Everything starts with a thought, so it's only true that this would start the same way.
This thought was different though. It was working inside my head for quite some time before it fully formed at a most inopportune time: eleven o'clock at night as I was laying in bed half asleep. Finally realizing Human Need/Human Deed was like a weight lifted from my shoulders. I got up, turned on the lights, sketched a rough logo and was even impulsive enough to register the domain name. That night was more than two years ago but the idea was born long before then. The concept for what eventually became Human Need/Human Deed arose many years ago, before there was even a name or direction to the thought.
That dormant idea was revisited about a week before my eleven o'clock wake-up call. It began with a conversation I had with my good friend Ted about his recent missions trip to South Africa. He spent time there teaching the South Africans how to become business owners. While he talked of his time there facilitating seminars and talking with the South Africans about God, it occurred to me that I wanted to give back too. It was becoming more clear to me that God was working within my heart to help me be something more. I just didn't realize until these events began to unfold how hard God was working.
The Sunday after the conversation with Ted, we started discussing ideas at church about how to use our unique God-given skill-set to better the world and to bring people to God. Personally, I've always had a natural gift with art, specifically graphic design. Though I still wasn't sure how God would want me to use my talent in art to bring people to Him. The only thing I could do was pray about it. I kept going back to the half-formed idea from so many years ago. Despite the time that had passed, the idea didn’t want to die.
Through the events of that week - the invisible interactions that we don’t understand which can only be the work of God - it was laid on my heart that my idea might be best achieved through a nonprofit organization. I realized that I have a service I could provide and a unique demographic who needs it. I have found, through my experiences with prior churches I’ve attended, that the attention to visual communication is often overlooked. They’re missing an opportunity to maximize their potential to reach people through creative media. Images can evoke a feeling or emotion where words sometimes cannot and design professionals are trained to draw that out. Additionally, churches don't often have a lot of money in their art budget nor a lot of time to devote to graphics. Human Need/Human Deed would be a graphic design service available only to churches who do not have the internal resources or the funds to fulfill their artistic needs. It would be set up as a website where churches could contact me to supply them with electronic and print media. Since not all churches are web-savvy, I would also contact churches to offer my services as a nonprofit.
Despite the fact that the idea took so long to come together, the challenges in bringing the idea to life are far greater. This idea is much bigger than my skills alone. I the lack the additional schooling required to be an efficient designer and have no contacts for networking. All those challenges aside, I don’t know the first thing about starting a nonprofit. I have no experience or resources, simply the desire to see this through. I love the idea of living a better story. It’s such a simple idea that the elements of story can be applied to our lives but the effects are very profound. I’ve always talked myself out of most things that seemed risky and I don’t want to do that with this. I want it to end up a great story. This isn’t something I want simply as a side project, I want this to be my life.
Simply stated: I’m tired of sitting on the sidelines. I want something different for my life and I want to live a better story. I feel, if given the chance to verbalize this to others at the seminar, I’d be more inclined to take action. If I’m chosen to attend the seminar, I hope to walk away with more confidence, clarity and some direction with which to take my idea. I hope to begin a new story and come away with a clear vision on how to accomplish that.
Check out what I'm talking about here: www.donmilleris.com/conference
Living a Better Story Seminar from All Things Converge Podcast on Vimeo.
