Portfolio
I had an interesting thought a few weeks ago, as we were polishing up our portfolio of work at the office in preparation for some marketing. Due to the nature of the work I do, for the most part, every time I finish a project, its a little better than the last one I did. In theory, we’re the opposite of the clip of Peter from Office Space that you see above. We hope. Cleaning up our portfolio largely consists of taking everything we’ve done since the last time we updated things, and taking the best of that stuff.
The thing is, though, when I use the standard of the work I can produce today, things that looked great even eighteen months ago look like crap. Projects that I was extremely proud of are culled like its nobody’s business, because they don’t hold up to what I know now. The end result is that you see the sixteen images I’ve carefully selected to show you just how awesome we can be.
I was wondering something. Would it be more impressive if I was to show you everything? If I was to show you just how far I’ve come? If I showed you the things that embarrass me today next to the bright shiny stuff, would the bright shiny stuff shine brighter or lose its sheen?
All of this pondering of the merits of my portfolio – of the nature of my work, led me to an interesting parallel with my faith in Jesus. There were times in my life where I thought, “wow, I’ve got this really figured out – look how well its going.” Now, in retrospect, I see that I didn’t really. It wasn’t that I wasn’t working at it (well, sometimes even that wasn’t true), its just that I had to, as Paul tells us in Philippians 2:12, work out my faith with fear and trembling.
So, my hope is that, just as my work looks better the more I work at it, the more that I end up having a faith that brings me closer into relationship with Christ as time goes by and I keep working at it. I’m pretty sure that once I get a little further into my own faith-story, I’ll be able to look back, shake my head at the Ryan of 2008, and be excited to see how I’ve figured a little more of it out. Also, like my work, I wonder if my faith doesn’t shine brighter next to the reflection of who I once was.
One of our favorite pseudo-mottos for our office is “we don’t suck as much as we used to . . ” – and as much as we say it in jest, at the same time, it holds up. We know we haven’t gotten there yet, but we’re working on it. Hopefully, in another year or two when I look back at my work and my faith, that motto will hold up.