“Insatiable curiosity, the beginner’s mind, unending questions, and holding loosely to previous discoveries in case something better comes along were always the marks of great thinkers, explorers, and creators throughout human history.”
Ron Martoia – The Bible as Improv
We don’t come to the table to fight or defend. We don’t come to prove or to conquer, to draw lines in the sand or to stir up trouble. We come to the table because our hunger brings us there. We come with a need, with fragility, with an admission of our humanity. The table is the great equalizer, the level playing field many of us have been looking everywhere for.
[Bread & Wine – Shauna Niequist]
“The Bible is by far the most fascinating, beautiful, challenging, and frustrating work of literature I’ve ever encountered. Whenever I struggle with questions about my faith, it serves as both a comfort and an agitator, both the anchor and the storm. One day it inspires confidence, the next day doubt. For every question it answers, a new one surfaces. For every solution I think I’ve found, a new problem will emerge. The Bible has been, and probably always will be, a relentless, magnetic force that both drives me away from my faith and continuously calls me home. Nothing makes me crazier or gives me more hope than the eclectic collection of sixty-six books that begins with Genesis and finishes with Revelation. It’s difficult to read a word of it without being changed.”
And that is one of the reasons Rachel Held Evans is fast becoming my new favourite writer.
I’ve had this book sitting on my shelf for about five years, waiting for me to get started… I finally finished it this evening. It is an utterly compelling story, but my goodness, it feels like the longest book I’ve ever read!
I plan to see it at the cinema this weekend, but I’m glad I’ve read it first.
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.
“I think that’s how it’s designed to work. God saves, redeems, and resurrects. Artists respond to that work with art. And a world of onlookers looks on. Because at the heart of it all…
Art is missional.
The point of art is to make visible the invisible God, for the world to see.
Christians don’t need to create art for God – He doesn’t need it.
Christians need to create art in response to God – Because the world needs it.”
[Gary Molander, Pursuing Christ Creating Art]
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