Just the other day, I was talking with a filmmaker buddy about the state of the video camera offerings available these days and lamenting the fact that no one seems to be building what we really need. I told him that if I knew how to do it, I’d build a camera with a killer chip, canon and nikon lens mount, and an open Raw codec that would work with any of the major editing programs available right out of the box.

Little did I know that Blackmagic Design would release that camera at NAB this week.

I’m not at the show and haven’t actually picked one of these up, but if they release this camera as it’s announced on their website and press offerings, it’s going to be a major game changer.

Here’s a few features:

2.5k sensor
CinemaDNG RAW 12bit Recording
ProRes Recording
SSD Media
SDI 3G output
Ships with Full Copy of DaVinci Resolve

And the price? $2995. Are you kidding me? That’s ridiculous. This is everything filmmakers want the 5D to be for less money. Nuts. I hope they have a high-capacity pipeline for these things because they are going to fly off the shelves. They probably won’t even make it to the shelves.

Now to figure out how I can get my hands on one to play with.

I did something a little outside of my comfort zone this week. I stumbled across a blog article written by a guy who claims to follow Christ. He’s written a few books and has achieved some amount of fame writing about his experiences growing up in a fundamentalist church. I’ve heard him speak before and didn’t really care for what he had to say. Not because his content wasn’t good, but because of the tone he took regarding the people from his past. He read from one of his books and from what I heard he threw them all under the bus, cracked some jokes at their expense and then ran them all over. Not real Christ-like and not enjoyable.

Anyway, as I said, I stumbled across his blog and read an article in which he takes a rather large and well-known church to task and accuses them and specifically their well-known pastor of spiritual abuse – a rather serious accusation.

Here’s where it gets a little unusual.

Generally when I read stuff like this I consider the source and move on. I try not to get caught up in other people’s angry tirades. But in this case I couldn’t help myself.

I don’t know if this guy is right or not. My issue isn’t with his accuracy. He may be dead on, though I doubt it. Here’s why. His only source for these blog entries is one disgruntled former member of the church who admitted to some egregiously sinful behavior while a member there. According to this former member, when everything came out, the church leadership didn’t take it lightly. Not at all. He didn’t like the way they handled it and he left the church.

After reading the article, I’m not sure where I stand on the church’s actions. Mainly because I’m not sure I can believe the source. This individual admitted to some fairly heavy deception and careless, unloving behavior. That doesn’t mean that he’s the next Jeffrey Dahmer, but it does mean that you should figure his ability to be truthful into the equation. He may be right and there may be some terrible things going on in this church, but as a follower of Christ we have to be careful with our words and especially accusations of wrongdoing. You may think that’s just my opinion, but look at what Paul had to say to Timothy about this:

Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. (1 Timothy 5:19 ESV)

This seems fairly black and white. Don’t make charges and accusations willy nilly. Be careful. It doesn’t say that its never okay to question an elder, but it does say that you need to get corroboration before you throw an accusation like that out there for public consumption.

So, I called out my brother. I wrote a comment on his blog and then reached out to him on Twitter. To his credit, he responded but when I shared this scripture with him:

The one who states his case first seems right,

until the other comes and examines him. (Proverbs 18:17 ESV)

he brushed it aside and didn’t address it, choosing instead to continue his attack on his brother in Christ and the church the man pastors.

To be honest, I’ve struggled with my anger on this. It bothers me when people attack others in the name of Christ and it especially bothers me when they disregard scripture that clearly applies to the situation at hand. But mostly I think I’ve been angry because I know I’m not going to win on this one. I may be completely right about this, but it’s not going to change anything because even though this guy will probably keep responding to my tweets, he’s not going to change this behavior. He’s not going to stop posting mean-spirited things about other believers on his blog and he’s going to get paid to write more books in which he’ll make fun of his brothers and sisters in Christ. That stinks, but it has nothing to do with me. Maybe I’ll meet the guy at some point and it’ll go better than what I’ve seen so far. Regardless, God is bigger than all this. He knows what’s right in this situation and he’s sovereign. So it’ll all work out one way or another. Wonder if my brother believes that?

I’m trying to quit wasting time on the internet. Not an easy thing to do. But usually, I’m 20 links deep before I even realize how much time I’m burning. So, I created this little reminder for myself and made it my safari homepage. Hopefully, it’ll keep me thinking a bit about my internet usage.

You can find the full-size version at this link:

My homepage

I’ve been taking stock of my place in life quite a lot recently and realizing that I need to make some changes. I’ve always been pretty easy going and cavalier about life and figured that everything would work out one way or another. In some ways this attitude has served me well. I’m not a real uptight person for the most part and fairly easy to live with – definitely not Mr. Type A Driven Guy at all.

But for all the good that’s come from this laid back look at life, I’ve also missed on some things. I’ve never been much of a planner and that’s been a mistake. I had some general ideas of what I wanted out of life, but nothing really specific. Now, I’m changing that.

I’ve been reading Michael Hyatt’s blog and getting a lot out of it. He offers a free Life Plan ebook if you just sign up to receive daily or weekly email newsletters from him. You can get the book and then cancel your email subscription if you want – though I wouldn’t be quick to cancel if I were you. Regardless, check out his free ebook. It includes everything you need to get your Life Plan started including Word and Excel templates and a great reading list.

I’m working on my plan right now and enjoying it a lot. Let me know what you think about his blog and the Life Plan book if you end up downloading it.

Over and over again in life, I’ve found myself at a place or reckoning, a crossroads, a y in the road. Insert your favorite metaphor. I find myself wondering what in the world I’m supposed to do now. Something to make more money? Something with good working hours? Great benefits? Little travel? Lots of travel? These are of course all the wrong questions.

When I ask myself the big, right, questions – “What would I do for free? What would I do if nobody else ever cared? What would I do if I had a million dollars in the bank right now?,” I always end up in the same place. I want to be an artist.

Now the difficulty is that I’ve never showed a lot of ability in any one area. I’m a pretty good photographer. I’ve made some decent videos along the way, written some catchy songs, penned a few poems, and tried my hand at graphic design. I’ve just never committed to any one expression. And on the other hand, all my life I’ve decided to go with the safe bet – get the degree, pay the bills, work hard, make enough money, don’t chase a foolish dream. Don’t even try.

Now I’ve got a beautiful wife and four amazing kids with one more on the way. They bring me overflowing bucket loads of joy – with a side of responsibilities. So I can’t just run off and chase a foolish dream. I can’t do something truly risky.

So, now what?

Truthfully, I’m happy where I am. I love Watermark and what I’ve learned and experienced here. I don’t want to change that. But I need to find a way to express all of this stuff that’s rolling around in my head. I need to satisfy this longing I have to be an artist – to create. So, I have a plan.

I’m going to write a screenplay. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, but never “got around” to. Well, I’m going to get it done. I’ve got a great idea that’s been simmering for a long time, so I’m going to crank up the heat a bit and get this thing out. It’ll take a while. Six months? More? Not sure. But I’m going to do this.

What can you do? Hold me to this. Ask me about it. Remind me that I’m committed to this. Help me stick to it.

I don’t even care if the thing ever gets shot. I just want to write it and write it as best I can. That will be enough. We’ll see how it turns out.

This weekend I got the opportunity to preach at a small church Watermark is working with. We’re providing leadership, preaching, and music for their services while they decide about their next steps as a church. Their congregation has dwindled down to maybe forty people even though their located in a vibrant area with plenty of young families within a five minute drive. Strange. I don’t know what happened to that congregation to put them on the brink of extinction, but my guess is that it just slowly deteriorated over time. Like a drip of water will wear away the hardest of stones, something wore away this congregation. Not sure what. I doubt they do either.

Regardless, the people we met were kind and engaging. They want their little fellowship to grow and develop but it seems that they don’t know what to do next. Very interesting. I’m guessing there’s quite a few church’s like that out there right now.

I spoke on the Poor in Spirit. That first line in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5,6, and 7) has always troubled me. Why the “poor” in spirit? Why not the “wealthy”, or the “strong”, or the “bright”, in spirit? Why should the poor in spirit get to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. Was it God’s way of making up for their sad lot in life? Was it payback for suffering here on earth? Who were the poor in spirit anyway? I certainly didn’t want to be that. Who wants to be poor? I always wanted to be rich in spirit or wealthy or whatever. Anything but “poor”.

Fool.

It was only recently that I started to get a handle on what this little verse actually means. In the past, I thought that the poor in spirit were a different group of people, set aside and special, made to be spiritually poor or spiritual beggars. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Reading this more closely and looking at the context of who Jesus is talking to and what he’s doing, this passage takes on new meaning.

The poor in spirit are not some set apart group of people that God owes for their sorry lot in life. No. The poor in spirit are all the true believers in the world. Anyone who comes to God empty-handed, realizing they have nothing to offer and everything to receive, they are the poor in spirit. If we come to God showing him all the reasons he should save us, all the good things we’ve done, all the awesome gifts we’ve used for him, he’s not really impressed. And why would he be? He made us. He gave us whatever gifts we have. The fact that we exist at all is due to his design and his pleasure, not our own. We are literally nothing without him, but with him we’re complete. That’s what it means to be poor in spirit.

It’s like the two criminals on the crosses next to Jesus on Golgotha. The first criminal rails at Jesus “Save us all!” The second one says, “We deserve to be here, but he doesn’t. He’s innocent. Jesus, will you remember be in your kingdom?” That second criminal understood that Jesus wasn’t there to perform for him. He also understood that he had nothing to offer Jesus except a request for help. He came to Jesus empty-handed – hopeful, but not demanding. Exactly what Jesus wanted him to do. We are just like these two men. We either demand that God perform for us in the way we want him to or we come to him humbly and hopefully. I think that God wants the second. I’m not sure we can be a Christ-follower if we expect him to perform tricks for us. That just doesn’t work. It’s not poor in spirit.

The challenge for me is to remember all of this and act on it. I still want to perform for God. I still want to earn his favor. When I do that out of appreciation for his saving grace, I’m good. When I do it to hedge my bets and make sure God likes me, I’m in trouble. It’s a fine line. One that I don’t necessarily always walk too well. But I’m getting better at it. Slowly.

So I gave up Twitter and Facebook for Lent. I’m not sure that I learned a whole lot from the experience. I didn’t seize the day more often or learn a new skill with the extra time I had on my hands. But I did notice a few things that I think are worth mentioning.

1. I Relaxed More – For some reason that I’m sure is unhealthy, I feel the need to monitor social media at an alarming rate. I check twitter and FB over and over again throughout the day. I wonder what other people are up to and I look to see if anyone is noticing that “funny” thing I wrote earlier.
“What was that sound?”
“Just my latest tweet blowing up!”

The last 40 days have given me a lot of perspective. I don’t need to know what everyone is doing all the time. I can relax and enjoy where I am and who I’m with.

2. I Enjoy Blogging. Obviously I haven’t been keeping up with this site a ton, but my other site, TeamBrownTown.com has definitely gotten a lot more attention recently. It’s been fun to spend that time working on something rather than just reading stuff. That brings me to my final big point.

3. I Want to be a Producer, Not a Consumer. For whatever reason, I enjoy making and doing new things. I like to create. But when I’m spending south free time doing Facebook and twitter, I’m not really producing. Sure I might write something humorous or useful sometimes, but that’s not the majority of my social media time. No, most of the time I’m stuck on the Social Media Teat just nursing away. Depleting. Consuming. It’s not healthy. In the words of Bernie Mac, “I’m a grown man!” I don’t need to be a consumer. God made me to be a producer. Over the last few weeks I’ve definitely been producing a lot more creative projects and I’ve loved it.

So, now what? Do I leave the Social Media world forever? I don’t think so. There’s definitely a place for it in my life. I just need to make sure I’m not stuck in Consumer land anymore. I’ll probably unfollow and unfriend some folks in the near future. I’ll also probably cut way back on my monitoring efforts. I’ll still tweet but I won’t be checking my twitter feed every few minutes. Not exactly sure how I’ll do that but I’ll start figuring that out tomorrow. Your suggestions are welcome.

Today I was reading in John and stumbled across John 5:13. It’s interesting.  Jesus had just healed a man who had been ailing for 38 years.  Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be well.  When the man said, “Yes,” he was immediately healed.  Jesus told him to pick up his mat and walk.

This all happened on the Sabbath.  When some of the Jewish leaders saw the man they reprimanded him for carrying his mat on the Sabbath (something he hadn’t been able to do for 38 years) and he told them that the man who healed him told him to carry his mat.  They asked him who healed him but the man didn’t know.  Why? Because Jesus slipped away into the crowd before the man could figure out who he was. Jesus did this sort of thing on a number of occasions, especially after healing people.  He would heal someone and then ask them specifically not to tell anyone who had healed them.  Jesus just wasn’t into self-promotion.  He knew his time was coming.  More importantly, he didn’t heal people in order to make a name for himself.  He healed them so that they would be healed.

Every day on Twitter, Facebook, etc., I’m inundated by shameless self-promoters telling me all the great things they’ve done or re-publishing all the great things that others have written about them. I’m tired of it.  In my opinion, if you do what God made you to do and you do it well, you shouldn’t need to promote yourself.  If you’re faithful, God will find a way to promote you.  People will find out about you because of the work you do. You shouldn’t need to promote yourself.  Just do good work and let that speak for you.

I’m about to thin my twitter herd a little.