Eat This Drawing: what has art ever done for you

ART: tangible materials used, exhausted energy spent, hours lost with little return, unbalanced return on overall investment The artist within you says this is false. He tells you every creative journey is a worthwhile return on your exhausted investment of material, time, and energy, but you only half believe that.

What if the cyclical process of art was more balanced?

Jessica Dore; a great artist, and new friend of mine is setting out for such a project. Weary of seeing her art only yield a product or a vessel for the energy put in, she seeks to demand a fairer return from her art.

20 hours drawing! 4 hours eating...her drawing!

Jessica will consume the art she gave so much energy to in order to receive a return on the energy she gave. The symbolism is extravagant, but the project far exceeds mere symbolism for her.

She says, "This cycle doesn't always get completed. I am taking control over this deeper energy, this unexplainable force of creation. Instead of seeking validation for the work to feed my artists ego, I am consuming the effort and validating and fueling myself. Taking the thing I love and consuming it the way I have consumed so many unhealthy and superficial things that this contemporary world has convinced me will satisfy and validate me."

It goes beyond art, doesn't it? Think of the things and people and circumstances you invest yourself in. Who and what's beck and call do you continually subject yourself to?

All of these things are necessary and important. We are better people when we sacrifice ourselves for the better of others, but you can only pour out more than you have for so long.

Jessica's project is a process to engage with that universal tension of what we expend vs what is returned to us. Jessica asked if I would join her project from Ragamuffin Ramblings. I was very thrilled to be a part, though very small, of her discoveries.

Keep checking back to see more as more is returned.

People Aren't People

Today my friend, Justin Wallace, tweeted:

The thought that there is a unique story behind each set of eyes that I pass blows my mind. #walkingacrosscampus

What incredible potential awaits those who pay attention to people like this!

What could happen if we intentionally remembered each person we pass represents a story? What things would change if people were not just faces, stats, floating torsos but stories you should hear?

I want to hate more

"For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." -Romans 7:15 God's word has hit me to the heart today. Reading Paul's reflections in Romans 7 about that tension of doing what I hate and not doing what I want to do, I am stricken by the word "hate".

Sure I understand what it is like to do things I wish I hadn't. I know what it is like to do things and feel bad for doing them, but I am not certain that I HATE my sin. I am not certain that I see my sin and loathe those things which continue to pull me away from my Father. I dislike them and try to avoid them, but I cannot say that I HATE them.

I want to look at those things which disconnect me from Him and know that I hate them for that. I want to hate my sin and those things which continue to attack my heart with guilt and shame. I want to hate my sin that I might love God more.

PRETEND: for my daughter

Dear Bryleigh,

Begin pretending now.

Pretend the world needs you though it does not revolve around you

Pretend rest for the restless resounds in relationship with you

Pretend you have the secret which is salve for the serrated heart

Pretend within you wells wisdom that is the antithesis of arrogance

Pretend you are capable of a compassion reserved for fairy tales and far-off lands

Pretend your hands can heal the heart of the untouchable

Pretend you are different from those who look just like you who hate those who don't look just like you

Pretend that a disgusting world which wants to be wonderful depends on your touch your voice your love

Pretend as though pretending enough can produce a reality others can only pretend.

Love Dad.

Third Servant Church

The Church is full of third person servants. When you read the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, you typically realize that everything we have been given is a gift. We should use those things to further the kingdom. We commonly think about our gifts, talents, abilities, and our money. We wonder what we could do to better use those gifts to further the kingdom of Christ. We commonly remember that we are called to be effective ministers of the gospel with the things we have been given, but there are other things we have been given than resources alone. Our God has given us hope, grace, mercy, and an outstanding love.

We have been given these phenomenal gifts, and our common response to the parable is to think of our abilities, our talents, our money that, yes, IS God's. We tend to overlook other gifts like hope, mercy, grace, salvation, love. We have been entrusted with those as well, and the question is the same. What do we do with those gifts?

When I look at those gifts, I see an American church nearly full of third servants. We have hoarded those things in ourselves. Every Sunday we come and bury those things in the field of our common services. We talk about those things with people who already believe what we believe. We have not taken many risks to invest those gifts for a larger return.

It IS a risk to invest, but the first 2 servants take those risks and find blessing and return on those investments. They also come to see that there are so many opportunities to expand the kingdom with the gifts we have of hope, mercy, grace, love, salvation.

The only way to reveal the kingdom and become one of the first two servants is to take those things OUT of the burial ground of our walls and invest them in areas outside of our comfort. There are risks of fear, awkwardness, etc. But the return on those risks are incredible.