How Will We Wait

How do we get to the morning, to the sunshine, to the joy?

There is only one way.

By waiting for it. We can’t hurry the dawn, no matter how many anxiously we pace the floor or how impatiently we watch the clock. And so the question is not do we wait or not wait, because waiting is all we can do. The question is, How will we wait? Will we wait well… or will we wait poorly?

[Ken Gire, The North Face of God]

Pursuing Christ Creating Art

A few weeks back I read Gary Molander’s book, Pursuing Christ Creating Art, for the first time.

Stop right there. Go buy the book. Read it. Then come back.

Seriously.

That’s how deeply this book impacted me. Freed me. Challenged me.

“Do the people we have authority over feel covered, protected, and loved by us?
Or are we achieving our own dreams, all the while using them to get there?”

I first read this as meaning that other people have a responsibility to look out for me. And they do. But then God smacked me round the head and told me, I have a responsibility to others also. We all have influence in one way or another. Am I using my influence to release people into their God-given dreams, or just using it to get my own way?

“Artists pour their hearts into the art they create, so when they’re told to
go in a different direction, what they hear is: ‘Your heart is wrong.'”

Reading this freed me. You’re heart is not wrong. You’re heart is true to what God has called you to make. But that doesn’t mean your art will always be the best piece for the service, website, brochure, whatever.

“I think that question would not be ‘Am I gonna be OK?’ I think it would be a different question altogether.
Is the world gonna be okay?”

This made me think about something my pastor said recently. He was talking about how we often say, “If God’s got a calling for you, you won’t miss out.” His comment on this was that it’s probably true – you might not miss out, but others will. Your art is not just about you. It’s about what it does for the world. The world needs your art.

“These days, it’s easier than ever for any artist to create a platform for himself, for herself.
But the size of the platform doesn’t always equal the size of the character.”

May my platform never outgrow my character.

UPDATE: I had a bit of a server error, and lost a few posts/ comments. This was originally posted at the end of June.