Finishing a semester feels like finishing a Sunday.<\/p>\n
Every week on Sunday I get up much earlier than usual and prayerfully enter the space where for the next few hours I\u2019m going to be in the ring and fighting for lives, sometimes my own. The battle isn\u2019t against flesh and blood and I\u2019m building people up, not tearing them down, but spiritually<\/em> I can identify with the line in the U2 song, God, Part 2, as I \u201ckick the darkness \u2018till it bleeds daylight.\u201d<\/em>[1]<\/a><\/p>\n I regularly get in my car at the end of the day with the feeling of both deep satisfaction for having been useful to God\u2019s purposes, as well as having left everything, including my blood, sweat and tears, out on the field. Often, I\u2019m broken, and bruised, but not beaten.<\/p>\n In other words, I\u2019ve gone to war.<\/p>\n I was once told by an older pastor that preaching a sermon is like playing a basketball game. Intense. Fun. Life-giving and exhausting at the same time. And there\u2019s always a need for some recovery if you\u2019ve done it right.<\/p>\n Carey Nieuwhof concurs. In a recent blog post he wrote about him preaching a sermon series for the first time after a years-long hiatus, he wrote \u201cpreaching is far more exhausting than I remembered.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n The war is necessary and worth fighting, but as a war it necessarily includes fighting battles.<\/p>\n Steven Pressfield understands that all creative work is a battle. In his book The War Of Art,<\/em> he winsomely and compellingly writes about passion, and inspiration, and creativity, and what a professional artist is and does, and a lot of other things, but mostly he is explicitly and implicitly writing a book about resistance and hard work.<\/p>\n All true art\u2014in which I include writing a sermon, preaching, and even leading\u2014is hard work because there is resistance. And it\u2019s not just the normal \u201cI don\u2019t feel like working\u201d resistance, but the kind that is \u201cevil, for it prevents us from achieving the life God intended when He endowed each of us with our own unique genius.\u201d [3]<\/a><\/p>\n There\u2019s been a lot of this kind of resistance in my schoolwork this semester. I\u2019ve been at war with my NPO, with my reading, and with my writing. But here\u2019s a secret: I love the struggle. I feel like I\u2019m leaving it all out on the field. I\u2019m a fighter, and when I\u2019m fighting like this, when I\u2019m battling resistance, I have deep conviction that I\u2019m going to win.<\/p>\n More importantly, I know that I\u2019m making art.<\/p>\n In last week\u2019s post I mentioned that the definition of leadership is slippery. Art is hard to define, too. My son is in art school, and I get a kick out of asking him to define art because even for him it\u2019s difficult to nail down. But some core definition includes that art is an expression of the artist. It makes an impact. It inspires emotion. It can catalyze action. It sheds new light on, or even changes, something about the world, or about somebody\u2019s worldview.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve always yearned to be an artist, not to draw or paint pictures (which I can\u2019t do) or even write songs (which I can do) but to inspire emotions, activate action, change hearts, and challenge worldviews. To express who God has made me to be so I can make an impact on, and for, others.<\/p>\n So, an enduring question I\u2019ve had through my ministry life is \u201chow can a pastor be an artist?\u201d. Lately I\u2019ve added the word student alongside the word pastor in that question.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s what I want to leave you with in the final post of this semester. You see, what we\u2019re doing isn\u2019t just academia. We aren\u2019t just contributing to an intellectual conversation, as important as that is. There\u2019s something deeper going on here.<\/p>\n We\u2019re creating works of art.<\/p>\n I know it could sound like hubris to believe what we\u2019re doing could inspire wonder, or catalyze action, or change the world, but why else<\/em> would we be fighting through the resistance?<\/p>\n Not just to have a conversation.<\/p>\n We may be ending this semester having left everything we have, including our blood, sweat and tears, out on the field, but at the end of the day I believe it will have been a deeply satisfying fight to have been useful for God\u2019s purposes in other people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n And make no mistake, that\u2019s what each of our NPO\u2019s will do, further God\u2019s purposes in and for others.<\/p>\n I\u2019m so grateful to be a part of a community of artists who are each fighting to answer needs, problems, and opportunities that will make an impact in our world that so desperately needs it.<\/p>\n Keep resisting. Fight hard. Win the war.<\/p>\n It\u2019ll be worth it!<\/p>\n \n \n \n \n [1]<\/a> U2, God, Part 2 (I believe in love), Rattle and Hum, 1988.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> https:\/\/careynieuwhof.com\/6-lessons-from-my-year-long-preaching-hiatus\/<\/p>\n