I LOVE the Back To The Future Trilogy.  Maybe it’s my parents’ fault.  It’s the first movie I remember.  We saw it at the drive-in theater next to the County Sheriff’s department where my dad worked.  I remember sitting on Mom’s lap with those “mom earmuffs” hands over my ears for good long stretches of the movie because portions of it pushed the limits of what a 4-year-old needed to hear.  By today’s FCC standards, it’s pretty tame. But in 1985, look out!

I think I’m going to bring back the phrase, “Great Scot!” in historical Doc Brown fashion… Or Montgomery Scott from Star Trek.

I digress into nerd-dom… and I’m back.

But, when I think “classic slacker” I think of George McFly.  That nerdy kid that picked on by Biff (who’s, in real life, now a pretty prominent Christian Comedian/Motivational Speaker) and doing his math homework…  but, knows that he’s the “density” of the prettiest girl in school.  It takes a push from a chance encounter with his yet to be born son, Marty, to spur him to his greatness and change the his history.

His aspirations were MUCH higher than what he was capable of doing with planning, organization, pushing and help.

I feel like that sometimes when I read other people’s blogs, listen to other people’s songs, see other’s art.  And, sometimes it just easier to shut down when  you start feeling bad about yourself because you can’t keep up with people you look up to.  Honestly, I’ve been struggling with this in my life recently.

I think in some ways all of us do.  We all have moments of flirtation with futility.  Those moments when we consider just hanging it all up.  I have a handful of blogs set up in my RSS reader and I see one particular guy I follow (ahem… Matthew Paul Turner) that as of today has literally posted 300 posts in the last couple of weeks (OK, not literally… but you get what I’m saying).

“That’s ridiculous!” you say.  True.

Then there’s Jon Acuff.  He has to be one of the funniest people that I have ever read!  I can’t even keep up with his one post a day let alone his hilarious bent on satire and Christianity.  And, on top of that he always makes me think.  Well, that’s just annoying.  I’m lucky if I can even make myself chuckle at a bad joke about an orange and a bicycle.

Then I realize… it’s part of his job!  He’s an author.  It’s what he does.  And, no matter how much I try… I will never be Matthew Paul Turner (which is fine by me… because I have more hair than he does).

Or, there’s David Crowder‘s epic beard and guitar playing/song writing skills.  As much as I try, I’m not there in any of those capacities.  Take yesterday’s Crosspoint worship gathering.  The band was on it.  Then there was me.  I was hitting wrong chords all over the place.  Singing the wrong lyrics to songs we’ve done a million times.  There were probably 7 people in the room that noticed my guitar issues… but it still bothers me.

No matter who you are or who you aspire to, I would bet dollars to donuts that at some point you too have been in a “slump mood” and feel you’re just not hacking it.  So, how do you beat the “‘FEELING BAD ABOUT YOURSELF BECAUSE YOU CAN’T KEEP UP WITH SOMEONE YOU LOOK UP TO’ BLUES?”
I offer a simple 3 step process:

Step 1.
Make sure your mom regularly reads your blog.  If your mom isn’t reading your blog, then it’s for one of 2 reasons: 1.) she doesn’t know what a blog is or how to use the world wide interweb, or 2.) you’re blog really isn’t that good.  (This is a principle I call the “Wiens Principle.”  My friend Greg Wiens‘ mother told him after 25 years of being a pastor that he wasn’t very good at it.  He’ll tell you she was right.  It’s true what they say, “mamma knows best.”) So, let’s assume that she is in fact reading your work religiously.  How does she respond to what you wrote?  If she says, “It really sparked a good conversation with your father and me.”… then kudos to you. Or, does she simply say, “Oh, it was nice…”  Just in case you didn’t know “nice” is mom for “I read it because I felt like I had to because I love you… if your name wasn’t attached to it, I’d never give it a second thought.”   Or even worse, does she say, “Oh, honey, you know you would have made a great architect.”  Then you’re sunk.  If your mom won’t read it… then no one else will either.  So, get mom on board.  Then go save the rest of the world.

Step 2.
Make your blog look cooler than the people’s blogs you’re jealous of.  Use blacks and greens instead of whites and blues.  It’s futuristic and cool.  Put cool little pictures of things you care about on the right side column so other people will ask you about them when they read your blog.  Then act like they should knoe everything about your interests because they read your blog one time.  I mean, come on… you’re on the internet!  That’s big stuff!

Once you’re all pimped out with your new color scheme and feeling good about yourself again, go visit their blogs and just point and laugh.  Don’t read the content, because then you’ll get down on yourself again.  But, inevitably you will read the content… so, then move on to Step 3.

Step 3.
I know, I know… you’re saying, “PJ, I want to know about music, art, facial hair growth and other stuff that I get down on myself about.  How do I beat those blues?”  I say, “It’s simple. Don’t beat ’em… join ’em.”  It worked for B.B. King, Ray Charles, Helen Keller, Mother Teresa, Bono, and the Swiss Family Robinson… they made a bad situation better by exposing the problem, talking/singing/doing something about it and becoming the catalyst for change (well, except for Swiss Family Robinson… they just had a crappy situation they made kick *ss by building a wicked cool tree fort and living there and I think that’s cool.)  But, seriously… join ’em.  Use it as your push to make yourself better.  Be a self starter.  Be a strong finisher.  Take those moments of feeling down on yourself and use them to get you to a better place.

There’s a great scene in the U2 Film “Rattle and Hum” where B.B. King looks at Bono and says something like, “Boy, you too young to sang blues like that.”  Bono had just learned how to simply communicate a problem and bring people into it.  It’s story telling 101.  And, we all have stories.  We all come from somewhere and that’s worth knowing.

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I’m currently in Step 3 in a lot of areas of my life. Writing, blogging, my musical abilities, my art… I could go on. I’m never going to be as prolific as Matthew Paul Turner nor as pointedly funny as Jon Acuff.  I’ll never have as epic of a beard as David Crowder, or be able to sing as melodically as Chris Martin, or write the next great song by (enter your favorite band here). But, seeing where I need growth pushes me forward… my very own personal Marty McFly, if you will.

So, what do you get down on yourself about because someone is better than you at it?
Leave a comment.  Let’s start a conversation
+PJT

P.S. Story telling 201 is pretty simple too: Self-deprecating Humor, the art of making fun of yourself to prove a point.  We’ll save that for another time.