Resting from activity is an intentional manner articulates a posture of the soul. It says that business, obsessive activity, and grandiose perceptions of one’s own talent are mechanisms of avoidance. They are purposeful excursions into the realm of nowhere, nothing in particular, and abstraction. For my art to have the resonance of authenticity, my life must be lived. Lived in a place, in time, with a people, for a purpose that transcends my own dreams and desires. This is not to lessen the power of those dreams but to give them context.
The fear of creating and the fear of rest are kindred emotions. God’s desire to create humankind was born of a deep longing for fellowship and community. The triune nature of God’s character in eternity is a powerful metaphor. It is a cosmic example of who God is and how God acts and engages. To see rest and the Sabbath as postures necessary to “live” in wholeness is to truly see how God sees you. You are a gift to His creation. Made in His image, He not only allows but intends for you to interact in such a manner that your life deposits that aroma and presence of His heart. Thus, it is vital for artists to experience God’s love and care on a personal level. This is more than a theological assent. It is willingness to sit through the emptiness and inability of humans to truly love themselves as God does thus longing for something more.
Rhythms and Seasons of Creativity
The doing and the resting
The pondering and the concluding
The wondering and the decision making
The imagining and the making real
The thinking and the doing
Setting Apart as a Response to Life
Our sojourner status will always place us in a miss ional position to this world. Being ”in but not of” is the constant posture we take and we begin to see that is this theological conundrum that underlies how we are going to engage, pay attention to, and honor our experience and the experiences of others.
Real art clearly sees the intricate interweaving of dark and light, falleness and wholeness, beauty and ugliness, goodness and evil, truth and falsehood. To truly see the ongoing tension of living in the world while seeing it for its transient fleeting nature and yet not grow callous and cynical can only be accomplished through one’s own personal redemption. I cannot offer forgiveness to others beyond the depth of my own redemption and atoning.
As we approach the emptiness almost as a sacred pilgrimage, we begin to find that at the core of this frightening quiet and seeming emptiness is love and care. To beloved in fullness is to be completely emptied. This is the irony of this Sabbath resting. It is an acknowledgment of one’s own limited gifts to even fulfill oneself let alone the world or others.
When life is lived in all its glory, that glory is God’s reflection in my very being. When I am present to my own condition, I will feel and know at a much deeper level. I will move into the world from a place of rest and trust. This allows the creator much more sway in my soul.
No comments:
Post a Comment