Creating space to experience the grace of Jesus Christ in your place of need
Hope Door I
What does “hope” mean to you? I was interested in honest answers. By using paint, I could capture the longing and the hope in color.
Creation Groans
What do you do when your longing is not realized? When you are disappointed? It’s dangerous to long for better things if we are the answer. There is a trail of blood that says we are not.
Find a bird
If we were really to talk about the real pain in our lives, that thing that keeps us up at night, we might doubt that Christianity offers any real-life application or relief there.
Easter Door
I worried I was ruining the project, but that gave way to energy and focus. I became struck by the explosive joy of God in redeeming sinners.
The Creative Process
The creative process varies for each person. It must. Every person approaches a project with different experiences, different giftings, and different skill sets to where they will bring something unique to the process. At least, that’s what we hope for, so that we will get to see or hear something unique in the art produced.
Mold Cleaner
Our COVID-changed world is now obsessed with cleaners, disinfectants, and cleanliness. I’ve never had so many wipes and hand-pumps in my life! Jesus’ words, “You are clean,” stand out to me in a new way.
A Cage Match with God
There have been many times when it seemed like God was more my adversary than friend. I clearly must have been wrong, right?
Pearl Jam, Wings, and the Death of Relativism
What we really want is to be the ones that determine what is good and bad, what is right and wrong for ourselves. We want to be autonomous (a law unto ourselves), and let others do the same. But it begins to break down when your truth conflicts with my truth, then we are not okay.
Calvary
I tell the story of Holy Week through paint, confession, and redemption
Bowie’s “Lazarus”
Incredibly interesting fact: the last single David Bowie ever released while alive was entitled Lazarus in December of 2015 (a month before he died) as he battled liver cancer.
Bowie, Coldplay, and Lazarus
I have now had three full on crises of faith during our recent move…existential melt-downs where I was not sure which way was up, where I wondered if God was going to abandon us, and I learned despair is so very near to grace.
Broken Shells
This is the inspiration for my recent sketches and drawings on broken shells. The more broken the shell, the more light flooded it.
Hope
Hope does not exist in a vacuum. You don’t just muster it up out of thin air…it is the result of the promise of someone or something.
Minnie the Mirror
God does not call us to ignore our troubles or to try to deny our pain. It’s ok to not be ok.
The Crayon
I tell the story of moving into our new home and the grace found in emptiness
God Bringing Something Out of Nothing - Part 2
Only our God, “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist” could have done this.
God Bringing Something Out of Nothing - Part 1
The Bible is full of people’s low points and how God redeemed them. Here is a recent one from our life and how we got here to this new place and this new work.
Grace and Our Problem with Love
Grace in the Christian faith is not just an idea, not just a concept that affirms us and makes us feel better about ourselves.
Magnify
The gift of being under the magnifying glass
Magnifying Pain: The Wounded
The thought of being supremely happy so that I magnify God my Savior hits me wrongly for two reasons.
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
— John 12:24
Visual Art
When visual art connects to us, it puts pictures to the words we cannot find. It slips past our defenses and awakens us. It might awaken grief, anger, admiration, compassion, or anything else deep in our soul. It reminds us that we are more than our to-do list, more than our rational, logical endeavors. We long to feel alive. Our creativity tells on us.
I hope my creative journey (so far) in paint, charcoal, graphite, sharpie connects to you.
Music
Music has an amazing ability to penetrate past our rational defenses and cut straight to our needy and hurting places. It can agitate, open up, and soothe what is stuffed down and closed off. It is a powerful form of language that allows us to express what at times seems inexpressible, a release valve for our souls.
These are some of the songs that give voice to pieces of my journey. Perhaps they will connect to yours and hopefully open up the door for deeper understanding and grace for yourself and others. At the very least, I hope they sound good to you ;)
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