What the artist gets.

After a night observing art that was of a more abstract nature, I reflected on what I saw and experienced and decided that one of the most interesting aspects of the night was listening to the conversations taking place. You have probably seen the paintings similar to the ones I was viewing and heard someone remark with a statement similar to "I think I could do that, it looks like splatter painting..." which I did hear, but I also heard other, more interesting conversations. Some of the people were walking around telling each other what they saw, others were describing an emotion, others were talking about how much they were worth or which one they would like in their home. Still some just sat and let the paintings sink in. some people knew the history of the artist and what made him important while others had never heard of him. All were there experiencing the art for different reasons and from different starting points.
Art is a funny thing it seems to me that it is often misunderstood and sometimes overly valued to a point of worship. But some where in the middle we see that artist gets things that we need to understand. C.S. Lewis when talking about his journey toward finding and understanding God uses the word Joy as describing a longing or a wonderment that draws us to something more, he describes the first time that he experienced this joy when looking at something his older brother had created. This longing or “Joy” is often captured by artists in different ways, using paint and canvas an artist has the ability to make observations of the world and push the viewer to rethink, to dream, or just to enjoy in a new way. The artist gets in some way what Lewis described as Joy.

Half Full ?

My day started well, though I did leave the house without eating anything. I know for some that this is a normal event, but I'm of the type that has to has to eat breakfast. so on my way out I am debating on whether or not to stop at McDonnell's or the bagel shop, or to risk it, and see if I can find anything at work. I decide to go for it, hoping to find a bagel and cream cheese or something. so as I am half regretting half at peace with my decision I hit awesome traffic leaving my community. sweet! good enough excuse to swing in and get something delicious from the bagel shop. I get my delicious western breakfast bagel sandwich and return to the slow going road, but much content with a good cup of coffee and great breakfast. I arrive at work parking a little bit of a drag no worries I have a new sweet bag. I get to my desk set up my laptop... sit down to start in grab a sip of my coffee, but it was cold.? then I realize that it was last weeks half full cup of coffee on my desk, in my mouth.. spit and return to my hot coffee to wash out my mouth. I still quiver thinking about it, yuck!  

Kings

It is harder to let God be lord of my life than it would seem. 

I think that it is easier to obey a king of a country or a "worldly king" (to use christian speak) than it is to make God king of my life. A worldly king only has say over the temporal and shallow realities of our lives where a king that is also God and creator wants to be king over more than that. God is king over the internal and deep parts of my life,, and that is scary! Scary because it is much harder to trust a king with these areas then it is with the rest. Most people it seems only half trust politicians and leaders anyway, and we are only trusting these "kings" with things that matter only so much and history has taught us how to over-through them if it gets too bad anyway. God on the other hand is much more powerful so if I give God a little control over some things that might be OK because then I still have not lost all, but if I give total control that is it, there is no overthrowing and what if God cannot be trusted, instead I will give control of my life to lesser kings and gods that I can through away or get rid of if they fail me. And I remain "in control."

  

(partial reflection on psalm 98)

Making Friends

Everyone on some level understands the feeling associated with the experience of the first day at a new school, you probably did not know anyone, and you wondered what people would think. then after the initial day you realized you have to begin to make new friends, which is not easy. 

perhaps some of us are better at this then others, for me making friends has not been a supper natural ability, which may be due in part to my lack of moving around, I have pretty much resided in one area my whole life and even when I did move to a new school I had someone I knew there that knew everyone, and I am typically Ok with not having a ton of friends as long as I have a few close ones.  I also am not an extrovert or a naturally outgoing type of person. 

That aside we still all go through different periods of our lives that we have to make new Friends whether it be because we switch schools or moved into a new stage in our life or maybe it is something more dramatic like you moved to a new state or country

So after pondering my lack of ability to make new friends and how hard relationships can be to start and maintain I checked my facebook page and realized I am not so bad at making friends after all. According to my profile I have doubled the amount of friend I had in one months time. (yea!) So with out doing much I have made like fifty brand new friends in 30 days. Turns out i'm grate at making new Friends. If only they had facebook when I was younger. 

The other.

{This is an old post that I had saved as a 'draft', I did not know that was
possible, any way here it is.}


Communication theory has said that we develop a concept of our self by engaging with other people. We express ideas through symbols (words, body language) these symbols are interpreted by another person then returned to us, we interpret and then re-express... Though this is a overly simple and dumbed down explanation, the idea is that we develop our sense of self through interaction with the other. If this is true we need other people in order be ourselves.

The loss of words

Have you ever noticed how sometimes our language just does not cut it. That there are things that words cannot express. Take art, somtimes It seems that art has the abilty to speak louder and with more clarity to the truth of somethings, and most often without words. 

The same is often true when answering the question " how do we know we are loved?" We can be told that we are loved, but it is always more powerful when we see or experience being loved. In those moments it is as if the language goes past words and speaks directly to the inside in some way that I don't get and sounds cheesy, but you know what I am talking about if you have paid any attention to art. That leads to this question.

Have you ever seen God speak to someone? 

I think I have. 

It is pretty cool to watch the story be told. The story often is of some trivial event in a persons life, take a some what random phone call, but to the person it seems to have carried a disproportional amount of weight. The phone call comes as an answer or an encouragement. See for that person the trivial phone call has come in the midst of an on going inner dialogue of sorts with God, and until then God has seemed some what absent or quiet as the person talked. but then when we have stopped talking, God speaks not through the phone, but to the inside. God says all the things that we have heard God say in the past through the word, but this time it is deeper and louder. "I love you, I'm with you, I will complete what I have started..."  and that person has heard God speak. 

  

Who Knew ?

I recently learned that Psalm 95 has been traditionally read by the church at the out set of the day, so I spent so time reading it. As I was read the psalm I noticed that it seems to tells a story, and as that story is told I could not but help to see it as a call to worship. The psalmist calls the people to worship God, to recognize the worthiness of God, and to do it through song. As the psalmist continues, the story tells what happens when Israel, or when we, neglect to worship. Israel's hearts were hardened and they turned away from God, and God left them there, away from the presence of God, left them to their own destruction. 

Who knew that Singing could save my life.