Life Is Sacred

There is an irony present in our society that absolutely baffles me. On the one hand, we fear death above most everything else. We use euphemisms, distractions, and straight-up denial to protect ourselves from the reality that each of us will one day die. We try to convince ourselves that we are safe and that death is something we do not have to deal with. But on the other hand, we are constantly bombarded by the seeming omnipresence of death in our lives. News media, entertainment, and life itself seem to be intent on forcing us to deal with death head-on. No matter how hard we try to shield ourselves from death, we are reminded all the time that it is real, and that every living thing is headed in that direction.

Lately, it seems that this paradox has come to the forefront in our society. Through a combination of different issues, America today more than ever is being forced to face the reality of death and to decide how we are going to deal with this reality. It seems that our vain attempts at avoiding the subject have finally, utterly failed, and our living rooms, classrooms, sanctuaries, offices, and storefronts (not to mention digital spaces like social media) are now filled with conversations about death. Since this is such a huge issue right now and it is a matter of such great importance, I thought I might contribute my voice to the conversation, not only to help me think through these issues but to share what I think with others in hopes that my reflections may be helpful to someone else.

Even more confusing and troublesome to me than the paradox mentioned above is the utter hypocricy that we employ when trying to appropriately deal with death when it confronts us. I'd like to note that I'm not talking about reactions of individual people to deaths of friends or loved ones, but rather reactions by our society as a whole in response to deaths that make national news headlines. Namely, we try to respond to and minimize death by creating more death. 

Think about it. When terrorists come to our country and kill American citizens, we respond by waging wars against entire nations in an attempt to kill potential terrorists before they get a chance to kill us. When a person commits murder, the reaction of the so-called American justice system is to condemn the murderer to death. And when a developing child threatens the life or quality of life of the mother, we terminate the child, donate the body to science in an attempt to find new ways to combat death, and accept money to compensate for "shipping and storage." This is how we as a society react to death: by creating more death. We're fighting fire with fire and hoping that this will in some way put the fire out.

But here's the reality of the situation: Death will never defeat death. And trying to combat death with more death results in simply that: more death.  This is not only illogical; it is unacceptable.

We will never be able to  confront and respond to death in a healthy way until we first recognize and appreciate the true value of life. I recently came across a term called sonder, and it is one that has become very impactful for me. It refers to the recognition that every other person on the planet has a life just as vivid, complex, and meaningful as one's own. I believe this is the key to understanding the value of life and the first step to appropriately responding to death. If we could see that every person we meet and every person we see has a life that is just as important and central to them as ours is to us, then maybe we could start to see what a tragedy a life cut short truly is.

I'm not saying this is easy, or even that I've truly grasped this concept as well as I should. There are over seven billion people on this planet, and that number alone is difficult enough for the human brain to comprehend. Trying to take the complexity of one's life and multiply it by a number that large is nearly impossible for one to do. But you don't have to try to start that big. Start small. Start with the person you are closest to, maybe your significant other or best friend. Think about how that person perceives life and realize that to them, their life is as central and important as yours is to you. Once you can grasp that, widen the view a little bit. Keep expanding until you can include all the people you like, and then expand even more into people you are neutral toward, and eventually to people you even dislike. Each time you take this step of expanding, you will start to see that the people around you matter just as much as you do, and you'll be well on your way to understanding the value of human life. You might even one day be able to live out Jesus' call to love your enemies (which, obviously, means you aren't going to kill them).

Because the truth is that other people are people too. Your best friend is a person just as much as you are. Your family members, friends, and peers are people just as much as you are. The person you pass on the street is a person just as much as you are. The person you buy your groceries from is a person just as much as you are. Your worst enemy is a person just as much as you are. And as hard as it is to admit, even a terrorist or a murderer is a person—just as much as you are.

In order to live ethical lives and bring about justice in our world, we must understand this basic truth. Other people are still people, even though they are not us. Each person's life matters. Each person's life is precious. Each person's life is a sacred, God-given gift that no one else has the right to take away from them. No person or entity has the right to take another person's life under any circumstances. Period. Life is just too precious for that. 

I understand that this may seem extreme. And I understand that one may be able to come up to exceptions to the rule I've put forth. I recognize that there is such a thing as necessary evil and that death cannot be avoided. However, I would urge each of you to truly, prayerfully consider the value of a human life before you ever even start to decide to condone the taking of one. Because life is precious. It is sacred. And as we consider current issues such as the death penalty, war, abortion, and others, we must remember just how precious life is.

Media As Worship

Being a seminarian, I am often asked the question, "What kind of ministry do you feel called into?" I've heard this question asked countless times and heard every possible answer there is: from lead pastoring to working with youth to parachurch ministry to advocacy to "I have no idea." But the one I offer is one that has not been heard at my seminary before, and so I often get some interesting looks when I say that I feel called into media ministry.

Let me be clear: I have received an overwhelming amount of support from my friends, family, peers, and professors when it comes to pursuing my calling, and I am so very thankful for that. But I know there are those who may still be a little skeptical, and I can understand that as well. Some question whether or not working with computers can really be understood as ministry. Many recognize that it is a type of ministry that churches need, but they think of it more as a volunteer position than as a pastoral job. And there are others who may be on board with media ministry as a vocation but question why someone who wants to work with media would go to seminary.

Now these concerns are legitimate and should be addressed. I can't tackle them all in one blog post, but I wanted to set up this backdrop so that you understand where I'm coming from when I say what I'm about to say. I want to get at the absolute heart of this issue of why I feel called to the ministry I do and why I'm working hard to be the absolute best I can be at it. My main point, and the center of my calling, is this:

I am pursuing a career in media ministry because using my media talents for God is the greatest form of worship I am capable of.

That's right. For me, working with media is a form of worship. And it's not just that. It's the best form of worship I have ever participated in. I feel most connected to God when I'm behind a computer using my skills to glorify him. And I can't think of any better thing to dedicate my career to.

To someone who doesn't worship in this way, it may seem odd for me to consider working with media a form of worship. But I think my media work can be considered worship on a few different levels. 

First of all, working with media can be understood as worship on a wholistic level. For Christians, everything we do should be considered a form of worship. When we go about our days—going to work, talking with friends, taking care of ourselves, even taking our times of leisure—we should see everything we do as a way of giving glory to God. We worship him by living with him as a reality in our lives and being his people in the world. Obviously if worship encompasses everything I do, working with media would be included in that.

But just because everything we do is worship, that doesn't mean everything we do is something that is considered church work. That's the second sense in which my media work can be considered worship. At my church, we have a saying: "Work is worship." We depend on teams of volunteers to make everything happen on Sunday mornings, from greeting to cleaning coffee mugs to reading in service to—yes—even serving on the media team. Anything and everything done for God, his house, and his people, is considered worship in that it supports and furthers the ministry of the church. Media ministry certainly falls under this category.

But there is even yet a deeper sense in which media ministry can be considered worship, and this is the one that is most meaningful to me. Whenever I work with media in a church setting, I feel personally connected with God and his people. I can't exactly explain it, but I have never felt closer to God than I do when I am tucked away in an A/V booth running slides for a worship service. Not only am I praising God through song; I am creating a space in which others can worship with God and connect with him as well. And there is just something about that that makes me feel alive and connected with God in a way that nothing else offers me.

The truth is that media ministry is the highest form of worship I know. Maybe that doesn't make a lot of sense to people, and that's OK. Everyone worships God in his or her own way; that's how he created us. But when he created me, he created me to worship him in this way. And I think that's a pretty compelling reason to dedicate my life to it. I truly believe that God has called me into media ministry, and I am going to pursue that with my whole heart, worshipping God through my media work every step of the way.

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So now you know just a little bit about my calling and why I feel such a strong desire to work in media ministry. Now I'd like to hear from you. Do you have a strong sense of calling, whether it be in your career, relationships with others, social justice, church involvement, or other areas? If not, how are you actively seeking that calling? Let's talk about it in the comments!

Why I'm Happily Paying for Apple Music

Let's take a trip back in time, shall we? The year is 2008. A 16-year-old version of me sits at his desk typing and clicking away furiously on his HP laptop. His concentration is so intense that hours pass without notice as he continues to type and click, type and click, pause for a sip of some sugary drink that's terrible for him… and then back to typing and clicking. What is this ridiculously good-looking but also terribly naive young man doing? Well, he's perfecting his iTunes library, of course. He's invested hundreds of dollars into his music collection, which consists of CDs, MP3s, t-shirts, stickers, bracelets, posters, and more, all from his favorite bands. He takes pride in showing off his collection to others, and all of his friends think he's cool because he has "like, the best taste in music ever." His music library has become central to his identity. It's what he's known for. And he spends all of his free time keeping up with his favorite bands, discovering new music, and tweaking his iTunes library so that every minute detail is exactly the way he wants it to be.

Fast forward to three months ago, the day before the launch of Apple Music. Now I'm 23 and in seminary. When I check my Timehop and see what I posted back in 2008, I realize that not only was I not as cool as I thought I was; my taste in music wasn't that great, either. But instead of trying to improve or expand it, I've basically let it become stale. Sure, I still keep up with a few of my absolute favorite bands and buy their new albums when they come out. But my passion has disappeared, and my music routine has basically become limited to listening to the same few songs over and over on the rare occasions that I actually feel like listening to music.

Not only that, but my iTunes library is a mess. Some artists are listed multiple times with slightly different spellings or with "featuring so-and-so" at the end. Albums are missing artwork. There's even a song that has a typo in the title. It's been that way for years, and I've never bothered to change it even though I know it would take approximately three seconds to fix. That one misspelled song title is a symbol for my whole approach to my music library at this time: I just don't care about it.

And then, I wake up the next day and find out that Apple Music is live. I have to try it out, not because I'm excited about the service, but because I have a compulsive need to stay up-to-date on every software platform I can get my hands on. The first thing I think is, "Wow, that new Music icon is pretty cool." I tap it, and I immediately realize that Apple Music is so much more than I expected it to be. It's not just another music streaming service. It's a music streaming service that allows me to mix my streaming songs with my iTunes library. It's a music streaming service that already knows exactly what kind of music I love and suggests playlists that mix music I know with music I don't know but will soon come to love. It's a music streaming service that connects me with the artists I love so that I can keep up with everything they're doing while I enjoy their music. The second I experience Apple Music, it's like a switch gets flipped in my head, and I'm that 16-year-old music-obsessed kid all over again.

I spend the rest of the day obsessing over my music library. I fix all the mistakes that I've allowed to slip in over the years, and I even update some of my old album artwork with newer, higher-quality images. I look up every music artist I've ever had any interest in and add their "Intro To…" playlist to my library. As I explore the app, I remember songs I've heard that I loved, artists I've completely forgotten about, and albums I've wanted to buy for years but never could bring myself to shell out the money for. And now all this stuff is accessible to me. As much of it as I want. For free. And I can't get enough.

I listen to music all the time now. I listen to it at least as much as I did when I was 16, if not more. And now, I have the resources to enjoy my favorite music while also expanding my musical horizons through content discovery. I can finally have relevant conversations about current music trends because I have access to every song that's blowing up right now. And I can discover unknown indie artists and share them with my friends, something I loved doing when I was younger. I'm into music so much right now that I bought a brand new set of wireless headphones just so I could listen to my music in more places. I listen in my car, on my bike, when I'm shopping, when I'm cleaning, right after I wake up, right before I go to bed, and all kinds of times in-between.

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Wireless headphones make the man.

And that's why I love Apple Music. It gave me the gift of loving music again. As silly as it may sound, it's been really good for me to reconnect with something I used to love so much. No, I'm not going to go 100% evangelistic fanboy on you like I once did. I won't start wearing band t-shirts again and scouring Google for the latest news on my favorite artists. But I am going to be able to enjoy music in a way that is not only fun, but also meaningful. And that's all thanks to Apple Music.

So tomorrow, when my free trial runs out, I'm going to happily pay the $10 required to stay subscribed to the service. Not only am I supporting artists and musicians. I'm supporting a wonderful music streaming service that has already done me a lot of good, and I'm giving myself even more opportunity to be encouraged, enlivened, and even edified by it more in the future. Apple Music is well worth the money to me, and I hope you'll give it a chance as well. Maybe it won't impact you as powerfully as it has me, but maybe it will. You'll never know unless you give it a chance. Who knows? You may end up three months from now in the same place I am now, handing Apple $10 a month for access to their music streaming service and smiling as you do it.

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Well, that's my review of Apple Music! Thank you for checking it out. I know it's a little different than my usual reviews, but I wanted to be completely honest with you about why I love Apple Music so much, and that meant getting a little sentimental. There are obviously other, more objective, reasons why I love the service, and I'd be happy to discuss them with you in the comments, through my contact page, or on social media. I'd also like to know: Have you tried Apple Music? If you have, will you stick with it once the trial runs out? And if you haven't, why not? Let me know in the comments! I would absolutely love to hear from you.

Stop Renewing My Favorite Shows

Guys, I have a serious problem. And before you ask, no, this isn't a joke. The headline wasn't a misdirect or clickbait. You're not going to read this entire article thinking it's serious just to get to the end and find out it's actually satire and you've been duped into believing my point of view. I hope to one day be able to write something that clever, but today is not that day. Today is about awareness. It's about making sure that you, my faithful readers, are informed of this terrible atrocity that is taking place in the television industry. It's about getting the word out to as many people as possible so that hopefully something can be done about this. Because something needs to be done.

My problem, as you can see from the title of this post, is that my favorite TV shows keep getting renewed for new seasons. And it's really starting to upset me.

You may be asking yourself, "Why would Devon be upset that his favorite TV series are living on for another year? Doesn't he want more of the shows that he loves?" Those are perfectly legitimate questions that I will do my best to answer throughout this post. But first, I want to be clear about one thing that is certainly not the reason I have a problem with my shows getting renewed.

I'm not complaining about having too much TV to watch. I love TV, there is a lot of good TV out there right now, and I fully support the creation of good TV. I look forward to the new TV season every year. I enjoy making my schedule and having new episodes of my shows to watch every week. I have at least one show that I watch every weekday, so I'm almost never out of new things to watch during the regular TV season. And I'm not complaining about that at all. I'm not saying that they should stop making new TV altogether.

What I am saying is that there are certain shows that I love to watch but I don't think should get renewed for a second season. In my opinion, there are some shows that are simply meant to exist as one-season series, almost like a miniseries. I'm not knocking them at all. Some of the best TV series of all time have been short-lived. And the truth is that some of those shows are considered good because they weren't left on the air long enough to get cancelled due to stale writing, departing stars, or an apathetic audience. And that's why I'm afraid that some of the shows I love are being picked up for second seasons.

I think the reason I have such a big problem with these shows being renewed is that it reflects a huge misunderstanding of the definition of success in the American TV industry. Creating a TV show is not about making a bunch of money from advertisers, building a gigantic audience, creating a ton of buzz on social media, or staying on the air for absolutely as long as possible until you've run your audience and creators dry. Some of those things are good, and they are often side-effects of putting out a great TV show. But none of them are the goal of producing television. Or at least, they shouldn't be.

The goal of a television series should be to tell a good story well. I know that sounds simplistic and subjective, but it's the truth. A TV show should exist to share a story with the audience that connects with them on a deep level, takes them on a journey, and leaves them with a conclusion that satisfies and challenges them at the same time. My favorite TV shows are the ones that can do that, and those are the shows that are getting the most attention right now.

But along with that attention comes complications. Studio executives hear that a show is doing well and decide that they want more. If a show works well for one season and brings in a lot of money, why can't it do the same for a second year? Unfortunately, not all shows are built like that. And the ones that I currently love the most don't feel like multi-year shows to me.

In order to last multiple years, a show has to have a premise that can be played out over multiple years without getting stale or lost in the noise. Take USA's Suits, for instance. The show is about a young genius who fakes his way into a job at a prestigious law firm and then has to deal with the stresses of being a lawyer while constantly covering up his secret. Suits is in its fifth season, and it still holds up because its premise is one that can be played out over multiple years. The main character's secret identity, the main premise of the show, is still a huge plot point. Sure, it comes in and out of focus to make way for other, smaller plots, but it's the main thread that runs through the show. It keeps the show interesting, and the show will end once that central conflict is resolved once and for all.

But some premises aren't meant to last multiple years. One of my favorite shows of the summer was Lifetime's UnReal. It goes behind the scenes of a fake Bachelor-like reality show to reveal what really happens on those sets when the cameras aren't rolling. It's intriguing, ground-breaking, and just plain fun to watch. But how long can a show with that kind of premise really last? They've already shown us what those shows are really like. The mystery and shock value are now gone. The Bachelor's reputation has already taken its hit, so UnReal has served its purpose. What can they really do in season two to keep the premise going without repeating themselves? Probably, the show will abandon its premise to focus solely on the characters and their relationships instead. And I don't want to watch a show about that. It's not the same thing, and it honestly won't be as good.

I would rather watch a show I love end early on a good note than watch it try to last as long as it can just to get cancelled when it gets bad. Give me one season of a really good show with an intriguing premise, an exhilarating journey, and a cathartic ending, and I'll be the happiest, most loyal fan you've ever seen. And in return, I'll give you my money. What I want in a TV show is a good story well told. And the current TV system does not support that. Instead, it renews any show that gets good ratings, even if the plot and premise don't lend themselves towards another season. And to me, that's a huge problem.

Now I understand that my opinion may not be a popular one. Most fans of TV shows are constantly asking for more, and they feel disappointed when their favorite shows end. But here's the thing: These fans don't really know what they're asking for. They think they're asking for more content of the same or better quality, but what they're really asking for in many cases is more content just for the sake of more content. And everyone can recognize when a show has outlived its premise's viability. Unfortunately, that happens way too often, and when it does, nobody wins.

So here's my request to the people in charge of the TV industry: Keep making TV shows that continue season after season, but also invest in more miniseries and anthology series. It's so much easier to tell a complete, well-thought-out story in a season than to try to keep coming up with new plot lines every year just because the network told you to. When choosing which shows to renew, choose them based on which series have stories left to be told, not based on which shows are the most-watched. And please stop renewing my favorite shows, because they're perfect as they are. We don't need more average stories on TV. We need good stories well told. Whether that's over one season or ten will depend on what kind of story you're telling. But please let the story determine the length of the series, not the other way around.

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Well, that's my manifesto (or rant, if you prefer) on the current state of American television. Thank you for checking it out. Now, I'd like to hear from you: Do you think American TV shows last too long? Do you have a favorite show that was cancelled too early? What shows are you most looking forward to this fall? Let's discuss in the comments!

Byte

Hey, friends! I just wanted to write a quick post to tell you about this awesome new creative tool I found called Byte. It's an app for the iPhone that gives you a blank canvas to let your creativity flow. There are very few limitations to what you can do with Byte, so it's actually a little hard to explain. But basically, it lets you arrange text, images, GIFs, links, videos, and more on a page in any way you like. You can add animations, change colors, and even link to other bytes to create a series. For example, the entire Support section of the app is simply a series of linked bytes, and it's very cool. Really, there's no limit to what you can do with Byte or what you can use it for!

My absolute favorite tool in Byte is the music composition tool. You use emojis to create loops. It's easy, fun, and even a little addictive. I've already made a couple of Bytes myself, and I hope to make more in the future. I'm not sure exactly what I'll use this tool for, but I'd like to at least tinker with the idea of incorporating it into my web presence in some meaningful way.

You can check out the Bytes I've created here and here, and you can download Byte for yourself from the App Store so that you can join in on the fun! Comment below with links to what you create, and I'll be sure to check it out.