really living

When was the last time you realized that you were really alive? When you weren’t waiting for life to happen – it was happening! When did you give thanks for that? Maybe it was when your heart was racing because of some excitement or some news – something good or something bad. Maybe you were so delighted – you won some great prize, some hope was realized – or maybe you were hurting, in so much pain and struggling so hard to get through it that you gave thanks for each breath as it came. Maybe you were giving at a cost to yourself – and you know how that giving reminded you of living. Maybe it was a close call that made you strain for life and remember that – whew – you are still alive. Thank God. When was that?

“I tend to divide my minutes into two categories: living and waiting to live. Most of my life is spent in transit: trying to get somewhere, waiting to begin, driving someplace, standing in line, waiting for a meeting to end, trying to get a task complete, worrying about something bad that might happen, or being angry about something that did happen. These are all moments when I am not likely to be fully present, not to be aware of the voice and purpose of God. I am impatient. I am, most literally, killing time. And that is just another way of saying I am killing myself.” _¹

Tell me a tale about a time that you knew that you weren’t wasting your life – that you knew that you were really living?

_{1.Excerpt from The Life You’ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg © 1997, 2002 by John Ortberg}

Trying times make better people

Lamentations 3: 25-27

The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.
It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.

 

Does anyone like long-suffering? Isn’t short-suffering better? Why Scripture say it would it be good to suffer and to wait? It’s because it is in that time of need that you can look and see the Lord satisfy that need – and you can see that you are under His protection.

Why is it good to bear the yoke, to struggle and to work hard in your youth? Because it trains you for hard times to come – so that when they come they are easier.

In your present struggles, sufferings, uncertainties or challenges – how can you look at the ‘dust in your mouth’ and still see hope? 

Is Art Artificial?

“We all know that art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.”  – Pablo Picasso.

A long time ago a couple of philosophers got in an argument: Plato said that Art was the worst, because it was a distorted copy of the physical, which itself was considered by him just a bad copy of higher perfect truths. Aristotle disagreed, saying that material was the real stuff, and that Art brought us to higher truths by pointing to ideals.

Scripture weighs in on this by saying that everyone has a sense of the ideal our their hearts. “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”  Ecclesiastes 3:11. We all know that Heaven is real – even if we refuse to accept it with our minds – our hearts cry out for it all the time. We are always longing for the perfect ideal. Some of us deal with it with hope, others with ambition, and others with cynicism. Some point to heaven, some try to build heaven on earth, still some try to deny heaven altogether, or to say that they’d just prefer hell.

Musical Artist and professor Jeremy Begbie says that the beauty we perceive in Art is a foretaste of heaven. This implies that good art points upward and speaks truth in doing so. A critic could say that art is a material distraction, something that could become an idol, should never be trusted. A cynic would say that the art is just material (and that this is all that there is) – pointing at nothing – a lie.

Whatever path you might choose, there will be signboards along the way. There will be material delivering a message about the ideal (there will be art). What we keep our eyes on, and how we relate to the signboards will determine a lot about the attitudes we develop (and out attitudes will determine a lot about where we place our eyes as we travel). How we look at art and beauty, and how we seek truth, can be a powerful influence on how we value ourselves, our efforts, and others and their work.

How does the media influence our perception of the ideal? Is art artificial? What can we do to see truth and ideals? How can we know when we are being lied to about ideals, and how can we know when we are being pointed in the right direction? 

Declaring and sharing is creative action!

Genesis 2:19 – And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and He brought them to the man to see what he would name each one. And whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 

When we give something a name, when we make a call, state an opinion or assertion – we are involved in the revelation and unfolding of creation! It’s like opening up a package – we have a part in bringing it into the world. This is how we are creative.

Our Maker is interested in that. Just like God brought the animals He had made to the man to see what he would name each one, He is interested in what we say and do too! It’s not that the Creator isn’t creative enough to think of a name his masterful works. He could have done that on His own without us. It’s that He wants us to participate in it – in revealing it, in acknowledging it and coming up with ways to share it! When we choose something, or name something, we are participating in it’s special uniqueness.

Think of something worth sharing from the past two months of your life and name it! Share it with us here. Describe it, name it, declare it, share it! Maybe it was something you did, something you saw, something said or heard, something you made or somewhere you went. The important part of this post is that you make the judgement about it, that you choose something good, and that you don’t keep it to yourself!

What if?

Proverbs 16:24 “Kind words are like honey–sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.”

Makoto Fujimura asked a very simple and very powerful question: What if?

He asked us to do the same. “To ask “what if?” is not just idealism or false hope or fantasy. “What if” questions are filled with hope and faith while acknowledging our struggle for that quest. ” ( “What if?” – also see Culture Care)

“What if” questions are questions intended as seeds of creative growth, ideas that will influence actions in positive ways… they are a call to living with intention. To ask “what if” questions, we must start with humility and hope. We must take a look at how we spend our time, energy, resources… where we invest our hopes, our imagination, our dreaming. Then we must select the best of them (cutting out the worst) and throw these thoughts forward in faith, asking them of ourselves and of others, trusting that the truth in them will resonate, and break forth into life.

Here are some examples:

• What if I spent a fraction of my entertainment time creating works for others instead?
• What if I saved my bubble-tea money and gave it to missions?
• What if  investors were busy making the world more beautiful, livable, good?
• What if students made choices for their education based on how they hope to see the future for others?

Please take a moment to think about it, pray about it, listen, and then ask a ‘what if’ question (or two) that will cause positive action in your life and in others. 

Then, go live it.

fear to fail or fail to fear

Sometimes, artists are afraid to start a creative work for fear of creating bad art.

“The thought is this: how could the Holy Spirit be a part of something less than excellent?” 1

Look at Ecce Homo, read about it’s ‘restoration’ and think. In what ways might we see this being used for God’s glory? Have you ever seen technically excellent works that fail Spiritually, or the other way around? What does this mean for your art?

1. Finding Divine Inspiration,  J. Scott McElroy, Destiny Image Publishers, Shippenberg Pa.  © 2008 pp 195

 

Faith and imagination.

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”  

 – Hebrews 11:1

It’s been said that imagination is required to have faith.

Can one have faith without having imagination? 

What do you think?

what is ‘generational thinking’?

One thing I love about visiting the ‘old world’ places on earth is hearing from, and receiving care from generations past. You find it in cobblestone streets and castles, in old gardens and books, in antique tools, old cars and in buildings that were built slowly and meant to last for many future generations. There is a generosity in this kind of thinking that goes way beyond the consumerist urge. It is not instant, and it is not just for the now. It is more noble and it seeks to care for others – even others we may never meet. 

What are ‘enduring qualities’ and what is ‘generational thinking’?

Can you think of any examples you’ve encountered? 

 

Mistakes and all…

Make a mistake. Mistakes don’t happen intentionally; those are called failures. Mistakes happen by doing your best, by trying until you mess up. Those are not called failures. Make mistakes because grace means that you can try.

Try boldly; take courage! Do something without the worry that you may fail. You won’t fail if you try. You will only fail if you don’t try – if you sabotage yourself.

Look at the parable of the talents: the only one who failed was the one who didn’t try. Everyone who tried multiplied. Mistakes and all – they teach us about mercy, and each time we get up we learn about grace.

Is the fear of making a mistake stopping you from doing something? Has it ever? Did you overcome it? Have you got a story yet or do you still need to make one? Do tell.

Phthalocyanine is a super lovely molecule discovered by mistake about 100 years ago.

Fad-Proof your efforts

“When you internalize an author whose vision or philosophy is both rich and out of fashion, you gain a certain immunity from the pressures of the contemporary.” – Scott Aniol

How many pop bands have come in and out of fashion in the past 70 years of recorded music? Countless. How many do we remember for making a lasting difference? Few. Why is it that so much popular pop culture bubbles to the surface and … well… >pops< ?

When we invest our energies into making art, how can we think about more than instant results? How can we make lasting beauty?

In what ways do your energies in art need to be fad-proofed? What have you done or can you do to create lasting beauty? How can you work generationally?