Created by the late Jim Henson and beloved by a generation raised on their 1976-1981 television variety show and subsequent movies, the Muppets return to the big screen courtesy of cowriter-producer-star Jason Segel (a member of that generation). Lovingly crafted, amusingly self-referential and deliriously silly, “The Muppets” isn’t just true to its tradition. It’s true to a contemporary world deserving of quality family films but too often populated with the likes of “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked.” It’s a corrective, not a bout of nostalgia.

Segel stars as Gary, a cheerful, small-town guy who lives with his brother Walter. Walter looks, well, like a Muppet. No one remarks on this much – though a photo from the brothers’ high-school prom catches Walter’s date in a hilarious double take – until the pair, along with Gary’s girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams), visit the now-closed Muppet studio in Hollywood. When they learn of a nefarious developer’s plan to take over the property, Walter convinces Kermit the Frog to come out of retirement and put on a studio-saving telethon.

Walter finds his true place in the process, but that’s about the extent of the lesson-learning in “The Muppets.” Ever since the episode featuring the tale of the grasshopper and the ant, in which the grasshopper moves to Florida and the ant gets stepped on, it’s been clear that this group is hardly interested in the moral of the story. That anti-tradition is carried on in “The Muppets.” Although Kermit is given to inspirational speeches, it’s notable that during one of them he’s flattened against the wall by an opening door.

Instead of lessons, we mostly get nonsense. Animal in anger management. Chris Cooper, as the evil developer, breaking into a gangster rap. Chickens doing a dance routine to a Cee Lo Green song (we can only assume it’s called “Cluck You”). Yes, occasionally, incidentally, a lesson is learned. As Walter tells Gonzo at one point, “When I was a kid and saw you recite ‘Hamlet’ while jumping your motorbike through a flaming hoop, it, well, it made me feel like I could do anything.”

The holiness of this nonsense – the spiritual joy it brings – can be difficult to quantify. As Frederick Buechner wrote in “The Hungering Dark,” “Joy is a mystery because it can happen anywhere, anytime, even under the most unpromising circumstances, even in the midst of suffering, with tears in its eyes.” I happened to see “The Muppets” a few hours after attending a wake, one marking a particularly unexpected and senseless death. If we have such nonsensical grief in our lives, doesn’t it stand that God provides nonsensical joy as a counter? A time to weep, and a time to laugh? Holy nonsense blows on the fading embers of our soul, bringing it back to glowing life.

That’s not to say this nonsense is only palliative. It also points to the world of which we live in hope, a restored creation where brokenness, strife and grief are nowhere to be found. In their place, filling that welcome vacuum, there surely will be room for the silly alongside praise for the sublime.

We’re far afield from the Muppets now, but maybe not so far as it might seem. “As long as there are singing frogs and joking bears,” Walter says at one point, “the world can’t be such a bad place after all.” There’s more to it, of course – much more – but the holy nonsense of the Muppets is a very good start.
_________________

Josh Larsen is editor of www.ThinkChristian.net, where this review originally appeared. He also writes about movies at www.LarsenOnFilm.com and at Facebook.com/larsenonfilm.

Preacher opens with Gerard Butler playing drug-dealing, biker-gang criminal Sam Childers leaving prison…again. He is picked up by his long-suffering wife who has news for Sam. Due to a new life transformation, she is no longer stripping for a living. He asks her, “You found Jesus now?” and she replies, “He found me.”

With no desire of changing his own life, Sam continues down the dirty road he started years ago only to find what we already know – that it is a dead end. He finally surrenders his life to Jesus himself, which opens a door to a whole new lifestyle for the man. He picks up a construction job and stays away from the bars. He becomes a family man who attends church on a regular basis, but something is still missing. Sam decides to go on a short term mission trip to East Africa to help repair destroyed homes by civil war. While there, he sees the atrocities of this war and the effect that is was having on the children, many becoming orphans.

Soon, Sam is traveling back and forth from his home in Pennsylvania and breaks ground for an orphanage where it’s most needed—in the middle of territory controlled by a renegade militia that forces youngsters to become soldiers before they even reach their teens. Despite his best efforts to build something good, the soldiers destroy the camp. Fortunately, Sam knows a thing or two about fighting and guns. Determined to save as many children as possible, Sam raises his own small army, the Angels of East Africa rescue organization.

While technically not a “Christian” movie, Preacher preaches an inspiring message. It takes a route not followed by Christian film makers, and for that reason, many Christians will stay home instead of watching this film. This is a shame as Preacher shows a much more realistic portrayal of an imperfect person turning to salvation but is still a flawed human being like the rest of us.

Director Marc Forster, known for Monster’s Ball and Finding Neverland, chooses to portray the surroundings in East Africa as they were. It is a violent movie, but not to the extreme. It isn’t larger than life. Just like in the real world, there is plenty of foul language, especially in the beginning of the film, but it only serves to show the true change in Sam’s character when he becomes a Christian. What is most refreshing is that how realistic the whole story is played out. In the beginning of the film, the family lives in a small worn out mobile home and then moves into a much nicer home, but not overly nice. The family still struggles with money. They still fight from time to time. Things aren’t perfect. The controversial film also takes on the debate questioning if violence only serves to create more violence. From what I can tell, these children don’t stand a chance without Sam.

Preacher compounds more than 30 years into a 2 hour film, although it is hard to tell since nobody but Paige, Sam’s daughter, ages. Butler does an amazing job of hiding his Scottish accent. He shares the screen with Michelle Monaghan who plays his no-nonsense wife, Lynn. Monaghan plays her strong, able to stand her own ground against her sometimes abusive husband. Kathy Baker is understated as Sam’s mother who never stopped praying for him. In some ways, she is the little old lady we all know, but is stronger than they let on. Madeline Carroll plays Sam’s daughter Paige who struggles with thoughts that her father loves the children in Africa more than herself.

Machine Gun Preacher is difficult to watch at times and is compounded by the fact that is all true and this situation in Africa still exists today. It also challenges the viewer to wonder if they are following their true calling or not.

Cast: Gerard Butler, Michelle Monaghan, Michael Shannon, Kathy Baker, Souleymane Sy Savane, Madeline Carroll
Rating: R

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Jeffrey Totey is a pop culture enthusiast, founder of the Writer of Pop website, a future screenwriter (aren’t we all?) and former director of Acts of God Drama Troupe in Everett, Washington. He is a student of television, movies and more. He has written six full length plays and numerous sketches.

Back before home video devices were invented, Disney used to re-release their animated movies into theaters about every seven years. It was a brilliant plan. Disney would spend a small amount of advertising for a movie that had already been paid for and had already made a profit, only to do it again for the next generation of viewers. Now that nearly every home owns a Blue-ray or DVD player, movie companies have to come up with new gimmicks to find a reason to re-release their films. Last year, Disney tried this new plan out with a double bill of Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in the 3D format in preparation for the release of Toy Story 3. Next up – Beauty and the Beast. With today’s new technology, 3D home versions can’t be far behind. It’s the circle of life I guess.

It’s interesting to see how Disney markets a story said to be inspired by biblical stories and Shakespeare’s Hamlet, to various audiences. I recently saw a promo on the Cartoon Network that features all and funny and cute scenes of the movie but none of the scary stuff. Parents of small ones that want to see this film (and haven’t seen the film themselves) should note that even with its G rating, the film has some dark moments. At one point, we see two lion cubs singing about how they “Can’t Wait to Be King” in a bright technicolor background and the next we’re taken to a dark cave where hyenas are chomping on parts of a zebra. You would never find THAT in a Winnie the Pooh movie.

Since the original version of The Lion King came out in 1994, this isn’t actually a review of the movie itself but rather a commentary on biblical truths (intentional or unintentional) that can be found in it. Some will argue that the film embraces reincarnation or new age thinking and that can be valid as well if you choose to look at it that way. The film also had its share of controversies over the years including a cut of the original VHS and LaserDisc release of the film. In it, it appears as if the word “SEX” might have been embedded into the dust flying in the sky when Simba flops down. This made headlines as some activists alleged that the this was a subliminal message intended to promote sexual promiscuity (as if sex needed any help promoting itself). Disney animators stated that the letters spelled “SFX” a common abbreviation of “special effects.” At any rate, read into to movie what you will, but the following are some similarities found in the Bible that one might share with their family members:

The Birth of Christ
The opening sequence, it appears to be a re-telling of the nativity story. It’s a beautiful scene that still brings tears to my eyes. The music, (written by Elton John and musical score by Hans Zimmer), starts out calm as the images show the early morning in Africa with animals awakened to the news that a new lion prince has been born. All animals great and small make their way to Pride Rock for a ceremony. Mufasa, the reigning king, is standing there alongside his mate Sarabi, the Joseph and Mary of the story. The mammals on land represent the shepherds, the birds or the air represent angels. Rafiki, the wise baboon, represents the wise men. Rafiki blesses the cub and lifts Simba up for all to see and worship. The music swells. The crowd bows down in obedience and honor. Black out. That sequence alone is worth the price of admission.

God and Man
The relationship between Mufasa and his son Simba can be seen as a representation of our relationship with God. In this sense, we are Simba, Mufasa is God. Like Simba, we tend to follow the rules of our father one minute, and then go down the Elephant Graveyard on our own the next. We know that we are born of royalty but struggle with the boundaries that keep us in line. Whenever Simba wanders off the “straight and narrow path,” his father finds him and leads him back home.

Later in the film, Simba find himself in the middle of a stampeded of wildebeest. Just like Jesus dying on the cross to save us from our sins, Mufasa risks his own life to save his son. Even later, an older Simba feels that he is all alone, but the voice of Musfasa again speaks to him through the stars above. He tells Simba to look at his reflection in the water. As he does so, he realizes, for the first time, that he looks like his father just as Bible tells us that we too were made in the image of God. Simba is also assured by Mufasa, that even though he cannot see him, he is still with his son. We are never alone and God speaks to us with a still small voice.

Satan
Scar, Mufasa’s jealous brother, is much like Lucifer, the former archangel in the bible before being tossed into hell. Scar hates Mufasa and his “little brat.” Like Satan, Scar befriends the friendless and speaks lies to them. He makes promises he has no intention of keeping. His is evil through and through. Shenzi, Banzai, Ed and the other hyenas represent Satan’s demons who do much of his dirty work.

In the scene where Mufasa risks his life to save Simba, it is revealed that Scar is responsible (spoiler alert) for Mufasa’s death, much like Satan is said to have rejoiced when Jesus died on the cross. Mufasa also convinces Simba that it is the cub’s fault that his father is dead and that he should run away. But at the end of the movie, Mufasa is attacked by his own henchmen and is thrown into his own hell.

The Good Samaritans
Convinced that he caused Mufas’s death, Simba takes flight and meets Timon, a meerkat, and Pumba, a warthog. Seeing that Simba is still a small cub and not able to take care of himself, the two embrace their enemy and take care of his needs, much like the Good Samaritan story in the Bible. Unfortunately, the well-meaning fiends teach Simba the phrase, “Hakuna Matata” which is interpreted as “no worries” and stretched to mean “no responsibilities.” When Simba’s childhood friend, Nala, finds him and tells him how the Pride Lands are falling apart under Scar’s leadership, Simba chooses to follow the new mantra and not get involved.

The Apostle
Rafiki can also be seen as the apostle Paul, who warns the Christian churches where they were going wrong in their ministries and allowing sin in their congregations. Rafiki, like iron sharpening iron, reminds Simba whose child he is and what his true responsibilities are. Between the words of Nala, Rafiki and Mufasa himself, Simba realizes his true calling and comes back to the Pride Lands to assume responsibility for his father’s tribe, much like we are called to do.
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Jeffrey Totey is a pop culture enthusiast, a contributing writer for Examiner.com, a future screenwriter (aren’t we all?) and former director of Acts of God Drama Troupe in Everett, Washington. He is a student of television, movies and more. He has written six full length plays and numerous sketches. Follow Jeffrey at writerofpop.blogspot.com.

However, it’s always challenging to know what to give to newlyweds. This couple have their household already set up, so I don’t think they need towels or dishes. I knew that this dear couple probably considered my gift of song to be their wedding gift; but I still wanted to do something more for them.

Later on, I asked my son’s opinion on what card (funny or sentimental) to choose for them and he said, “You know, I really think they would like something that you made them instead.” How is it that in the midst of giving a song, I’d overlooked the obvious choice of making them a gift?

My teenage son is a very clever, so I took his words as a directive. I looked for the perfect periwinkle beaded photo frame, scanned through some photos of the couple and began working on a pencil sketch combining the song lyric I’d written and sketched an adaptation of the photo that another friend had taken of the couple several months before.

(Here is a photo of the finished pencil sketch of my friends that I placed in a pretty beaded frame. I think that they are going to like it!)

click image for larger size

The gifts we are given are the tools of creativity. The work accomplished with these God given talents are needed in the world. We only need to remember when we have the opportunity to use these gifts – we need to use our hands

Gifts like this are needed for weddings, funerals, and even in the commonness of a nondescript Tuesday afternoon. Maybe creativity is especially needed in the midst of the every day?

There is joy in giving our gifts to others: to celebrate, to remember and to bless.
It’s my hope that my choice to use my hands will help my friends celebrate their wedding day and each day. On a global scale, creativity helps all of us remember the power of love and to know what a blessing our lives can be – if we choose to use our hands.

Ideas to ponder: What are some ways you can use your gifts to bless others? How does living to use your hands make a difference in your corner of the world?
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Tara Lamont Eastman is a friendly, rock the boat idealist who lives with her husband and two teenage children in south western NY. She loves to write, paint, sing and dance through life. She works in youth and family ministry and creative arts. You can follow Tara’s continuing story at her blog: lamont-uphill.blogspot.com

But after seeing “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” an artful mix of sci-fi speculation and cinematic technology, it struck me that these sorts of monkey movies will always be with us. Few film genres so wildly reveal how mankind has gotten the dominion thing wrong.

The original “Planet of the Apes” suggested this with its shocker ending, in which it is revealed that Charlton Heston hasn’t been trapped on some strange planet inhabited by intelligent simians – but on a future Earth where the primates have taken over.

“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” unveils how this came to be. Born in a lab where a controlled virus gave him uncommon intelligence, a chimpanzee named Caesar is raised as a human child by a well-meaning scientist (Franco). As an adult, however, Caesar is taken away to a primate pound of sorts, where regular abuse begins to foster resentment, hatred and eventually the seeds of revolution.

Of course, the entire “Apes” franchise is an offshoot of 1933’s glorious “King Kong,” one of the cinema’s true classics. Brute nature may succumb to human hubris in the end, but thanks to the way Kong becomes the emotional center of the story, we see this not as triumph, but tragedy. Taken together – and with all the ape-centric movies in between – these films chart both how we exploit creation and the allegorical price we pay for doing so.

But aren’t these movies really only worth considering at the level of allegory? What reality – what actual neglect of stewardship – do they reflect?

It’s interesting that this summer also saw the release of “Project Nim,” a documentary which revisits an experiment in the 1970s where a chimpanzee was raised as a human in New York City. According to this account, things did not end well.

Also in the real world, a recent New York Times opinion piece opposed invasive research on great apes. Roscoe G. Bartlett, a Republican representative from Maryland who used to work with simian subjects as a physiologist at the Navy’s School of Aviation Medicine, writes that “in the years since, our understanding of its effect on primates, as well as alternatives to it, have made great strides, to the point where I no longer believe such experiments make sense – scientifically, financially or ethically.”

Then there is the most recent chapter in the ghastly story of a woman whose face was torn off by a pet chimpanzee. She’s recovering from what appears to be successful face-transplant surgery, but the horror of this particular episode of human-ape interaction lingers.

These tales – fictional and otherwise – tweak our guilt over failing at biblical stewardship in a very specific area: our relationship with one of earth’s higher creatures. Yet they also reveal how we’ve failed at caring for creation in general. In response to one of the first requests God made of us, we’ve often not only neglected his world, but abused it.

And we know it, as these films – flickers of our deep guilt and fear – readily attest. The monkeys might as well take over, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” suggests. Perhaps they would do a better job.

Writing for First Things about his interaction with nature of the backyard variety, Russell E. Saltzman recently said that “the wild, with everything else, was created for Man. But for what? Being God’s creation, the wild is not ours to exploit beyond excess, but neither is it to be worshiped. We are, I would suggest, meant to observe, enjoy, describe and, likely, give an account of what we’ve done with it.”

If these monkey movies offer a sort of self accounting, then we haven’t done very well.
_________________

Josh Larsen is editor of www.ThinkChristian.net, where this article originally appeared. He also writes about movies at www.LarsenOnFilm.com and at Facebook.com/larsenonfilm.

It’s the unity of Christian believers in worship.

The Greek word sumphoneo, where we get our modern English word Symphony is used to describe being in agreement, in unison, in one accord, to speak together, to concur with one another.

Jesus said, “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst.” (Matt.18:19-20)

Evidently, agreement creates power: the power of answered prayer, the power of the Presence of God.

The Greek word sumphonia, which is directly related to sumphoneo, means “to sound together, accordant, harmonious, Symphony, concert of instruments, music.” Its synonyms are humnos (a hymn, a religious metrical composition), psallo (to make melody by the twitching and twanging of strings, to sing), and ode (a chant).

There are two Scriptures which use these exact words in sequence, written by the Apostle Paul, as he was encouraging the Church to participate in these activities when they came together.

“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.” (Eph. 5:18-21)

And here’s the second one:

“Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” (Col. 5:16)

Coming together with music is not only a spiritual command, but an opportunity to participate in something profound. When we do this, we apparently tap into an extra dimension, something not at all ordinary, something unusual and powerful.

According to the Scriptures, we are encouraged to do this through the activity of singing and making music through composed and spontaneous songs and the use musical instruments.

“Yet You are holy, O Thou who art enthroned upon (literally, inhabit) the praises of Israel.” (Ps. 22:3)

God inhabits the praises of His people.

When Matthew 18:20 is compared with Psalm 22:3 a pattern emerges. As God’s people come together in united praise, He says, “There I am in their midst.” He “inhabits and is enthroned upon” their praises.

As this happens, there is not just earthly human power available. According to Scripture, there is super-natural (or above natural) power which is present to heal, set free, deliver, fix what is broken, release what is bound, and set straight what is crooked. Everything you know in your imagination that God can do, in this atmosphere He is present to do it.

It all happens when His people come together in united worship. He is right there, ready to touch anyone who has faith to draw upon the power of His presence.

The woman with the issue of blood, who touched Jesus’ garment and was instantly healed, was surrounded by a multitude of people who experienced no miracle at all for themselves. She was the only one who reached out in faith to touch Jesus. He was physically being touched by people all around Him, but only one touched Him by faith. (Lk. 8:43-48)

When we are in the presence of God through united worship, we need to draw upon His available power to touch our lives, to do the things that natural man can never accomplish, inviting the power of a loving God to give us breakthrough.

It can and will happen in the Symphony of God, His manifested presence through corporate worship, the united gathering of those who draw near to Him by faith.

“Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” (Js. 4:8)

It’s a Symphony more powerful than anything this world can create, one that uses song, voices and instruments, but it’s a Symphony that goes much deeper than music, one that taps into the spiritual realm and touches the regenerative power that only God Himself can give.

Will you come to the concert? The tickets are free.
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Lowell Hohstadt is a music director, composer and violinist who has led the music teams of Odessa Christian Faith Center since 1987. He has composed over 400 works for worship and seasonal productions, and has written for a wide variety of venues in styles ranging from Modern Classical to Jazz and Contemporary Pop/Rock. He recently produced and released Free Eternally, an album of original songs for worship. You can follow him at www.lowellhohstadt.com.

Think back on your childhood and see if you can remember when the idyllic nature of those years became infected with something foreign and unsettling, something you could probably only identify at the time as “bad.” It may have happened when you were very young or, if you were lucky, much later. Can you pinpoint the first time you became aware of original sin?

With “The Tree of Life,” writer-director Terrence Malick traces this awareness in the life of a boy growing up in 1950s Texas. But that’s not all. Using his signature blend of impressionistic imagery and ruminative voiceover narration, Malick also takes us both forwards and backwards in time to ponder the existence of sin throughout the universe, and across history. The flashes forward consist of scenes of the boy as an adult (Sean Penn), while the flashbacks zoom all the way to creation, including an extended cosmological sequence that mixes “2001: A Space Odyssey” with “Jurassic Park.”

It’s bewildering, exhilarating and the culmination of Malick’s curious, fitful career. The tragedy of original sin is something Malick has wrestled with, to varying degrees of success, over the course of five films and 38 years. From “Badlands” to “The New World,” violence and beauty are held in constant tension. Malick’s gorgeous pictures at once celebrate the audacity of God’s creation and mourn its fallen state at the hands of man.

To my mind, “The Tree of Life” is the first time Malick has found a narrative framework that is at once big enough and focused enough for his ambitions. By anchoring his themes in a very familiar setting – the archetypal American family – he’s made the universal personal, and vice versa.

Caught between a domineering father (Brad Pitt) and a comforting mother (Jessica Chastain), young Jack (Hunter McCracken) enters adolescence with growing trepidation. His father’s discipline becomes cold and relentless; friends urge him to break windows and torment dogs. The inevitable shift from carefree childhood to complicated young adulthood makes Jack confused, complicit and sick. His eyes have become opened to sin – in his parents, his friends and even, during an agonizing scene involving a BB gun and his trusting younger brother, himself.

Though I was born well past the ’50s, the movie’s nostalgic images of boyhood took me back to my own youthful hours – and one day in particular. I can’t recall my exact age; it was at that time when you were old enough to freely roam the neighborhood in packs, yet young enough to be glad when you heard your mother’s voice calling you home. A group of us were gathered behind a neighbor’s shed, where one of the older boys had found the tattered pieces of a Playboy centerfold in the wet grass. As the rest of us watched – rapt, silent – he painstakingly pasted the pieces back together one by one on the wall of the shed. This was something new, exciting, wrong. It’s not hyperbole to say that the universe had shifted beneath my feet.

This is the sort of primal, existential angst Malick evokes in “The Tree of Life.” It strikes that deep. Did the movie provoke similar introspection for you, or did you find it – as some critics have – to be pretentious hooey? Can you recall your own early realization of original sin?
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Josh Larsen is editor of www.ThinkChristian.net, where this article originally appeared. He also writes about movies at www.LarsenOnFilm.com and at Facebook.com/larsenonfilm.

Can one be blind
even when their sight is fine?
I want to wrestle with angels
I want a moment of God’s time.

Is a sheep still
a sheep on the butcher’s floor?
Can blood become life…
and something more?

Can a heart still
be a heart without that drum?
Can the weary lay down
their burdens, cumbersome?

Is there more than
what we have inside?
He is alive but for
our stains He died.

This is more than fiction
or fairy tales.
Where story books close
and reality fails.
Some thing precious waits
for those who seek
The face of God come to
save the meek.

Is there more…you tell me?

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Scott Strissel is a writer and pastor who grew up as a missionary kid in apartheid South Africa. His perspectives on life, love, spiritual relationship with Christ are unique and deeply rooted in the Word of God. He writes a blog (http://pastorstrissel.livejournal.com) and has written two books through his pen name (Eli Scott) which are available on ebooks – Bits and Pieces and From Alabaster Jars of Clay.

MONOTATION
one image, one word
These visual meditations are designed to create space for personal reflection. Taken by Spencer Burke on his iPhone on the road – This is a growing collection. Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0

His desire is to encourage people to take a moment each day to reflect, center and meditate – using a simple image with one word to evoke understanding, love, self-refection, creativity, celebration, integration…

_____________________________________________________________

Spencer Burke discovered his passion for photography in Jr. High while taking a photography class at his public school in Sacramento, CA. He won his first national contest at the age of 15 (sponsored by Kodak). His images have toured the world and his works are in a few private collections. Spencer uses his art as an act of meditation and personal expression. To find out more visit his personal website SpencerBurke.com or follow him on Twitter @SpencerBurke or FaceBook

At other times I have said that writing is a spiritual discipline, one of those practices that consciously places us in the presence of God, that opens our souls to being transformed. And if that summons a picture of a monk reading his Bible serenely in a corner, think for a moment about your own process of praying and reading the Bible. If you make it 5 minutes without distraction, boredom, or drowsiness, then it’s been a big spiritual day for you. We must keep fighting to turn and return our attention to the Lord, to muffle the other voices that tell us we don’t measure up, that we’re not being productive enough, that we’re lost, that God doesn’t hear our prayers. The discipline of writing is no different.

Allow me for a few moments, O aspiring writer, to give you a window into the emotional life of a writer, or at least this writer. I’ve written one book and I’m at work on a second, and I’ve identified some patterns in this gnarly, self-revealing process, some phases that I invariably go through.

1. 1. The “Aha” phase.
   This is the phase of researching, thinking, and interviewing. This is the phase of discovery, as I begin to see things I had not seen before. I have great synergistic moments as I talk with others and we find that we share thoughts, experiences, and hopes. I’ll be reading a book and a sentence or a concept will practically shout out to me. I’ll begin to believe that I have valuable things to say and that others will be interested.
   .
2. 2. The “Pulitzer Prize” phase.
   This is the phase of conceptualizing, organizing, and outlining. Inevitably I get here and my ego tries to leap out of my body and make itself known. Here I become convinced that my ideas are brilliant and my writing is profound. No one has ever written a book this sublime. Stephen Hawking will read my book and say “Why didn’t I think of that?!”
   .
3. 3. The “Total Incompetence” phase.
   This one follows about 92 seconds on the heels of the Pulitzer Prize phase. I’ll encounter the first obstacle in writing my chapter, and my ego will not only find its way back into my body but shrink to 1/8th its normal size. This is where I will question everything I’ve ever known about the world and myself, including why in the world I thought I could write a book. This is where the dark scenarios creep in and I’ll imagine my manuscript sitting in my editor’s trash can, the smoke still floating off the singed pages. Or someone going to review my book and being unable to do so because the astonished tears of laughter keep her from being able to see straight.
   .
4. 4. The “Complete Disorientation” phase.
   Once I power through stage 3 and finish a draft of my chapter, I go to read it over and immediately move into this phase. My first draft tends to be rough and practically stream of consciousness writing. If I don’t know where something should go, I’ll just write it anyway. So it feels like a bunch of random paragraphs that have no organic relationship to anything that comes before them or after. It’s a salad bar of paragraphs, without the hygienic window that keeps me from sneezing all over it. My head will be spinning as I try to read it over. This is the phase where I find myself cleaning my apartment a lot – my manuscript may be a mess, but dammit, my writing space will be clean!
   .
5. 5. The “It doesn’t totally suck” phase.
   After rewriting several times, I get to a point where I think that maybe there are a few nuggets of insight in here and maybe a few people will actually want to read it. There is a small measure of contentment and sense of accomplishment here. Then, it’s back to step one.

On that note, I’m entertaining this title for my second book:

It Doesn’t Totally Suck
Adam S. McHugh

So, if that is the bloody portrait of the writing life, why do we writers keep fighting? It’s certainly not because of the money. There are sidewalk lemonade stands that make more money than I do. I keep fighting the good writing fight not because one day I will triumph and what has been hard will suddenly become easy. I can’t say it any more simply than this: I write because I can’t not write. Writing is an irresistible grace in my life. It is a summons, a burden, that has been given to me, and I carry it trusting that God has put it there for a reason.
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Adam S. McHugh is the author of Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture. He is an ordained Presbyterian minister, spiritual director, and hospice chaplain. You can find him on Twitter and check out his blog at www.introvertedchurch.com.