Fly Fishing, Robert Redford and Discipline.

I have an old man hobby. Fly fishing. I can’t get enough of it. I am one of those suckers who saw the movie, A River Runs Through It, and I was mesmerized. It wasn’t just the gracefulness of it all, seeing that brightly colored fly line looping through the air and landing on the water so delicately, but also the nostalgia and purity of it all. And Robert Redford’s voice. It’s as if he was calling to me, telling me to try it. And who says no to Robert Redford? So I decided to take it up, and along the way I persuaded my friend to do it, as well. I figured if I can go bass fishing and fling a baitcast rod and reel around, I could fly fish. Unfortunately, this was a gross miscalculation on my part on the amount of skill required to simply cast with a fly rod, much less actually catch a fish. 

It took me well over a year to have a decent cast, and even longer than that to catch my first trout. Unfortunately, my overwhelming desire to become a fly fisherman didn’t quite match up with my skill level. I realized quickly that if I was going to have any sort of success, I had to invest the time to learn the skills required to fish this way. A new way of casting. Learning to tie flies. Learning aquatic entomology (incredibly nerdy, I know). I had to discipline myself in order to be successful at what I wanted to do.

I believe there are two aspects that have to be considered when it comes to pursuing a hobby or talent. There is the desire side of things, and then there is the discipline side. In the world of creativity, the desire comes from a very spiritual place. It involves understanding how God made us, and it is where our motivation and inspiration comes from. The discipline is the practical, process side of creativity. 

Christ’s desire is to work in and through me to create a picture of His truth and grace to the rest of the world. I understand that He is calling me to submit to His desire for my life. That the rhythm of life that I live by when living the Christ life is a very unforced, very natural rhythm. I understand that my inspiration to create comes from seeing God working in my life and seeing his evidence in the world around me. All of this is well and fine. And I believe that it is probably the most essential part of creativity. The desire to create must be present in our lives. 

But there is the other side of the coin. The practical side. The side that requires discipline. All the inspiration and desire in the world doesn’t make me a better song writer, or musician. Good intentions don’t make me great. What good is my inspiration to create something if I lack the skills to be artistic?  This I believe is the practical side of creativity. As artists, we must be constantly striving to refine and improve our skills. We must be disciplined and work out our creative and artistic muscles.

I cannot just expect to sit down and write a great song if I am not regularly disciplining myself. One of my prayers when it comes to my song writing, and even my understanding of God’s character, is that He would increase my vocabulary for Him. I want to see and experience God in new ways, which provides new and fresh inspiration, but I need to have the vocabulary to accurately describe that which I want to say about God. And on top of that, what good are lyrics without the ability to craft them into something musical? Am I spending time honing my skills not only as a lyricist but as a musician as well?

So what does discipline look like for me as a songwriter? It means practicing my art on a regular basis. A daily basis. That means practicing guitar or any other instruments that I play. It means spending time each day writing lyrics. And also spending time thinking about how to say what I feel inspired to say in a new and different way. In the last several months for instance, I made it a personal goal to be writing more often and consistently. The goal to be writing at least two or three songs each month, as long as I can fit it into my schedule. 

We were created to do things well and quality doesn’t come when we just do things on a whim. It requires purpose, and forethought. It requires discipline. I don’t think that we were called to do things with mediocrity, and I believe that God is honored in our pursuit of excellence.