The enemy of great

17Nov08

I recently heard Bono say that ‘very good is the enemy of great.’ It's a real challenge to me as a songwriter and someone who spends time trying to be creative. All too easily we can get to a level where we think we've mastered something - be it playing music, writing songs, painting pictures, designing visuals - and we relax in our gifting. We settle in how we work and operate feeling a sense of 'I can do this well - tick box!'

However often we get caught in ruts – churning out the same old predictable and safe ideas. They may be good, but they’ll probably fall short of being great. Art is meant to make us feel, to dream, to be shaken up. Bono goes on to say about U2's songs,

“I want people when they hear our songs to fall in love, to have babies, to leave their job and to start a revolution.”

Our creativity needs to go beyond our head and thinking and connect more with the heart and emotions. Great art allows us to feel and express. In some way it changes us. In our creativity if we settle for safe and 'good,' we'll fail to discover those ideas that are 'great' and life-changing.

Yes and amen, Tim.

We need to take chances. Dream big. Be bold and courageous. Go outside the box.

http://www.kcctriad.com

Jessica

18Nov08

Tim, this is so true. Complacency was never in Jesus' language. We should always endevour to be creative in everything we do. We are created in God's image so we should be creative. Time to take back from the world what was always meant for God and use it for His glory.

p.s I'd love to see yours and Al's painting skills....how about putting them on the site for a pod cast challange. see who's gets the best votes.

Craig Ogier

18Nov08

right.....ok....i'm in. it's the "how" that's the stumper at times.

www.jeramysossaman.com

sossaman

18Nov08

amen...... lets bring some drum and bass in the church

David J Smith

19Nov08

good blog Tim its a warning for me not to get too settled in my giftings

little debs

19Nov08

I wonder if "Bono Voce (good voice)" secretly hates his own nickname then lol what's the latin for "great" again?! Maximus?! Hehe Max from U2...doesn't have the same ring.

It's always good to aim higher and be aware of who we're writing/creating for...if it's just for my own amusement then I know I'll settle for humdrum passable quality. If I keep reminding myself it's for the "audience of One" then hopefully I'll offer a more fitting tribute to our perfect God. From a purer heart.

Let's never rest on laurels or tired conventions :) Keep raising the bar God for the standard of your praise ;o)

http://uk.myspace.com/lorenzotunes

John 3.16 --> 1 Jn 3.16 Here is love.

larry

19Nov08

Thanks Tim!!

Why is it that we all love Bono so much? Probably because he is GREAT at what he does, and then he's gone on to do GREAT stuff with his influence.

Art should by pass our brain and connect with our spirit. There once was a time when i was sailing off the cost of New Zealand and we had U2 cranking as loud as we could. It happened to be the Electrical Storm single, if you have it you'll know that the other track on it is 12 minutes long and it's a combo of three of the greats from Bono himself. BAD into 40 into STREETS HAVE NO NAME, epic!

This great art certainly made me feel, it made me feel so much that with U2 cranking combined with the beauty around (because NZ is the place!!) i just jumped straight off the yacht with excitement, haha. Was classic, guess you had to be there, it was completely worth getting wet!! All that to say, there's is nothing like being moved by art in such a way it causes us to be lavish in our expression of worship. Moments of transcendence in which God reveals, yeehaa!!

Do we all wish we had the EDGE on our worship team?? or is that just me??

I think you're on to something here, we do seem to come up with stuff that 'will do' and it usually sounds the same as the last song we wrote, but it'll do. My wife keeps telling me that my songs sound the same so i pushed myself a bit on the last one, i wanted to come up with better melodies. i think the art of re-writing is key here!! It can be hard to do, but getting people around you that will be super honest as you pull your songs apart and stick them back together will push you to greatness.

However with the limits of time, with daily life, other responsibilities, work commitments, etc. how do we push ourselves? How do we move from 'very good' to 'great' when it's a challenge to reach 'average' for some of us? I know we all want to write great songs, and i'm sure what David said in 2Sam24, 'i will not bring worship that cost me nothing...,' rings true in all of us, but is there a place for 'good' song? Is there a place for art that actually isn't all that 'great' but it expresses what needs to be expressed at the moment?

How do you ensure you're pushing yourself and not settling for anything short of great?

donald

donaldgoodhall.wordpress.com

donaldgoodhall

07Dec08

When did Bono become the be all and end all for Christians? The man's effectively a heretic. Did Jesus not say enough, that this tax-dodging pygmy became our new prophet?

I'd rather not have the Edge abusing substances in my worship team; Thanks.

dj

12Dec08

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