Secretary of Agriculture – Ed Schafer

It’s been quite a while since I’ve updated. Sorry for the long silence. I traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo this summer to film an orphan sponsorship program. And then I just got back from a 3-week filming excursion to Peru, Costa Rica, and Honduras. So all that to say, it’s been a busy year, and I hope to update this blog more often once things calm down.

But in the mean time, I did just want to mention some really great news that I heard today. I am a proud North Dakotan at heart, and was excited to find out that the former governor of North Dakota, Ed Schafer, was just nominated to the US Cabinet as Secretary of Agriculture.

Check out the White House Press Release.

This makes me excited and proud on so many levels. I’m proud to have a North Dakotan nominated for such an important and influential office. I’m excited to have a man who led our state so well take on this national leadership. And really, I’m just excited to have someone that I know to be trustworthy and of high character in this role of national leadership and influence. He and his wife Nancy are incredible people, and I’m very excited for both of them. Congratulations Ed and Nancy!

 

Personal Retreat Day

I have mentioned KRAs (Key Result Areas) before in this blog, and they have been a huge help for me this past year to stay on target with my goals and needed areas of growth. However, one thing I have not mentioned as much is probably one of the most important aspects of the KRA process – the personal retreat day I do each month.

It is simply a day that I take each month to quiet my soul, not answer the phone, not answer e-mail, not do tasks around the office, not do tasks around the house – but just temporarily ignore the busyness around me and spend time with God, prayerfully re-analyzing my life priorities – where I see God taking me, who He’s calling me to be, and what areas of my life I need to grow in, change, and nurture.

It’s like a life realigning every month, and I just did it today. I had mistakenly skipped last month’s personal retreat day in the midst of all the busyness, and that was definitely a mistake.

It’s hard to even describe the degree to which this focused time each month can cut through the chaos of life, and bring me back to the big picture. It removes the clutter so that I can see the blueprints on the table again, and remember what it was all about in the first place.

I highly recommend doing this. I’m blessed that personal retreat days are built into my schedule at work – but even if I wasn’t allotted the time, I’d still carve out the time for them. They’re that important. I just drift too much, and so if I don’t take focused time to pull myself back on the right track, I wind up going on so many pointless tangents. Not good.

If any of this strikes a chord with you, feel free to ask me more about it. I’m a big advocate of this, and would highly recommend it. Today was the greatest testimony to that. I feel so refreshed, refocused, and ready to press on again.

 

Meaning(less?)

Everyone wants a meaningful life. They want the day-to-day events of life to have some kind of overarching theme or underlying purpose. Though some may just go through the motions of existence, I think that we all want those motions to fit into a bigger picture – to find some construction and understanding of life’s individual events that gives meaning to the whole.

The way that I often find meaning in the day-to-day events of life is through my view that God is using all of those events to shape me, use me, and bring about His will for me. Suddenly a bad day at work is so much more than a bad day – it is an opportunity for God to teach me patience. Suddenly a conversation I have with a friend is so much more than a conversation – it is an opportunity for God to use me in their life. A rejection letter from a grad school is an opportunity for God to redirect my path and take me to where He wants to take me. An acceptance letter is an affirmation that I am on His right path for me. In everything, He is behind the scenes using the daily events of my life to guide and direct me, and to bring about an overarching story for my life that carries meaning and significance.

While this is all well and good, I think that the greatest challenge to anyone’s understanding of a meaningful life comes when events happen to them that just flat-out seem meaningless. Where, try as they might, they simply cannot fit the events into the rest of their life experience in such a way that they find meaning and purpose in them. Sure, I can accept a rejection letter from grad school as simply a means for God to direct me down a different path, and sure I can still trust Him that He is in control here, taking me in the direction He wants to take me…

…but could I accept the murder of a loved one as an event that carries that same meaning and purpose? Could I accept a senseless act of violence as something that God desired for me and planned to use in my life? I have never had such an event happen to me, but after meeting so many people for whom these kinds of events have happened (tsunami survivors, Sudanese refugees), and after hearing so many stories about other people for whom these events have happened (family members of Virginia Tech shootings, people in Greensburg, Kansas who lost 95% of their city to a tornado last week)…after hearing all these stories, I just start to ask myself, “How would I respond to these tragedies if they touched me personally?”

Events that happen to me personally carry the most weight in my personal understanding of the world, and if I had events happen to me like this that seemed so senseless and hurt so much, could I in all honesty walk away from those events confident that there is a God in control of the universe who has a plan for me, who loves me, and who is using the events of my life to bring about a meaningful existence? Could I take something that is senseless, tragic, and at times downright evil, and could I fit it into my life experience as an event that carries meaning? Could I even hold onto my belief that all the other events that populate my life carry meaning too if this one is glaring at me seeming so meaningless?

Maybe I ought to read the book of Job in the Bible right now, as these are no doubt some of the issues he wrestled through when God allowed all his wealth and all his children to be taken from him overnight.

Senseless and meaningless. It would be hard to respond to such a tragedy as anything but that, I would think. And yet I am reminded of some of the Christians I met in Sudan – people who lost their entire villages to bombs or rebel armies, and who still came out feeling that God had a meaning and a purpose for them simply because He had spared their life, rather than allowing them to be massacred with the rest.

I don’t know what all of the answers are. I don’t know what’s the best way to find meaning in tragedy and suffering. But I do know that our meaning cannot be found solely in what God does in our day-to-day life. Sure, some meaning can come from this. Family relationships are the hugest blessings. Friendships are to be cherished. The blessings and affirmations that He chooses to pour out on our lives every day should be valued and given thanks for…

…but at the same time, these things are all fleeting, and can leave us completely empty if we find all our meaning in them. Family and friends can be lost. The blessings and affirmations in our day-to-day life might not always be prevalent or apparent.

Meaning cannot be found solely in what God does in our day-to-day life…but it must also be rooted in what He has done for our eternal life. Through the resurrection of Christ, those who put their faith in Him have our meaning and our hope set in Heaven. We are promised an inheritance that will never perish, spoil, or fade – and of this we can be sure. Through the suffering and resurrection of Christ, we can await a place where suffering is no more – where evil is no more, where tragedy no longer strikes. No more senseless killings or meaningless losses. We can look forward to a place where God can fully display His love and His goodness – where meaning is sure, and where hope is ever-present.

A few thoughts…

 

Resurrected Hope

I made this film last year to raise money for Sudanese refugees in Africa.

 

I’m still alive

Haven’t updated this blog in a long time. Sorry about that – I’ve been busy. Filming in the Middle East in February. Filming around Europe in March. Trying to get my life back in order here in the US in April. Endless activity, and not much time to update the blog.

It has been too long since I’ve written though, and so I wanted to at least put my foot in the door again – get something up here that hopefully helps me get back in the swing of things. So check back again from time to time, and hopefully I’ll have more frequent entries up here going forward…

 

Faith

Faith – noun – complete trust or confidence in someone or something.

In our work-ethic-centric, do-it-yourself, self-sufficient American culture, we tend to place a lot of value on working hard at things and seeing results. If you’re down on your luck, then pull yourself up by your bootstraps, try hard, and you’ll succeed. We live in the land of opportunity after all.

And really, there is much to be said about hard work and strategic planning. The reason I do KRAs is because I want to be intentional about life – to approach it with a strong work ethic.

But all of this must be taken with a grain of salt. Because the reality is that no matter how hard we try at things, and no matter how much we plan, there are always going to be things that are out of our hands – things that we simply have no control over no matter what we do.

And so I am thankful that there is this notion of faith – having “complete trust or confidence” in God – remembering that no matter how many situations we come up against that are out of our hands, they are not out of God’s hands, and we can have complete trust and confidence in Him to work the situations out to His desired outcomes. He’s got a stronger work ethic than we ever will, and he’s got a nice dose of omnipotence too, so he’s more than capable to deal with the things that we cannot.

My prayer is that I could live my life always handing over the wheel to He who is more than able – planning and strategizing, but always under the umbrella of God’s ultimate control, and always freely trusting Him to intervene whenever He wants – trusting Him even more than I trust myself.

I was just reflecting and journaling on the notion of faith this afternoon, and right after I had the revelation of what faith was and how it applied to me in my life right now, I got a phone call about a situation that had been completely out of my control – getting permission to use a song in a movie I’m making. I had been waiting for weeks on getting the permission, and eventually just had to turn to faith and prayer that the permission would come through, because there was nothing more I could do in my own power to make it happen. And it is so fitting that God came through and brought the permission right as I was coming to this realization. And I’m not even exaggerating. The phone literally rang within seconds of me writing out my revelation about faith.

In any case, faith has been a big theme of these past couple weeks, because there have been a number of situations that are completely out of my hands. I am a strategic planner, but with some of these situations, it has just come to a point where there is absolutely nothing I can do in my own power to make things happen. And so I just need to have faith. It’s not always easy, and I may well get impatient, but I must never loose heart.

I can have complete trust in God, because God is completely trustworthy.

 

The Power of Nothing

Just wanted to let you know about an exciting new program that I’ve been involved in developing a video for. It’s called LIVEº (Pronounced “Live to the Power of Nothing”), and it is basically a Christian faith-based Peace Corps. Teams of 10-12 people will head out for two years to some of the most underserved areas of the world, they will live among the poor, help meet their physical needs, and assist local churches in reaching people with the gospel.

In 2007, LIVEº will launch two teams – one to serve people affected by 1994’s genocide in Rwanda, and one to serve the poor in India. 2007 will be LIVEº’s first year, and so you can get in on the ground floor right now. Over the next couple years, the plans are to expand this to many more teams serving all over the world. Exciting stuff.

Check out www.powerofnothing.org for more information, and feel free to contact me with questions about it.

 

Happy New Year

I just spent the day today putting together my KRAs (Key Result Areas) for 2007, and it was a very good time to prioritize my year.

As I look back over 2006, I am very encouraged to see that I met all of my main KRAs for the year. My biggest KRAs were to get involved in a local church and stay involved there, to get competent enough at Logic Pro (music composition computer program) to begin writing the music scores for my movies, and to develop more of a balanced relational life outside of work, rather than just being a workaholic camped up in my office 24/7. There were many other KRAs I had for the year, but these were the big three, and I’m proud to say that I accomplished all of them. It might not sound like a big deal, but if you saw where I was at on these issues at the beginning of this year, you’d be amazed I came this far too.

End of 2005, I was stressed, weary, depressed, lonely, and I spent almost every night and weekend at the office. It wasn’t all bad – I was totally in awe at all the experiences I had had that year with traveling to Sudan, the Tsunami impact zones, all over East Africa, and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. But all the same, I was a first class workaholic, and I didn’t know any other way to live. And though I knew that kind of lifestyle wasn’t sustainable over the long haul, I didn’t know how to break out of it either.

Well, there have been ups and downs this year, but I can truly say that I feel like a different person now. So much more balanced, and really, so much more human. There is more to life than work, and I’m so glad to be partaking in the rest of life now too.

Now, my 2007 KRAs are largely geared around preparing me for where I see myself headed in the next couple years. This involves preparations to make another piano CD next year, preparations for grad school in 2008, and preparations for my ultimate life ambition of directing feature films. And then my biggest KRA for the year is to make my relationship with God my chief grounding in life, and what I turn to for everything.

There are many other KRAs, but along with continued focus on relationships with others, I’d say these are the big five.

Happy New Year to all, and to all a good night!

 

Rome Reflections #2 – St. Peter’s Basilica

One of the things I was most excited about in going to Rome was seeing Vatican City – the smallest nation in the world, in which the Pope lives and runs the Catholic church. The nation exists within the walls of Rome, is home to only 850 people, is less than a quarter of a square mile in size, and yet governs over a billion Catholics worldwide – nearly one sixth of the world’s population. I can hardly even wrap my mind around this.

Ever since Pope John Paul II died last year and over 3 million Catholic pilgrims descended on Rome during his dying days and funeral, I have been completely fascinated with the Pope and Vatican City. Not only was this tiny nation the central hub for over a billion people worldwide, but it housed Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel too.

God and Adam’s hands are probably the most well-known image from the Sistine Chapel.

The Sistine Chapel was probably what I was most excited to see in Vatican City, but when I arrived, I was surpised to find out that my greatest inspiration came not from Michelangelo’s painting, but in fact from his architecture.

St. Peter’s Basilica rises over St. Peter’s Square.

I don’t know if my words or even my above photograph can do justice to the absolute beauty and majesty of St. Peter’s Basilica. As I stood in St. Peter’s square and looked up at this church, I felt like I was not looking at a building so much as a picture of Heaven. It was transcendent, overpowering. It seemed not like a collection of brick and stone, but an embodiment of spiritual majesty – like God had carved this building from a single stone, lowered it down from Heaven just as it was, and set it on earth to give us a picture of who He was.

So much of the power of this building came from simply standing by it. The scale of the building was overwhelming. You could take the whole building in with a single glance, and yet it seemed to stretch on forever. It felt close to you, and yet at the same time it felt like it was miles away, rising from the horizon. The church rose in front of you, and yet the courtyard surrounded you. You were overwhelmed by what you saw, and yet you were brought near to it too.

As I write this all out, I realize that maybe part of the reason this building was so moving for me is because it is a picture of my relationship with God. As I stand before His holiness and transcendent majesty, it is overwhelming. He is distant and so much more glorious than I will ever be. And yet He is near. I can fall in awe at his majesty, and yet He brings me into His courtyard and into His presence. He is distant and powerful, and yet near and personal.

I don’t know if this was what Michelangelo, Bernini and several other architects intended as they designed the church and courtyard, but it is the reaction that I had to it. And I’m so inspired by Michelangelo anyway, that when I was reflecting on all of this in St. Peter’s Square, and my Mom then told me that Michelangelo had designed the dome on the top of the basilica, I just started tearing up. It was like 2,000 years of Christian history suddenly became less distant and more near. Bernini designed the courtyard 300 years ago. Michelangelo designed the dome 500 years ago. Rome adopted Christianity 1700 years ago. Peter was crucified for his faith 1900 years ago. And Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead 2000 years ago. That time was distant, and yet it was suddenly near. I was overwhelmed.

I have never cried at a work of architecture before, but that all changed at St. Peter’s Basilica. I am so thankful to Michelangelo and Bernini for brining my heart to awe and worship, and my only hope is that my art can do the same thing for others.

 

Rome Reflections #1 – Introduction

I have always been fascinated with Rome. The chariot races in the Circus Maximus, the gladiator battles in the Colosseum. The persecution of Christians, and the eventual adoption of Christianity. Caesar’s palace and Vatican City. The emperor, the Pope, and Michelangelo. A city that once controlled most of the known world, and an empire that fell.

This city has always been a mild obsession of mine, and last week, I was finally able to satisfy that obsession with a week-long jaunt within its walls. I wanted to update my blog while on vacation in Rome, but alas, I was too busy taking in the city to write about the city. However, now that I’m back and have all the pictures loaded on my computer, I hope to update my blog every few days with pictures and reflections from the trip. I hope you enjoy them.

Dave in foreground. St. Peter’s Basilica in background.