Lately, I’ve been fascinated by the concept of storytelling: this two-fold process of absorbing and producing, gathering and distributing, input and output, seeing and telling.
We just got back from a few days of camping in Maasai land. I feel like this gigantic sponge absorbing all that is going on around me: both comical and sobering, discouraging and inspiring. Peter Kukan couldn’t get his kid to school in time because an elephant refused to get off the road. Joloisa struggles to keep her kids in school because work is slow and the recent drought has plummeted the cow and goat market. James Kukan builds a school in a remote valley in the heart of Maasai land and dreams of it producing national leaders, Harvard graduates, and presidents. God is at work; he is moving in huge ways. It is my job to see it, hear it, feel it; to not let it slip by un-noticed, to catch it, to pin it down.
And then I get to edit. Whether it is drafting an interview questionnaire, weeding through thousands of pictures, or editing a video, the hard work of coming up with a finished product is no easy task. And why should it be? It is making something that wasn’t there before. It is creating. And while it can be wearisome, it resonates deeply with who we are because we are all made in the image of a Creator God. When we are creating, we are exercising that divine gift in us.
But output can only go so long without input. We need wonder. We need awe. We need inspiration. We need to watch another creator do his work to get some ideas. And the beauty of it is that God is everywhere always in the act of creating. All we need to do is step out, open our eyes, look around, and see what he is creating; it is naturally inspiring. And so we are back at absorbing. And absorbing leads to producing. And on and on it goes in this creative cycle of inspiration and communication, witnessing a great story and telling a great story.
I’ve decided that beauty is everywhere. It is mine to see and to tell its story.
[Here’s a link to some of the recent storytelling I’ve been doing.]
