SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION. HOW THEY’RE NOT THE SAME AND WHY IT MATTERS.

The way we talk about the things we care about most reveals so much of our perspective on life.

Eventually meaning finds expression in words, but so also does intention, purpose and our individual worldviews.

It might be that all our differences at the end of the day only come down to mere semantics, but on the other hand, if we don’t use words to express ourselves, what do we have left?

In related news, this week two very different stories about God, spirituality and religion were posted on CNN.com.

The first featured Rainn Wilson, now famous for his role as Dwight Schrute in The Office, speaking at the SXSW technology fair about his website, Soul Pancake. Wilson expressed how the internet was the future of spirituality, and how an increased openness for spiritual conversations through technological media, might just make us better humans and the world a more humane place.

At the other end of the spectrum Mark Driscoll recorded an interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan on his new book, The Truth About Sex, Friendship And Life Together. Driscoll fervently fielded questions from Piers about his stance on sex and male superiority, and for most of the time expressed himself in a defensive manner, using words that excluded some and created more questions in others. 

Regardless of the content and whether you agree with it or not, I couldn’t help but notice the differences in choice about:

1. The mediums used to convey the initial message [website vs book]
2. The platforms chosen to further the conversation [live technology fair vs pre-recorded talk show]
3. The general disposition of the conversations [for something vs against something]
4. The basic premise and bottom line of the talks [let’s create something better vs let’s make sure we don’t do something wrong]
5. The sources credited for the content [human experience vs The Bible]

It seems that on every level, non-followers of Jesus that do not associate with the church are running circles around traditional clergy when it comes to engaging a broken world in the conversations of spirituality and life.

Their message may be warped and their content not true to our own held convictions of faith, but nonetheless, they seem to strike a chord on what it means to be innately human, and how that translates into our spiritual expressions.

Maybe there’s something to learn here, and to apply to your own communication the next time you have the opportunity to represent the church of Jesus to an unbelieving world.

Or, you could just still talk at them, quoting sources as if they already believe that what you’re saying is true, and later on judge them because they did not buy into your specific brand of naysayer-religion.

As in the time of Jesus and the early church, the world is spiritual and its people ready for spiritual conversations.

Can you move outside yourself, constantly finding new words to describe Jesus’s love for us and our love for Him? 

And while you’re at it, find the platforms where those people ready to hear your words, are actually hanging out?

BECOMING AN EXPERT AT INSTANTLY BECOMING AN EXPERT AT ANYTHING

Seal Team Six is the descriptive name given to the most elite clandestine and cross-platform military unit in the United States. 

Each Seal Team consists of 12 members who, at any given stage, are ready to go wheels up in the direction of some of the most remote and inhospitable environments at a moment’s notice.

The best of the best eventually ends up in the most fabled of the four teams, namely Seal Team Six. These are the 12 guys who were not only responsible for rescuing the captain of the hijacked Maersk Alabama in high seas, but who also led the raid on the Pakistani stronghold where Osama Bin Laden was eventually captured and killed.

According to ex Team Six members, to qualify for the team, there are four very basic criteria:

1. They must shoot well.
2. They must move well.
3. They must communicate well.
4. The must be an expert at instantly becoming an expert at anything.

In a world where everything is knowable, and we are only a few clicks away from learning how to do either open-heart surgery or land a 747 passenger airliner, the edge over the next guy has less and less to do with a specific skill or ability.

Unless that ability is the ability to adopt and learn new abilities as you go along.

Now that we are all potential experts at anything, the skill that’s going to set you apart is not the information that you already know, but the ability to find and apply new information on a daily basis.

We need to forget that we were experts once, and need to adopt a different mindset, one in which we are becoming experts at something new every day.

The new leaders won’t know everything, but they’ll be able to find anything, learn anything, and teach anything.

And they won’t need a three year college degree to do it.

It’s your ability to let go of your products of information, and relearn how to navigate the new platforms for investigating, that might just help you succeed.

Given, sitting in front of your screen staring at digits the whole day is not closely comparable to the pressures and pitfalls of being a covert military unit member in the middle of the night in downtown Baghdad. However, if you seriously believe that your work matters, and that you have been destined, at least for now, to make the world a better place through your creative effort, then you also can become an expert at instantly becoming an expert at anything.

Whatever you do for money, or love, make the switch in your mind.

We, and the rest of the world, need you to.

(Source: youtube.com)

EVERYBODY HAS THEIR NINETY-NINE PERCENT. WHAT IS YOURS?

Every artform has its 1%.

Its that one thing everybody thinks is the actual thing, that not only guarantees success, but that we all sit around and do everyday.

Confused?

Example.

Remember the old clichéd saying that ‘genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration’?

Well, that’s just it.

Most people, when they ponder the creative effort, tend to overestimate the 1% inspiration, and grossly under-estimate the 99% perspiration.

When it comes to creativity, ideation and just general genius, it seems as if the general population are misinformed about what the insiders already knew - its about 100 times more hard work and less cool inspo that gets the product shipped, the job done, the client happy, and the money in the bank.

If its the 1% that makes the art seem effortless, elegant and well… sexy, its that 99% that makes it feel like any other job - hard, tiring and relentless.

And let me say it again, every creative effort has its 99%.

For the writers, its 1% inspiration and 99% not being distracted by the intenet.

For the photographers, its 1% inspiration and 99% moving furniture around.

For the designers, its 1% inspiration, and 99% figuring out software.

For the filmmakers, its 1% inspiration and 99% waiting for projects to render.

If its the 1% inspiration that sets you on your way, what’s the other 99% that will eventually get you there?

Write it down somewhere where you can see it every day.

And read it back to yourself the next time you’re surprised that your work feels like actual work.

And the next time.

And the time after that.

“Its not about ideas. Its about making ideas happen.” ~ The 99 Percent.