. Actually, what we don’t know and can’t do far exceeds what we do know and can do.
2. Humility is beautiful. We are more attracted to the great and humble than to the great who know they’re great and want us to know it, too. It’s not always been so. Our research found that a humility revolution took place in the first century, stemming from Nazareth. We found it was Jesus’ crucifixion that changed how ancient people thought about humility. Crucifixion was the lowest possible ending to life. “So did Jesus’ death mean he wasn’t as great as we thought he was?” No, they decided, and they redefined greatness, through humility. Western culture has been profoundly shaped by the cross of Christ. Our culture is profoundly cruciform. Philippians 2:38 has had a profound effect.
3. Humility is generative. It leads to new ideas. Humility has been formative for scientific investigation and for business theory and practice. The humbling place is where flourishing happens.
4. Humility is persuasive. That’s because the most persuasive person is the one who you know has your best interest at heart. If someone serves you tea, you may be more easily convinced by them later because of their demonstration humility through their service.
5. Humility is inspiring. If someone is aloof, you don’t feel like you can really follow in their footsteps, as you’re too different. We just admire them. But if someone is humble and open, we feel we can be like them. They are human enough. Some of the most inspiring leaders in history had no structural authority. Jesus comes to mind.

You don’t need armies to change empires or individuals.