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This video was produced to accompany an article about the prosperity gospel in Africa in this month’s edition of Christianity Today. I think it’s really interesting and really well done. Check it out and let me know what you think.
The Prosperity Gospel from The Global Conversation on Vimeo.
A large part of my job at Student Life is contributing in varying degrees to our ideation efforts. Sounds fancy and important, doesn’t it? Basically I’m just saying that I and a few others are called on whenever we need to come up with some ideas. This means we attend a lot of meetings where said ideas are to be thought of and developed.
This is great for me. I remember as a kid saying to my parents that I wanted to find a job where someone paid me to sit around and come up with ideas. So, as far as I’m concerned, I win and I win big.
In order to develop good ideas we utilize a process called brainstorming. Some think that creatives should just be able to come up with ideas in an instant with no problem, that we never run out of ideas. Those people are wrong. As counterintuitive as it might seem, creatives often thrive in process when in the initial ideating phase of a project. Of course, we’d never admit that. Nor would we probably implement the process ourselves if we had a choice. But that’s another blog post.
Now, We’ve all heard of brainstorming and have probably been a part of a brainstorming process at one point or another. It became really big in business books about fifteen or twenty years ago, and is still used today.
However, not everyone does “brainstorming” the same way. And I guess that’s fine. Far be it from me to tell you the exact right way I think you should do it, (after all, there is no perfect spaghetti sauce; there are only perfect spaghetti sauces), but I’m going to anyway.
Well, not exactly. I don’t necessarily think this is the “right” or “only” way to do this. What I do think, though, is that through all of the brainstorming sessions I’ve been a part of, this is what I have found works best in those circumstances.
So, now, without further ado, let me present my 10 rules/guidelines/tips/strategies/concepts/techniques/methods for how to have an effective brainstorming session.
1. The problem is the question – Brainstorming is basically a technique for problem solving. It shouldn’t be uses if there isn’t a problem to solve. The problem can be big or small but should be made as simple as possible. Begin any brainstorming session with explaining clearly what the problem is. The end of this explaination should be in the form of a question that sums up the problem to be addressed. Something like, “what improvement to frying pans are people crying out for?” or “isn’t there some way settlement on Mars can be made both feasible and affordable?” If you can’t sum up the problem in a simple sentence, break it down into parts that can be.
2. There is no audience; there are only participants – Everyone in attendance at your brainstorming should be encouraged/expected/required to participate. It’s important for the facilitator to make this clear. If someone is dominating the conversation or conversely hiding in their silent shell, it is the responsibility of the meeting’s leader to shut them up or spur them on respectively.
3. Time is your frienemy – When brainstorming you want to allow ample time to come up with as many possible solutions to your problems (ideas) as possible. However, there will come a moment when ideas quickly cease to flow and participants become sluggish, irritable and easily distracted. There’s no magic time at which this happens. It’s different for every meeting and every group. Sometimes it’s 15 minutes. At other times it’s an hour. I find that it’s usually sometime around 28:47.
4. 2 is better than 1 but 10 isn’t necessarily better than 9 – When planning a brainstorming session it’s okay to not invite every single one of your friends, family members, co-workers, Twitter followers and fellow artists. In fact, you really shouldn’t. Brainstorming can be done on your own, but it’s better with a group simply because of the diversity of ideas that a group brings. However, too many people means that most ideas won’t get heard. Again, there’s not a magic number, but my personal opinion is that when attendance gets in the double digits productivity significantly decreases. A chart of this phenomenon might look like the following:
5. The more the merrier – The whole point of having a brainstorming session is to try to come up with as man ideas as possible. You don’t want to do anything to stifle the flow. The whole idea is that the more ideas you have the more likely you are to stumble upon that one incredible, earth-shattering, game-changing, billion-dollar-making solution you never really knew you were looking for in the first place.
6. Everyone’s a critic; so tell them all to shut up – Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, kills creativity in brainstorming quicker than for just one person to criticize just one idea. Sometimes it’s as simple as a would-be critic making a face or laughing at a particular idea not meant to be funny. If this happens, kick them out. Seriously. And, yes, do it even if it’s your boss. Make sure everyone understands the rules a head of time and then force them to abide by them.
7. “No idea is a bad idea” just isn’t true – It’s a fine slogan, and one to be embraced and utilized as much as possible, but it simply doesn’t hold up. There are bad ideas, lots of bad ideas, and if you’re brainstorming correctly, you’re going to have a lot of them thrown out there. And that’s the way it should be. You just can’t worry about it. Especially with regards to your own ideas. You might know you have a bad idea, but that bad idea might be standing in the way of ten good ideas. Get it out there and move on.
8. Cross-fertilization isn’t as dirty as it sounds – Listen to everyone’s ideas. Build on their ideas. Combine two ideas together to make one super awesome colossal idea. As the Beatles sang, “Come together. Right now.”
9. Think outside the box, literally – Where’s the place you normally have meetings? You know, that room with four walls, a floor and a ceiling? That’s your box, your normal, every-day, used-to-it, uninspiring box. Wanna have a good brainstorming meeting? Go somewhere else.
10. Write it down, all of it – This might sound obvious. If it is, good. There’s going to be a lot of ideas being tossed out. You don’t want to miss any of them. So write them down, every single one, preferably where everyone in the meeting can see them. This can be the responsibility of the person facilitating the meeting or someone else. Your call.
So, there you go. Follow these rules/guidelines/tips/strategies/concepts/techniques/methods and you’ll have an effective brainstorming session every time (or one that is at least more effective than it would have been if you hadn’t followed all of these). Trust me.
So, have fun and remember… process isn’t the enemy of creativity… Big Brother is.
Sorry for the week-long blackout. I’ve been working on a few different things. But rest assured… Enigmatic Meanderings will be back to its regularly scheduled programming beginning on Monday.
For, today, though I have a special Halloween treat for you all (or is it a trick?).
I stumbled across this video. It’s of a math professor at Biola University named Matthew Weathers giving a special Halloween lesson. It’s pretty clever and funny. All math professors should be this goofy.
Enjoy.
If most of us saw a rabid spider monkey, I believe the first thought that would probably occur to us would be, “Oh, look, a monkey. I love monkeys.” However, once we noticed the foaming mouth and beady little eyes bent on our destruction, we might think twice and run in the opposite direction. Conventional wisdom would tell us that rabid spider monkeys are to be feared. However, I’d like to take a different stance.
Rabid spider monkeys are not to be feared. In fact rabid spider monkeys can actually be your friend. That is, if you just have a little information about rabid spider monkeys and you spend a little time with rabid spider monkeys, you can quickly learn to tame and master rabid spider monkeys.
It’s true.
Let me tell you how I’m going to command and conquer rabid spider monkeys.
It’ll help if I first inform you that when I’m talking about rabid spider monkeys I don’t mean actual rabid spider monkeys. I’m not saying that rabid spider monkeys can’t or don’t exist. They certainly could, I suppose, and probably do somewhere. However, I’m choosing to not really worry about it.
When I say rabid spider monkeys, I just mean the phrase “rabid spider monkeys.”
As I mentioned yesterday, some of us at Student Life are in an e-commerce seminar, and it’s great. Part of what we’re learning about is SEO or search engine optimization. This has to do with the way that you use keywords to get noticed. So, I picked a random one.
RABID SPIDER MONKEYS.
I googled the exact phrase “rabid spider monkeys” and say that it came up with about 15,200 results. That means that over 15,000 websites have the phrase “rabid spider monkeys” in their content. So, maybe there are at least 15,000 people who are actually concerned about rabid spider monkeys.
So, I’ve now placed the phrase “rabid spider monkeys” in my title and have repeated it over and over and over throughout this post (as I’m sure you’ve noticed). I’m not going to create a “rabid spider monkey” category. However, I will create a new tag that is “rabid spider monkey.” I will also create tags that are various derivatives of that phrase. Then I’m going to publish and see where I rank amongst the 15,000 websites that talk about rabid spider monkeys. After I do that, I’ll come in this post and edit it to let you know.
Okay. Let’s see what happens with all these rabid spider monkeys.
*UPDATE*
Look what happened.
Rabid spider monkeys rule!
Today and tomorrow I’m spending my entire day in an e-commerce seminar.
There are places I end up that if you ask me how I got there I can’t come close to telling you.
My life is often on a trajectory I did not plan whatsoever and I just hold on.
But that’s not the point today.
Andy and I are constantly saying, “there is no perfect spaghetti sauce; there are only perfect spaghetti sauces.”
Malcolm Gladwell tells us why.
Secretly, however, I believe there is a perfect spaghetti sauce, and it’s over at Joe’s.
You see the graph up there? It’s from Google Analytics and is for my blog’s traffic over the last month. Now, I have high hopes of what this blog might be, dreams of it having hundreds of readers a day. But that’s a lot of ego, if I’m honest. Anyway, I’m used to looking at a graph like the one above and not seeing it climb above about 77 for any given day. I’m also used to the peaks and valleys that come with not updating every single day. But as you can see, about a week ago, my graph suddenly changed.
That’s when Sterling Davis had surgery on his brain to remove a tumor. I wrote a little post about how we could all be praying for him. Some of you thought it was good and helpful, and so you passed it along to a few other people. Some of them felt the same way and passed it on to a few more. Eventually, that one little post got a lot of hits.
Funny how I’ve always wanted my personal blog to grow and the only time it really has was when it was devoted completely to someone else.
That’s the best use of a blog that I can think of.
And the best response too.
So, anyway, Sterling did really well in his surgery. The doctors were able to get about 85% of the tumor out, which was huge. He went home after just a few days, which is even… well… huger. Since then, Roger and Becca, Sterling’s parents, have just been waiting to hear from the pathologist as to whether the tumor was benign or malignant. In other words, they were waiting to find out if it was cancerous or not. Well, today they got their answer.
It’s benign.
See? I told you prayer works.
However, please continue to pray for Sterling’s continued healing. The prognosis is a lot better now, but the journey’s not over. I’m humbled to see all of you walk along with him.
Thanks.
The image above is from my office. I have a bookshelf in between two chairs, and on top Max and the “Wild Things” from Maurice Sendak’s classic Where the Wild Things Are dance on in a relentless wild rumpus.
I keep these figures there so that I see them every day and am reminded of that scene from the book because there’s something very attractive about it to me. I find the image of a land where I am king of all that is wild and dangerous and frightening and adventurous and magical to be very appealing and conducive to my “process.” Of course, I know it’s an illusion, itself a figment of imagination run rampant, but that doesn’t matter, not in the moment. Whenever faced with trouble, whether of my own doing or not, I like the fantasy that I might conquer it all through sheer will and declare a dance rather than a tantrum.
Even though I’m now an adult, a grown up, with a child of my own, I like this idea. I’ve always liked it. I can’t tell you that Where the Wild Things Are has always been my favorite book or that I’ve always loved it as much as I do, not because it wasn’t or I didn’t, but rather because I simply can’t remember. You’d have to ask my parents (which I haven’t, so I can’t tell you what they’d say). However, I can, at the very least, tell you I’ve always connected with it. Of course, whether I could articulate why or not is a different story altogether.
I tell you all this just to try to put into context a little bit for you how excited I’ve been about the film version of Where the Wild Things Are that opened this weekend. I’ve been sincerely worried about it. I had the same thoughts as so many who have loved the book as children and carried some deep relation to it on into our adulthoods, which could be somewhat summed up with the following exhortation, “They better get it right.”
But what is “right” with regards to a masterpiece of children’s literature that is only ten sentences long, a mere 339 words, and extends just as firm a grip on the hearts and dreams of adults as it does on those of their kids? I honestly don’t know. Even though I wanted them to get it right, I would have been completely and utterly at a loss as to define for you just what I meant by that had you asked. So, having now seen the movie, if you were to ask me, “did they get it right?” I think I’d still have to say, “I don’t know.”
What I can tell you, though, is this: what they did, in fact, “get” I absolutely adore.
Some people have expressed to me their interest in my thoughts on the movie. As I’ve just said, I loved it. So, there you go. For any of you who haven’t seen it, let me offer a “brief” review. Then, for those of you who actually stick around, I want to try to express on a deeper level the resonant affection I have for this film.
The movie follows the same basic plot-line as the book, which can be summed up like this:
A mischievous young boy in a wolf costume named Max causes trouble for his mother who lashes out at him, leading him to escape to the land of the “wild things” whom he “tames” and over whom he is then made king. As his first order of business, Max declares that a “wild rumpus” begin. However, after the fun has run its course, Max finds himself longing to be back home. So, he leaves the “wild things,” though they don’t want him to go, and returns to his home and his dinner.
However, don’t go in expecting a mere re-telling of the book. In fact, don’t go in expecting a children’s movie at all. I’ve found that most of the criticism lobbed at the film is because of some unmet expectations. So, if you go in expecting either of the preceding, know that you’re going to be soon joining the camp of the naysayers.
Even though it follows that same basic plot-line, it’s very, very different from the book and Spike Jonze (the co-writer and director) and his crew (including co-writer Dave Eggers) have made a beautifully raw film about childhood, but not necessarily a film for children. It’s worth mentioning that they did so with cooperation, participation and blessing from Maurice Sendak who’s been quoted as saying, “I would rather not have had a film than turn it into a kiddie movie.”
Rest assured, it’s no “kiddie movie.” You see, in adapting the book into a screenplay, Jonze and Eggers remembered what all children know but adults tend to forget, namely that childhood is not cute, precious and innocent. Rather, it’s actually hard, painful, confusing, awkward, terrifying, violent and even, sometimes, lonely while also being endlessly adventurous, paradoxically joyful and heartbreaking, and most definitely fun. So, that’s the movie they made.
Max is now the son of divorced parents and lives with his mother who’s busy with her own problems and a sister who’s leaving him behind in her own quest to grow up. The kid’s got problems, both of his own doing and as a result of living in an imperfect world, and is definitely having trouble processing and dealing with them. This results in fits of pure rage and attention-seeking acts of selfishness. His mother reaches her limit with Max when he acts out in front of her new boyfriend causing her embarrassment. She fails in an effort to calm/control/comfort/condemn/convict/corral Max resulting in his running away from home. Max discovers a boat and sails to the island of the wild things, a dysfunctional family of larger-than-life monsters over whom he soon becomes king in the hopes that he’ll keep them together and make everything the way it should be. The rest of the film follows the results of the very real truth that it’s impossible for anyone to do that.
I think everything about this film is great. The writing. The directing. The performances, whether by live actors, like the perfectly genuine and relatable Catherine Keener or the new star-in-the-making Max Records, or the performers in the wild things suits designed by the Jim Henson Company, or the voice talent, a dream-cast that includes Forest Whitaker, Catherine O’Hara, Paul Dano, Chris Cooper, Lauren Ambrose and James Gandolfini (I admit that having heard Gandolfini’s voice in the trailer, I hated it. However, hearing it in context, there’s no one else to play his part). The cinematography is both beautiful and unsettling, and the music by Karen O is pitch-perfect (pun intended). Plus, the CGI utilized is actually believable and serves the character (as much as it pains me to say it, take notice George Lucas).
I give it an A++ or 5 terrible roars out of 5.
I’ll eat it up, I love it so.
To sum up, here’s the tweet I posted right after I’d seen it.
Just saw Where the Wild Things Are. Wow! I’m a wreck. Loved it. Really really loved it. If you didn’t I understand. But… Wow. I did.
If you are one of those who just want to see the images of the book move (and I completely get that) you can check out the animated version here.
Now, if anyone else is left, let me warn you that SPOILERS MOST CERTAINLY FOLLOW. Scroll down if you want. If not, don’t worry, I won’t take it personally.
Ultimately the real reason I love Where the Wild Things Are (the film) is because it’s truth. It’s an incomplete truth to be sure, but truth none the less.
As I’m sure you know from seeing the trailers or posters like the one above, the marketing tagline for the film is, “There’s One In All Of Us.” And this is true. That’s actually where the wild things are. Inside each of us are those things that are out of control or wild. They’re terrible and frightening. They want to be our friend yet so often can’t be trusted. They tell us we’re in charge yet constantly seek to consume us. We can get lost indefinitely in being engaged with them, and this engagement can be both playful and tragic. They’re broken and selfish and manipulative but also attractive and curious.
Yes, this is truth. There is indeed a wild thing inside of each of us. However, it’s an incomplete truth, because, like Max, most of us, perhaps even all of us, don’t just have one wild thing, but a whole family of them. Inside Max it seems there are seven, maybe more, but these are the ones he meets, with whom he engages and from whom he’s able to learn a bit about himself and how he relates to the world around him.
I’m not a literary or film critic by any means. However, let me take a minute and tell you, just from my perspective, what aspects of Max’s character I feel each of the wild things represents.
Ira is his innocence, goodness, artistry and naivete, and also Max’s openness to trust. You might say that Ira is Max’s child-likeness.
Judith is Max’s skepticism, his burgeoning realization that things are not what they seem and probably shouldn’t be believed. She’s weariness and sarcasm. She’s kinda like his potential grown-upness. Incidentally and significantly, Judith and Ira go together like husband and wife.
Alexander is Max’s insecurity and need for acceptance and affirmation. He’s also honesty and hurt.
Douglas is reason and practicality. However, he also possesses the propensity for relativism if it seems to serve the greater good.
The Bull is Max’s silent strength. He also embodies all that is frightening. He’s a thinker and represents potential.
KW is love, not a perfect love, but rather one that’s jaded, that’s seeking someone to return their understanding of what love is. She’s a protector and a realist.
Then there’s Carol. While Max is declared king of the wild things, Carol is their de facto leader. This makes sense because he’s the one that is most like the Max we see. He’s aggression and anger born out of a frustration with the sense that things aren’t how they should be. He is passion personified.
Of course, these are oversimplifications. The wild things are actually much more complicated and fuller characters than I’ve described here, but I think, hopefully, you get my point and can even begin to notice some of the wild things you have in you.
We all, at some point or another, think that this world would be better if we could just control it. We think this, of course, because we believe, on some (deep, often hidden) level that this world is our world, and that is the land of the wild things. It’s a world in which we seemingly tame our wild things by giving false credentials for why we’re qualified to be in charge and are then declared king to rule as we see fit with the promise that we, like Max, could “be a truly great king.” There’s just one problem… the land, like the things, is wild itself and cannot be tamed.
After Max is declared king and they have their wild rumpus, Carol takes Max on a tour of his kingdom. Along the way Carol is telling him that everything that can be seen belongs to him as the king. However, Carol then begins to make exceptions, like the holes that Ira makes in the trees or “that stick” or “that rock.” See? Even though Max is king he’s not fully in control, nor could he ever be. There are even parts of his kingdom that already are “not that great.”
Of course, like us, Max can’t see this, at least not at first. He believes he can be king and he can make things better. He immediately sets forth trying to do so, to construct a place in which everyone will be safe and protected and can live together in Utopian harmony where they can “all sleep together in one big pile.” It doesn’t take long for conflict to arise, though. And what is Max’s solution but more conflict.
He divides the group into two teams of “good guys” and “bad guys” and proceeds to initiate a dirt clod war (remember those? I do). We might be tempted to think how childish this is of Max, yet I can’t help but realize this is so often how I address conflict in my own life, whether personal or corporate. I compartmentalize and oversimplify, drawing clear battle lines and forcing everyone (even if it’s just myself) to choose sides. In the end this strategy never works, and it certainly doesn’t for Max. It doesn’t take long until feelings (and bodies) are hurt and the group is scattered again.
It’s following this that I believe the pivotal moment in the film occurs. Max approaches Alexander who’s been injured both physically and emotionally in the war. He’s alone, as usual, and feeling desperately sorry for himself. Max realizes for the first time the trouble he’s caused and the impossibility he faces when trying to make everything right himself. Alexander forces him to stare himself in the face by declaring:
You’re not really a king, are you? You’re just a boy pretending to be a wolf pretending to be king.
Max, of course, realizes and acknowledges that this is true. To which Alexander heartbreakingly replies, “I don’t think there is a king like that [that can make everything right and keep everyone together].” And this is truth, though an incomplete truth.
I’m a man of faith and that influences everything in my life. I recognize that not all of you share my faith, and therefore, won’t see what I’m about to describe. But the reason that Alexander’s resignation was so heartbreaking to me is because I know that there is a King like that, yet I also know well, as I think we all do, the doubt.
In the middle of all of it, though, we (hopefully) eventually come to realize that even without the answers, the first step is admitting that we’re not king, or at least not a very good one. Max does and decides to return home. None of the wild things really understand why but none take it more personally than Carol. He basically goes nuts. Douglas tries to calm him down. So, Carol rips his arm off and then decides the only way to keep Max around is to eat him. Max escapes by actually climbing in KW’s mouth.
Did you get that?
He escapes being literally consumed by the wild thing that represents anger and aggression by instead being consumed by the wild thing that represents affection and acceptance.
Later, after Carol has cooled off a bit, Max comes to see him. Carol basically questions why he has to leave and why everything isn’t better since he came. Max’s answer results in the following exchange.
Max: Because I’m not a king.
Carol: Well, what are you then?
Max: I’m Max.
Carol: That’s not very much, is it?
But part of what Max has realized is that it is, just not the “much” he had thought.
And that’s true, though incomplete.
Carol then walks off leaving Max alone. Max goes to the beach where all of the other wild things are. He promises to talk well about them when he returns and as he’s climbing in his boat to leave, Judith comments, “you’re the first king we haven’t eaten,” to which all the other wild things chime in with agreement.
And that’s true. The wild things inside only consume us when we ceaselessly and uselessly attempt to exert control. When we give up that illusion, we give up their control as well.
Meanwhile, Carol is off alone but stumbles across a simple message Max has left him: a heart made out of sticks with a “C” in the middle. Just as Max is setting off Carol comes running down the dunes and straight out into the water. Max looks back at him and all of the wild things, while they all look after him. What’s left for them to do but to roar their terrible roars?
And this they do.
They roar.
They roar with longing.
They roar with regret.
They roar with expectancy.
They roar with sorrow.
They roar with joy.
They roar with fury.
And they roar with love.
‘Cause, you see, that’s what it’s ultimately about. Love. Love of self and love of others, regardless of how wild we all may be.
And this is true though incomplete.
And by this point the final scene is just icing, delicious and sweet and leaving us (or me at least) craving more.
Maybe you think I’ve read way too much into it, and maybe I did. But I don’t care, because it got me. Where the Wild Things Are really got me.
Some of the critiques from parents that I’ve read have centered around the film being too dark, the themes being too adult, Max being too rambunctious and angry, the wild things being too sad and scary and not being inspirational enough. To those parents I would say that regardless of what their specific issues might be, their children are living in a very wild world and the vast majority don’t know how to deal with it if no one will help them. If nothing else, Where the Wild Things Are illustrates this perfectly and provides all of you with the perfect opportunity to help your children along the way by talking to them not like a kid but a fellow wild thing.
So, if you any of you have made it this far… thanks. I’m sure I haven’t expressed myself as well as I could have. Maybe we can grab some coffee and just talk about it.
I think that would be nice.
Arrrroooooooooooooooooooo!
So, I promised on Monday that when video of this moment became available, I’d post it. Well, here it is straight from Catalyst. You might want to prepare yourself a bit.
Catalyst 2009 Compassion Moment from Catalyst on Vimeo.
Remember, you too can be a Compassion sponsor and be a part of changing a life like Jimmy’s. To do so, click here.
Thanks.
I never intended this to be a hub for people wanting to find out more about Sterling, but I’m humbled how it’s been used to help keep people informed about how Sterling’s doing and, more specifically, how we can all be praying for him.
I want to first thank everyone who has joined in prayer for Sterling, Roger and Becca, his parents, and Landry and Kinsley, his sisters. There are literally countless thousands of people praying, and I believe it is showing.
Though I’m not the most informed, here’s a quick update:
The surgery yesterday was successful. So, there’s answered prayer number one. It took a little longer than expected but went well. Dr. Wellons was in there for over nine hours and only took breaks to go to the bathroom. Sterling did great. Roger and Becca were able to visit with him some last night. He had a good bit of swelling, but was able to give a good thumbs-up. The report this morning is that he continues to do well and has quickly build a reputation for being one of the most polite 4-year-olds the staff has ever encountered. No surprise there.
There are still a lot of questions. The report from the biopsy won’t be back for a few more days at the earliest. Sterling’s in the pediatric intensive care unit where his progress will be monitored until he’s ready to be moved to a room where he’ll continue recovery for about a week before hopefully going home. He will have another MRI this morning to determine how much of the tumor they will able to get. The plan for what’s next largely depends on how his recovery goes, what the results are from today’s MRI and what the results of the biopsy turn out to be.
So, some continued prayer requests include:
1. Sterling’s recovery – praying specifically for no complications as a result of the surgery, no need for physical or occupational therapy, and growing strength for him.
2. MRI results – they’re not sure how much tumor they were able to get. Even if they don’t feel they got all of it, I know that our God has the power to take away whatever is left. That’s what I’m personally praying for. At any rate, asking for good results.
3. Biopsy results – praying that they’ll be back quickly. I can’t imagine having to wait on them. Also, praying specifically that the results come back that the tumor is benign.
4. Rest for Roger and Becca – most of us can’t specifically relate to what they’re enduring nor fathom how exhausting it is. Add on to that that Becca is about seven weeks from her due-date and there’s a lot going on for them. Rest is much needed, rest and rejuvenation even beyond the amount of sleep they’re able to get.
5. God’s glory – it’s weird to think of how God might be glorified through the struggles of our life. However, it’s already happening, and it’s really the ultimate good that can come out of these types of situations.
Thank you all for being the Church and for your continued prayers for Sterling.
Blessings.
It’s about 3:45. Tanya Smith in our office here at Student Life just sent out a bit of an update, and since a number of you have been checking in here today (totally humbling, by the way) I wanted to communicate it to all of you. So, here it is.
Sterling went in for surgery about 8am this morning. They’ve been able to get to the tumor and are doing some preliminary tests (for the surgeon – not for a long-term diagnosis) because the tumor was a little bit different color and consistency than he was expecting when they started. This doesn’t necessarily indicate that something more is wrong – tumors come in all shapes, sizes and colors. However, it is different than what the surgeon expected so he’s just trying to be cautious. The tumor is also pressing a little bit on a blood vessel and it’s causing it to bleed a little bit. They are keeping a close eye on that but they may need to give him some blood in a couple of hours. Please be praying for that. The doctors are hoping to avoid that if they can but will do whatever they need to for Sterling. His vitals look good and so far, he’s doing well in surgery.
Please continue to pray. Because they got started a little later than expected, the surgery may last a couple of hours longer than expected. That obviously moves back everything like his waking up and Roger and Becca getting to see him. The Davis’ are so grateful to be surrounded by so many that care about them and that are praying for Sterling. Earlier on twitter Roger said “Can feel the prayers of thousands that have taken Sterling & our family to the throne room.” I know your prayers for them mean a lot. The Lord is sustaining them just as He is always faithful to do.
Because of what is a huge mountain of faith the Davis’ have been called to walk through, the Lord is already working to use that for good. Just a bit of testimony of how the Lord is using this so far: A woman in Nashville – the mother of a friend of the Davis’ – has heard about what they are going through and has been following their updates on Sterling. In honor of the 4 Davis children, she has decided to change the lives of 4 children by sponsoring them through Compassion. Roger and Becca were so excited to hear this!
Please continue to pray for wisdom and discernment for the surgical team, strength for the family, protection for Sterling and for the Lord’s name to be known.
Thank you friends. More updates will come as we get them.
