Zoning-in...

I'm zoning-in on things over here.

See my one friend (and brother-in-law) has taken an EPIC TRIP (home to be with Jesus) and that event has shattered many of us.

In fact, not 'because' of this (he's been thinking this way for some time) but certainly 'inspired' in some way by this, my other friend (and my brother-in-law's 'best friend') is taking an EPIC TRIP of his own.

Me?

I don't have plans to travel anywhere.

I'm staying right here.

It's WHAT I'll be doing while staying put that's key.

See, these two trips my friends have engaged in have reminded me of what I have to engage in my life. They have brought into sharp relief a thing I think about a lot, but I'm thinking about it now with an increased urgency (to say the least).

What am I supposed to be doing?

And I don't mean all the simple things we do each day just trying to survive, but THE thing that we're supposed to do that makes all those other things possible.

Why do I exist?

And, see, I know the answer, I've always known it.

(beyond simply loving Jesus, my wife and my babies...)

I'm called to preach and to interview.

That's it.

I mean, I can do *some* other things. I'm a passable writer, a decent producer, I've even directed a few things in my life. I'm a good leader, a decent pastor, a passable musician, an average athlete.

I'm pretty good with a sailboat.

But what am I really good at?

Preaching and interviewing.

That's it.

That's. It.

That's, it.

That's ALL I can really do.

Everything else in my life flows from or is connected to those two things.

Looking back, the only 'high' points in my life are connected to those two simple abilities. I remember that first campfire at Pioneer Camp where I told the 'Heaven Story'. I remember preaching 'Fresh Wind' for the first time or that time at Kingswood with Third Day to 10,000+ when I lit the candles in the crowd and preached about Jesus. I remember Colorado and New Jersey. I remember trying my best to blow the roof off the place at FT week after week. I remember one of my dearest friends just standing to his feet for the last ten minutes of an epic sermon one time. I remember youth retreats and that conference on the Trinity where I--the preacher--was the youngest person in the room. I remember starting again at THE WELL and finding I'd lost my 'voice', then a friend's advice that helped me find it again.

I remember Robbie's funeral, preaching like a madman, like a thing possessed, like a brother bereaved.

And the interviewing?

I remember the exact moment it hit me. It was season 4 of 'FreeTV' shot at VisionTV's tiny studio in downtown Toronto. I remember sitting at the dining room table set and doing that first interview. I remember thinking "This is best part of this show..."

And you're thinking, "Gee whiz man, don't give yourself props..."

Shut up man, I'm talking to myself here and for all the other broken hearts out there trying to find their way.

I just *knew* in that moment that THAT was what I was good at.

Take my current TV series, our flagship, the first show we've ever done with the potential to break out and actually become a show that releases all over the World. What's special about it?

The interviews are great and it's nicely packaged and it's relatively cheap to do and the 'talent' increasingly likes doing it, has a good experience, and is talking about it in H'wood which has the word spreading, which is making it easier for us to get better and better guests which is giving the whole thing more momentum.

Two simple things.

Preaching and interviewing.

That's where I'm going.

And the trick is to extricate myself from doing things that aren't those two things or don't DIRECTLY support the doing of those two things.

Yes, for a time I have to do much more simple 'pastoring' than I'm naturally gifted to do, but I do it with all my heart (even while trying to extricate myself from it) so that I can keep preaching, pastoring people from the pulpit.

Yes, for a time I have to do much more actual producing than I'm naturally gifted to do but the trick is to do it with all my heart so that I can give myself (with the faithful help and leadership of my business partner) more opportunities to sit across from interesting people and get them to tell their life story to you...

So that you can find some hope.

Hope in Jesus when I preach.

Hope in our shared journey when I interview.

I'm a 'hope' transmitter.

That's what I am, that's what I do.

Everything else is just noise, just work, just stuff to do.

What I *do* is communicate the timeless hope of Jesus from a pulpit and the universal hope we find in seeing in another person's story--well told--the simple truth that we aren't, in fact, the only one dealing with these feelings of hopelessness, fear and despair, that we aren't, in fact, alone, that there is a way through...

If we'll just do what we're supposed to do.

God bless you Robbie as you sing before His throne. Thank you for reminding me what I'm supposed to do.

God bless you Jonesey as you quit your upper-middle-class job and sell your house and embark bravely into the unknown with your family to build homes for the poor and do what you've been made to do there and after you're back. Thank you for proving to me (again) that Robbie and Me aren't the only ones who've lost our minds.

I love you guys.

You inspire me.

T