I know I said a few weeks ago I used to hate that word discipline. But I'm learning that discipline is a good, albeit, not an easy thing. However, the catalyst to move from mediocrity to victory is discipline. Check out Proverbs 5:23
"He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray..."
Death due to lack of discipline...sounds pretty over-dramatic, but when you think about alot of the foolish ways people die, it often times boils down to lack of personal discipline.
So back to my subject: Collaboration.
Several weeks back, my wife and son were out of town visiting family and I had a chance to jam with a few other musicians. It was then and there I started remember something I love about music that I seldom have the opportunity to enjoy at this point in my life: creating music on the fly.
During my college experience, it was a regular occurrence. (Oh how I wish I could go back and tell my younger self to drink that time in, because of all the elements of college I would miss - this would be at the top of the list.) It didn't matter the genre - though for us it was often jazz or jam rock. It was more about the give and take, the introduction of ideas, the tension of trying to refine those ideas into cohesive thoughts and musical expressions that would communicate to a listener. It sounds very lofty when I put it in those terms, but for us, it was just doing what we knew to do and trying to do it as best we could. Man, it was fun.
So here I was with a few other guys, all of us in our 30s, far removed from the collegiate scene. Yet the process was still the same. Taking raw ideas and refining them, trying to put them into cohesive expressions that could, in this case, relate the idea of worship to Jesus. It was the first time this particular group of musicians had gathered together. There were alot of ideas, several wheels off moments, but a few really 'magical' moments I hope we can come back and explore in deeper detail soon!
Then, this last week, my pastor and I met on two different occasions to talk about some upcoming messages and events where we needed to collaborate in order to prepare well. It was pretty cool that we were both on the same page for a lot of the elements that are going to be a part of those different events. We were tracking on the same page at around the same pace. We've been working together now for four years and it feels like we are arriving at that place where we can begin to anticipate the other's ideas and suggestions. It's a good place for the two of us to be. It makes the process of collaboration go a little smoother.
Last night, my close friend and I started going back and forth on an idea for a graphic for something our church is doing in october. The funny thing we started off in completely different creative places with our ideas of where things were going to go visually. And there was an unexpressed tension between the two ideas. Don't worry, like I said, this creator is a very close friend and we both recognize that, so I'm not worried he's going to 'take his ball and go home' so to speak.
But see, here's the beauty of collaboration and creation. Creation comes from a very deep and personal place in our hearts and minds that's hard to articulate. So collaboration on those creative ideas becomes very tense at times. The internal dialogue: "How can I give up my idea? I like it and I think it's the best!" becomes faced with the stark reality that someone, who's creative interpretations you trust are in direct contrast to yours. Is one person right and one wrong? Maybe. There are tough questions one must ask when creating and collaborating, some personal and some professional:
Personal
"Am I being selfish and just wanting my way?"
"Am I missing out on a really great idea because I've got tunnel vision?"
Professional
"What does each idea communicate?"
"Which idea communicates the emotion we want better?"
"Which one is more accessible to our audience?"
Even before those questions, it's important to know what the emotion you want to communicate, or as one creative team I've studies calls it: What is the 'win'?
All this to say collaboration is incredibly important to creating good, accessible artistic expression. Especially in the church where the idea is to express the fullness of Christ in all we do. And while collaboration is important, it's not easy. It can be full of difficult conversations, dying to self, humility, tension, and disappointment that my idea wasn't the one used in the end. But if our hearts are humble before the Lord and we recognize the goal is to give God the glory rather than our saying "Hey, I made that" then we have successfully created something that will have it's intended affect on it's intended audience.
One last humbling thought: (Hey, it's my blog, I can roll like this if I want!)
Who am I to be so self-centered with my creative ideas? The only one who's ideas are not in need of refinement or replacement is The Creator...
So yeah, I need to swallow that pill of humility and keep on creating for His glory.
Collaboration:
Step outside of your own world and into the bigger world of creativity.
Ready.Go.
