Three Little Pigs, The Guardian, and the way forward.

I'll be hosting a series about culture on Fridays through April and May at TheHighCalling.org. It's called "Everything Matters," which is a phrase I borrowed from the CCO's Jubilee Conference. The conversation started with me looking for some guidance, and it would be an understatement to say that I knew exactly how to proceed. There is simply too much to know.

Culture is so very complex and my insight, so limited. The following commercial for The Guardian reminds me of these facts in a brilliant choreography of images and words, based on the Three Little Pigs:

  
As soon as I--or The Guardian for that matter--believe I have the angle on something, new evidence is introduced. New factors come into play. So it isn't the first reporter who has the story right. She's just first. Additional voices add depth and uncover misreads and challenge running opinions. Sometimes the whole truth eventually makes it into the light, though usually it doesn't; it just gets more complex.

Culture is like this. Evasive, perplexing. Yet I don't always have the choice to stand by waiting for it to unshake into knowable pieces, which means that sometimes I have to step in when it's still unclear. Sometimes, not always. Wisdom comes from spending time in the thick of it, but wisdom also--maybe more so--comes from stepping back and seeking counsel. 

Read the kick-off article, Creating a High Calling Culture, and then tune in over the coming weeks as practitioners share how they see and interact with culture according to specific disciplines. They won't parse the latest headline happening; we're employing a less myopic view here. But in doing so, they'll teach us to see better. They'll give us a way of looking at the world that can help make sense of the complexity. And practically, they'll call us to create, manage, and consume culture in a way that reflects God's own creating, managing, and consuming. I hope you'll join us.

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The High Calling is a site about work, life, and God.

5 comments:

Nancy March 8, 2012 at 12:24 PM  

Sam, I read this yesterday and have been mulling it since then. I just linked it to a conversation Cheryl Smith is having in response to the KONY 2012 video that's gone viral.

Cheryl Smith March 8, 2012 at 1:13 PM  

I love the video you use here, Sam. And the quote Nancy shared on THC FB thread. It reminds me of something my pastor said on Sunday as he talked about science and theology. Though unrelated to your post, he mentioned that science is always evolving based on new information. If we base our theology on science, we'll be changing our theology as new information unfolds. He wasn't discrediting science. To the contrary! But simply asserting our theology should be based on the unchanging word of God. Anyway, there was a point here. Oh yeah. First isn't always the total picture. :)

Unknown March 8, 2012 at 3:05 PM  

This turned out to be good timing. Thanks for the making the connections, Nancy and Cheryl.

Sheila March 23, 2012 at 12:45 PM  

It's all about fitting the pieces together, isn't it?

The problem is the picture just grows. We don't have those edge pieces with the one clean side to contain the whole.

Life is much messier than that. Culture too.

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