J. Mitchell Lane

Anyone who has ever written anything can tell you that you will always come to a point where either you don’t know what to type next, or will scrap what you’ve spent the past few days, weeks, months, or years writing because it doesn’t meet up to the standard for yourself that you have in your head. They could also tell you that it’s probably the most frustrating thing in the world to have something appear different on paper than it does in your imagination.

I have been working on the rewrite for the FAULT series for the past few days and finally was able to lock down a process that works for getting the image in my head onto the paper while staving off writers block at the same time.

FAULT has seven main characters. That’s right. Seven. My normal process for writing a story is to just sit down and write until it’s either all on paper or I get frustrated with the outcome. Since seven minds is a lot of information to store inside my fuzzy big head without it exploding, this process doesn’t work very well at all for FAULT, and I decided that this time around I would try a different approach.

Every story has to have something for it to be interesting. You already know what this is: conflict. This time around I mapped out a very simple journey that each character needs to go through in order to keep things interesting for you, the viewer. It just so happened to be the same number of steps as the number of episodes I was planning to write before the pre-production process begins. Keep in mind this is for the overarching storyline, not for the storyline of an individual episode. Here it is:

1. Sanity / Insanity (Confusion / Status Quo)

2. Degradation / Growth

3. Crossroads / Choice

4. Journey

5. Final Reaffirmation or Retraction of that Choice

6. Sanity / Insanity (Confusion / Status Quo)

Several of the steps have multiple sides to them. These can be easily varied depending on the character in a way that makes the journey for that character most captivating and develops the most connection with the viewer. They can also be varied to prove a point (hopefully through viewer-character connection rather than preachiness)

I’ve started developing the specific journey for each character individually while keeping in mind that they need to stay tied together. Once the “chart” for each character and the question their struggling with answering is complete, all that’s left is to drop the story into screenplay form. Since everything is already mapped out, the plan is for the dialogue, the subtext, the characters actions and the rest to feel much more complete and whole that just seven characters that whimsically came out onto a page, even if whim does play a part in the planning stages. Hopefully it will feel like all of the character’s journeys tie together.

So, that’s what I’ve been doing. It seems to be working for this particular storyline and writing has become much easier, but I’m not sure if it applies to all character journeys.

What do you think?

Due to a few projects that I was working on, between Christmas and a week ago I was only able to get five hours or less of sleep a night. I can tell you that I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone. Actually, it wasn’t too bad until the last week and a half or so. During that time, I couldn’t focus on anything that I was doing (including trying to carry on a conversation). Finally, a week ago I was able to get a few projects off my plate, and I spent the entire President’s Day weekend sleeping and relaxing. I only left the house one time.

I set a new bedtime for myself for this week that ensures I get 9 hours of sleep, and for this entire week my energy level is so much higher, my brain has been able to focus, and I actually feel like I’m almost myself again. Now that I’m actually able to think, I’ve had a realization that you’d think I would have had a while ago. Being so worn out, it was next to impossible for me to do anything with the right focus and with the right heart for Christ. I was unable to put any kind of real effort into what I was doing because there was no energy to spare. Since I’ve started sleeping again, it is so much easier to do whatever I’m doing with energy and with the right focus.

I know a lot of people who say yes to every service opportunity that comes their way. I also know a lot of people who get burn out as much I was for the past month and a half. Sometimes we need to realize that there has to be a time to recharge and refocus ourselves (and time and energy to give to family). Throwing ourselves into everything that comes our way isn’t anywhere near as important as making sure that we can actually serve to the best of our ability and not half-heartedly. Would you rather be served by a million people who’s spirits are down, or by one person who can give you everything he has?

We have to be careful that we don’t use tiredness as an excuse to say consistently, “I have too much on my plate, and I can’t help with anything else,” but we also need to make sure that whatever it is we do commit to isn’t going to bury us, leave no energy for relationships with family and friends, and no energy to serve to the Glory of God.

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” - 1 Corinthians 10:31

If we are saying yes to everything just so we can be seen as a servant, or see ourselves as a servant, but we’re not able to do it cheerfully and to the Glory of God, we shouldn’t be doing it at all.

This weekend I was able to retreat up to Frazier Park with several friends from Grace Community Church and just spend some time outside. It’s amazing what some time away like that can do for your mental state and motivation. You come back home feeling refreshed and ready to take on the next weeks or months ahead. We also forget how much spending time enjoying God’s creation can refocus us on Him.

One of the songs during worship tonight was “Power of the Cross”, and the lyrics below really hit me hard.

“Now the daylight flees. Now the ground beneath quakes as its Maker bows His head.”

After spending time out in creation and coming back, the reality struck me again: The God who created ALL of it, the God who created EVERYTHING sacrificed Himself so that I could have a relationship with Him. That is just an amazing thought. In things like that, in little realizations like that, I get a tiny glimpse of what we really have in Christ, and how little we truly deserve. I cannot wait to realize completely how great His Glory is!

Who am I to use my life for any purpose but to serve Him?

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing out eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2

I was reading this tonight, and I was reminded about how easy it is for me to get caught up in the things that are preventing me from becoming more like Christ. Isn’t it easy for each of us to get stuck in our daily routines and forget about the race that God has set before us to run? Just about every day I forget about what I have in Christ, and I take the time that I have in that day that focus on how I’m not getting what I want. Or… if I’m not focusing on how I’m not getting what I want, I’m focusing on trying to find a way to elevate myself above God. Somehow what I want or need is more important than God’s plan in my mind, and in the rare moments that I realize I’m treating myself as greater than God, I make myself sick.

Reading this tonight reminded me that I need to keep myself focused on the race that God has set before me. I need to keep a fact solid in my mind: God is more important than I am. Christ is the reason I am here, and any trials or temptations I am going through, I am going through because it is to His glory. Every single day I forget that simple fact. How would we all live if we were constantly focused on that?

I am one selfish human being.

I thought this snippet from Ronald Reagan on Socialized Medicine was very interesting. He explains the potential paths it could cause us to go down very well.

“A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)

That verse pretty much sums up what I am going to be talking about in the next several blog posts. It really is a selfish blog post because it’s just a way for me to get all the verses and thoughts that I’ve been having recently into one place for review in the future. Hopefully it’s something you can use later as well.

I’m not sure how many posts this is going to be, but the main theme is that everything… EVERYthing was created by God and for God’s purpose (Acts 17:26, Lamentations 3:37-38, Romans 9:19, Proverbs 16:9, Isaiah 46:10, Ex 4:11).

One of the major issues that people struggle with (especially in today’s culture) is the fact that even though God exists, bad things still happen. A question we hear all the time is, “How could God allow something like that to happen?” I’m not sure that the answer to that is one that many people want to hear, but in short, God didn’t just allow them to happen, they were part of His plan from the beginning. Is it not from the mouth of the Lord that both good and ill go forth? (Lam 3:38)

To start with, that question assumes an awful lot. By asking, “How could God allow something like that to happen,” I’m assuming that we deserve better. By asking, I’m pretty much stating that somehow I don’t deserve the worst possible punishment that God can give me. Sure, if you’re using a worldly standard, I’m a ‘pretty good guy’, and I do ‘good things’. I don’t steal. I’ve never murdered anyone. That makes me a good person, right?

We can’t use a broken measuring tape to measure the length of something and then assume that measurement is valid when it has to be perfect. If we follow that rule, we’re going to end up with a lot of wood that isn’t cut to right length when it’s time to put it in place.

For how much the Bible mentions how devastated we as humans are, we sure skip over it a lot. The Bible tells us that there is not one person in the entire world who does righteousness. (Romans 3:10) That means that any capacity we have to something ‘good’ is given to us by the Grace of God, and it’s not something we’re able to do on our own.

Since we have no righteousness outside of what is given to us by God, and without Him we can do no right (John 15:5), we are in no place at all to decide of think about what God should or should not do. Genesis tells us that God created everything, and He is sovereign over all of it. The Bible goes through the attributes of God’s character over and over again, and we find that He is perfect (2 Samuel 22:31, Matthew 5:48, Hebrews 5:9, 1Kings 8:61).

If God is perfect, and we are not, if God is Holy and we are not, if God created everything, and we didn’t, who are we to question what God is doing with His creation? The Bible tells us that everything happens to bring Glory to God (Colossians 1:16) It also tells us that God is sovereign over everything, the good and the bad. The chief end of God is to magnify Himself and make His Glory known! Nothing in the universe happens outside that purpose! Nothing!

“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.” (Colossians 1:16)

Even the highest authorities on the Earth were created for Christ and to display His Glory to us! Even the ones that deceive! “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities.” (Ephesians 6:12) These same forces that deceive the world were created by God and for God to make his Glory known!

However, God didn’t create them evil, He created them good, and they rebelled against God. Jude 1:6 tells us that “[they] did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling.” God allowed this to happen because it brings the most Glory to Him. The evil in the world is in a sense necessary to show us how little and helpless we are without God. When you remove Christ from our lives, we are nothing but sinners caught up in our own devices. We have no righteousness outside of that which is credited to us by God. How would it be possible for us to know this without seeing what we’re like without Him?

Seeing what we would be without God causes us to appreciate Him more and worship Him, which in turn brings Him more Glory. It is not possible to understand all of God’s plan with our tiny minds. This little glimpse that we have is part of a big circle of God revealing his truth to us in order that we would realize His Glory and worship Him which in turn causes us to realize more of God’s truth, and it’s amazing to thing just how smart God must be to have planned every single second of it!

We really do serve and amazing God!

According to a Gallup poll, 42% of Americans attend Church regularly (almost weekly). 47% of Americans who claim to be protestant have attended Church in the past seven days, and 42% of Catholics. If these statistics are correct, then why is immorality so rampant in our culture? If it’s true that almost half of our population is attending Church regularly, then why is the recession of morality from our culture increasing drastically, and not decreasing drastically?

They forget to mention that this isn’t actually a statistic on the number of Christians. They lump together all Protestants and Catholics into the same group, and call that group the “Christians”. In fact, according to another Gallup Poll, 81% of the US population is “Christian”.

This presents a couple different issues. First, It’s a very obvious example of John 10 and the presence of false teachers and false sheep who are not actually preaching the Word of God, but are instead preaching a watered down version that suits their lifestyle and motivation to exalt themselves above God.

Ask those 81% what Christianity is, and you would come back with a much smaller number of those who can explain exactly what being a Christian is and means Biblically. Beyond that, an even smaller number of those would say that they believe exactly that.

This leads to the extremely skewed view that the world has of Christianity. If you ask someone on the street what they think of Christians, most likely they will tell you that Christians are hypocritical, judgmental, and self-righteous. The problem is that they only see the false Christians. They’re looking at that very high percentage of Americans who are “Christians”, because they outweigh and out-speak the those that truly believe what the Bible teaches. Obviously this is a major problem.

One of the major contributors to this is that the true Christians are so incorrectly focused on trying to get people in the door that they forget to proclaim what Christianity really is. They are so focused on trying to reach non-believers that they forget to teach the true believers. These “seeker-friendly” Churches put so much emphasis on being culturally relevant, that they forget what they are there to do in the first place, and only end up adding on to the number of people who claim to be “Christian”, but have no idea what it means.

I’m echoing one of John MacArthur’s sermons from the Resolve Conference on this part. There’s some good notes on it here. I frequently come across people who are surprised to run into a Christian that knows exactly what they believe and why they believe it. I’m reminded of a conversation that I’ve had more than once. I will be talking to someone who is a “Christian”, and we will have to stop for clarification. On more than one occasion, the question for clarification has been phrased, “Wait, we believe Christ died for our sins, right?” That is the sobering reality of “Christianity” in America. What’s worse is that most of America can’t even get that far in a description of Christianity. It is an extremely harsh realization.

The second issue is trying to do something about it. Since there is such a skewed (or non-existent) view of Christianity out there, what can we do to make that view correct? I’m not saying that if the America knew what Christianity really was, everything would magically get better. It’s actually the opposite of that. John 15 says that Christians will be persecuted for their beliefs. However, most Americans don’t know what a true Christian (not the statistic) believes in, and that persecution is basically non-existent.

I’m also not saying that we need to invite persecution, but we do need to be able to communicate what our beliefs really are instead of sitting back and letting everyone have a false (or non-existent) view of Christianity. We need to weed out the false teachers and the false sheep by preaching the actual Word of God, and not sermons like, “A Christian’s Guide to Financial Security” where the Bible isn’t even opened.

We often think of missions and evangelism only being for the missionaries, and we forget, or don’t even realize, that there is a huge portion of people we come in contact with every day that have no idea what Christianity really is, but only that it has “something to do with that guy Jesus”.

We need to preach the Word through our lives and live out our beliefs instead of standing by the conversations people have around us about those “crazy Christians”. We should doing what many missionaries do every day. When we hear that familiar conversation, many of us have never turned to ask them the question “can you explain to me what Christianity is?” and then told them the truth when they respond incorrectly.

If we spoke plainly about our beliefs instead of keeping them to ourselves and letting the world interpret them for us, maybe that statistic would be more accurate and give us a sobering look at just how vast our mission field here in America really is.

When was the last time you had that conversation?

I found this news article on what could possibly happen to national health insurance under a new bill that is in the works. I’ll let the article do all the talking. Obviously this is something I’m not looking forward to.

“Americans who refuse to buy affordable medical coverage could be hit with fines of more than $1,000 under a health care overhaul bill unveiled Thursday by key Senate Democrats looking to fulfill President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the fines will raise around $36 billion over 10 years. Senate aides said the penalties would be modeled on the approach taken by Massachusetts, which now imposes a fine of about $1,000 a year on individuals who refuse to get coverage. Under the federal legislation, families would pay higher penalties than individuals.

In a revamped health care system envisioned by lawmakers, people would be required to carry health insurance just like motorists must get auto coverage now. The government would provide subsidies for the poor and many middle-class families, but those who still refuse to sign up would face penalties.

Called “shared responsibility payments,” the fines would be set at least half the cost of basic medical coverage, according to the legislation. The goal is to nudge people to sign up for coverage when they are healthy, not wait until they get sick.

In 2008, employer-provided coverage averaged $12,680 a year for a family plan, and $4,704 for individual coverage, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s annual survey. Senate aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said the cost of the federal plan would be lower but declined to provide specifics.

The legislation would exempt certain hardship cases from fines. The fines would be collected through the income tax system.

The new proposals were released as Congress neared the end of a weeklong July 4 break, with lawmakers expected to quickly take up health care legislation when they return to Washington. With deepening divisions along partisan and ideological lines, the complex legislation faces an uncertain future.

Obama wants a bill this year that would provide coverage to the nearly 50 million Americans who lack it and reduce medical costs.

In a statement, Obama welcomed the legislation, saying it “reflects many of the principles I’ve laid out, such as reforms that will prohibit insurance companies from refusing coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and the concept of insurance exchanges where individuals can find affordable coverage if they lose their jobs, move or get sick.”

The Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions bill also calls for a government-run insurance option to compete with private plans as well as a $750-per-worker annual fee on larger companies that do not offer coverage to employees.

Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said in a letter to colleagues that their revised plan would cost dramatically less than an earlier, incomplete proposal, and help show the way toward coverage for 97 percent of all Americans.

In a conference call with reporters, Dodd said the revised bill had brought “historic reform of health care” closer. He said the bill’s public option will bring coverage and benefit decisions driven “not by what generates the biggest profits, but by what works best for American families.”

The Congressional Budget Office, in an analysis released Thursday evening, put the net cost of the proposal at $597 billion over 10 years, down from $1 trillion two weeks ago. Coverage expansions worth $645 billion would be partly offset by savings of $48 billion, the estimate said.

However, the total cost of legislation will rise considerably once provisions are added to subsidize health insurance for the poor through Medicaid. Those additions, needed to ensure coverage for nearly all U.S. residents, are being handled by a separate panel, the Senate Finance Committee. Bipartisan talks on the Finance panel aim to hold the overall price tag to $1 trillion.

The Health Committee could complete its portion of the bill as soon as next week, and the presence of a government health insurance option virtually assures a party-line vote.

In the Senate, the Finance Committee version of the bill is unlikely to include a government-run insurance option. Bipartisan negotiations are centered on a proposal for a nonprofit insurance cooperative as a competitor to private companies.

Three committees are collaborating in the House on legislation expected to come to a vote by the end of July. That measure is certain to include a government-run insurance option.

At their heart, all the bills would require insurance companies to sell coverage to any applicant, without charging higher premiums for pre-existing medical conditions. The poor and some middle-class families would qualify for government subsidies to help with the cost of coverage. The government’s costs would be covered by a combination of higher taxes and cuts in projected Medicare and Medicaid spending.”

— The original article at Fox News.

I just wanted to take a second to update everyone on how FAULT is coming. The shoot back in February went well, and I’m in the process of making a few big decisions for it. This started off as a television series idea, but may be taking a few turns. I’ll update you all on what the turns are as soon as the plan comes together and I’ve made the decisions, but for now, enjoy the final cut of the scene we shot out of context.

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” – Hebrews 5:12-14

I was reading this tonight, and I realized how accurate of a description this is of most of the Church, and it struck me that this was also true of the Church in the first century. Many Churches are so concerned about trying to be “culturally relevant” that they water down the Word of God. They spend all of their time speaking (and I say speaking, not preaching, intentionally) about how to have a “better life” or how you can be a Christian and “still have fun”, or how “Christianity doesn’t limit you from enjoying the things of this world” that they miss the point. They are so concerned about entertaining people and shoving as many warm bodies through their “open doors” as the can that they forget what the Church really exists to accomplish.

What does the Church exist to accomplish? What is the Church? The Church is the body of believers of Christ. The Church is not the building, of course, but the believers inside it. It is the people who truly believe the Word of God and that Christ died for their sins, and the people who recognize that they are slaves for Christ. The Church exists to educate and equip each other to go out and preach the Word of God. “For though by this time you ought to be teachers…” I may be going out on a limb here (it shouldn’t really be a limb), but I’m going to say that the Church exists for the believers, and not to evangelize. The Church should dig down deep and exposit the Word of God. It should preach doctrine and Biblical Theology and equip it’s members to preach and evangelize to non-believers through their lives. It shouldn’t be watering down the gospel to milk and not solid food. Doing so starves and suffocates it’s members and doesn’t benefit non-believers because they won’t understand it anyway.

“…the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:4)

The Church does not exist for the entertainment of non-Christians. The Church exists for the edification of believers and the Glorification of Christ. The duty of ministering to non-Christians belongs to the Christians who have been well-fed with solid food through diligent preaching and exposition of the Word of God, and who’s salvation and credibility is blatantly apparent in the way that they live their lives.

“But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”

“…by this time you ought to be teachers…”