Wherever, whenever...

Sometimes, we write movies on airplanes.

I was headed to Nashville to speak at a big media conference, while juggling writing deadlines on our TV series' and a big documentary series (and feature) we're producing this year.

So I wrote on the plane.

I enjoy 'plane writing' because it's 100% isolated time. Nobody bugs you, nobody's calling on the phone or texting or emailing, it's just you, your ideas, and the smell of humanity.

(inside joke)

Ok, I'll explain it; mind you, you probably already figured it out, right? That smell that slowly creeps onto a plane as the minutes stretch into hours and the air keeps getting recycled and the people keep getting more and more 'moist'?

That smell.

Anyway, you ignore the smell as best you can and let the ideas flow. I think maybe the white noise of the plane helps you 'fly away' into the land of ideas but, for whatever reason, I find writing on the plane super-productive.

The reminder to me (and maybe to you) is this; wherever you find yourself, DO what it is you have to do, to the best of your ability, moment by moment, day by day, at all times.

I was reminded today (by a John Maxwell tweet) that success comes with just keeping at it. I know he's not the originator of that thought but, regardless of who thought it or said it first, it's a keeper.

Keeping doing your thing, even at 30,000 feet surrounded by the smell of human.

:)

T

Keep at it long enough...

And it'll happen.

Trust me. I know.

I've been married 19 years and, through keeping at it and keeping at it and keeping at it, my wife and I have ended up in this weird space where we're lovers AND friends.

I've walked with Jesus 30 years and, through no strength of my own, after time and joy and pain and mistakes and victories and suffering and disillusionment and encouragement and evils done and received; I've ended up old enough to see (for myself) that Faith really does make good sense.

I've been writing screenplays 14 years and that there picture above is proof that, eventually, if you do the work, and learn the lessons, and apply both to each new project you undertake (no matter how mundane) eventually somebody will pay YOU to write THEIR film.

And, no, it's not a two hundred and fifty thousand dollar commission (that'd be nice; but only happens to a famous few, and even then, more ten years ago then today) but it's real money for a real project that is gonna take real skill, and time and toil to execute.

Pretty fun.

And, listen, I'm not being triumphalist. I'm writing this because *I* need the reminder. *I* need the encouragement every day, sometimes multiple times a day because, as you well know, life is just that hard and the struggle never seems to cease and things just don't ever seem to get easier.

Which is why we keep working.

T

Out of touch...

This used to be a going concern.

The souvenir shop at the top of the stairs as you exit the 'pool of siloam'.

Only, turns out, it's not really the pool of siloam.

When I was a boy, the spot above was packed with tourists buying keepsakes from the famous pool where Jesus would have bathed on His way up to the temple and where he sent the blind man to be healed in John 9. I remember Christian groups worshipping there, getting all emotional and moved by the power of the place. I remember them buying vials of 'holy water' afterward to help them remember their experience in that sacred space.

Then it turned out to NOT be the place.

See, in 2004 they found the REAL pool of siloam (and how and why they found it will be explored in our new documentary) and, since then, no one cares to visit the old spot.

No more visitors, no more souvenir shop.

It lost its relevance because it was out of touch with reality.

Just like you and me, perhaps?

See I heard a preacher recently who was totally, completely, utterly, uselessly, grossly out of touch with reality, with where his audience was at, and--in my opinion--with what the text he was preaching from was all about.

I was so upset, it stayed with me for days.

Here's how it applies to me, and maybe to you.

It's very easy for us to get used to doing things the way we've always done them 'cause that's just how it is. Like the 'tourist site formerly known as the pool of siloam'; it was THE spot for years and years and years and nobody was really worried about it, or interested in digging deeper. You and I can fall into a rut of just doing what we do without really pushing ourselves to achieve greatness, moment by moment, as a hard-won habit.

Then, one day in Jerusalem, a freak snowstorm showed up (whoops, giving away the doc plot a bit there) and, in one fell swoop, everyone realized that the old spot for the pool of siloam was the 'wrong' spot and everything associated with it had been a sham.

Imagine a 'freak snowstorm', some random, un-planned-for event shows up in your life/work/ministry and it exposes the depths of what you're doing (in preparation, or lack thereof, in foresight or lack thereof, in honestly seeking feedback and wise counsel and applying it, or not) and you're found to have been selling holy water that 'aint really holy.

You'd be in deep.

And none of us want to end up there, shuttered and useless and yesterday's news.

I'm taking the warning. I'm determined to do better. I'm scared of making mock of what I've been called to do.

How 'bout you?

T

Everything is connected...

Epic.

In the cistern (a hundred feet from the Royal Davidic Palace) where Jeremiah was probably thrown in Jer 38:6.

Apparently there was no water, only mud. Well, all these years later, there was no water, only mud; and every step you took five or six spiders scurried out from under your feet.

Crazy.

And it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't gone alone with something I didn't want to do, at the time.

See, the connections we made to get our current (gigantic) documentary series off the ground, exploring 13 significant archaeological 'proofs' of the Bible, happened because I went along (kicking and screaming) with a plan my business partner had that, at the time, I was--shall we say--less than thrilled about.

We often argue, he and I, about what we should do, how we should do it, how we should set it up financially, and what that's going to mean for us, our firm, and our key staff, collaborators and partners. From what I've read (and heard) about successful creative partnership, there is often that kind of push/pull between primarily creative and primarily fiscally minded people.

Anyway, we found a way to agree, and lemme' say that the thing we did was taxing in exactly the ways I thought it would be taxing when I first objected, and it was really tough to do, almost soul-killing, in fact; and it made me bitter, AND...turned out great and made a big impact, all at the same time.

Also, it led to this project.

And that's the point that reverberates with me, in a sobering way. If I hadn't gone along with what my partner wanted, if I hadn't dug really deep to do something (well) that I didn't really want to do and for which I had no real tangible incentive at the time, our path probably wouldn't have led us to where we are today.

Scary, right?

So, I'm trying to be continuously mindful (especially when I'm feeling grumpy or 'put upon') of the fact that everything is connected. Every meeting, appointment, email, phone call, conversation, action, reaction; they're all working together to build a story.

A story in which you are a character and change agent. A story that might end up having you descend 60 feet into first temple era muck that used to be home to a real-live Biblical Prophet.

"I'm not worthy..." doesn't do it justice.

T