If it's summer, it must be time for 'The Connie Maxwell Story'

If it's summer, it must be time for "The Connie Maxwell Story."

No, although it may seem like it, I haven't given up on this ongoing documentary video project and am now back at work on it. I will be the first to admit that this project is taking a lot longer than I ever envisioned. Although it is a project that could have been finished within a few months if I were able to work on it full time or at least within a couple of years, working on it at least part-time steadily, I've seen it draw out into multiple years now.

The delay is primarily due to the distractions of something called a "job" and the usual busyness of life. My time through much of the year is dominated by my work as a communication professor at Anderson University in Anderson. I love it and love my students but days during the academic year can get very long. It's usually about this time each summer before I really have time to jump headlong back into the work (which really is a work of joy).

But the delay is a least a little bit due to procrastination as well, I'm afraid. Newton's first law of motion -- sometimes referred to as the law of inertia -- says that "an object at rest stays at rest...unless acted upon by an unbalanced force." This can certainly describe me at times and I know I have missed opportunities to keep this project moving along more quickly.

With that confession out of the way, though, I'm excited to be "an object in motion" again. Today, I'm sharing the rough cut of the brief title sequence that opens the documentary. It simply sets the scene for the information to come.

This summer I also anticipate sharing some of the interview clips that will be sprinkled throughout the documentary. I've been privileged to interview so far all of the living former Connie Maxwell presidents (except for the current president, Dr. Danny Nicholson) and a number of alumni so I think you'll find their comments about Connie Maxwell's history interesting. (By the way, I certainly have no intentions of leaving Dr. Nicholson out. I anticipate his being the last interview so that he can wrap the documentary up and cast the vision for Connie Maxwell's future.)

This is a significant time for the Connie Maxwell story as the children's ministry completes its celebration of its 125th anniversary. While, the documentary will not be ready for this weekend's Alumni Reunion as I had once hoped, I am truly hoping to wrap the project just as soon as possible.

If there are any "unbalanced forces" for this summer, I'm praying that they will just propel me forward even faster!