So many beautiful things have happened today and it’s not even 8:45 am!
Here are the two link-related ones:
First, I discovered this last night and I could watch it a million times. Art+Truth=BEAUTIFUL. Here is a description from the Crossway website about this amazing project:
Makoto Fujimura, one of the century’s most highly regarded artists, has illuminated the Four Holy Gospels. Fujimura is known for his use of traditional Japanese Nihonga techniques and his passion for reconnecting Christian faith with fine art. This will mark the first time in nearly 400 years that an illuminated book of the four Gospels has been undertaken by a single artist.
Second, this morning I read Andrée Seu’s article on weakness and I’m tempted to let out a hearty AMEN right here in my office chair. We make so many excuses for ourselves and then try to justify our whimsies and failures with Scripture. It’s like we’ve resigned to the idea that “we are sinners, so of course we’re going to be weak and fail.” I could say so much more on this, but Andrée says it so well!
Here’s her last paragraph:
It is time to stop re-infecting ourselves with bad theology. If someone wants to keep repeating that we Christians are “weak,” please let him always clarify the statement with the adjectives “physically” or “psychologically.” Say that we are tired, and weary, and perplexed. But let’s lose the morbid and counterproductive self-image of the Christian as “Sinner” and (morally) “weak.” Paul gives instructions for self-image, as he does for other areas of Christian life: “You also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ” (Romans 6:11).
Hope you are encouraged today by these two beautiful things!
Please watch and enjoy this amazing event! Here’s the description from Youtube:
On Saturday, October 30, 2010, the Opera Company of Philadelphia brought together over 650 choristers from 28 participating organizations to perform one of the Knight Foundation’s “Random Acts of Culture” at Macy’s in Center City Philadelphia. Accompanied by the Wanamaker Organ – the world’s largest pipe organ – the OCP Chorus and throngs of singers from the community infiltrated the store as shoppers, and burst into a pop-up rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s “Messiah” at 12 noon, to the delight of surprised shoppers. This event is one of 1,000 “Random Acts of Culture” to be funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation over the next three years. The initiative transports the classical arts out of the concert halls and opera houses and into our communities to enrich our everyday lives. To learn more about this program and view more events, visit http://www.randomactsofculture.org. The Opera Company thanks Macy’s and the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ (www.wanamakerorgan.com) for their partnership, as well as Organ Music Director Peter Conte and Fred Haas, accompanists; OCP Chorus Master Elizabeth Braden, conductor; and Sound Engineer James R. Stemke. For a complete list of participating choirs and more information, visit http://www.operaphila.org/RAC. This event was planned to coincide with the first day of National Opera Week.
A little while back, I mused my frustrations in this blogpost about the fashion of movements these days.
I rambled on about the ultra distracted, rarely committed, highly energized generation we seem to have become. Our obsession with trends, revolution, and being a part of something “bigger than ourselves” with buzzwords like “countercultural” is a thin veneer. Sometimes, the “make a difference” slogans and painted posters in picket lines advertise self-promotion instead of a cause. We are deathly afraid our lives won’t matter, so we join the loudest crowd, learn their clever chants, and march in their lines, hoping our existence will amount to something.
It scares me to think about what will happen when the fad passes… when it is less trendy to identify with the broken and hurting in our world…
When we realize the $80 shoes aren’t that cute and we’ll never meet those barefoot kids. When we realize how awkward it is to wear a shirt that has the words “sex” and “trafficking” in bold letters.
When we realize the chants we are shouting actually require us to buy less, have less, and give more.
What happens then?
I’m not always this cynical, but I want to ask these questions of myself and our generation because I am concerned. I’m not worried. I believe the Creator of the universe has a plan to restore all of creation and that plan cannot fail.
I am concerned because we are given a very clear, very serious command to respond (not just with angry outbursts and clever marketing) in a very human way to the needs we see in this world (Isaiah 58).
I hope we can understand that at the end of the day, after all the cause-claiming blogs have been written and all the cause-supporting merchandise has been sent, that caring for the broken, the hurting, and the needy in this world is first and foremost a human responsibility. We can give up on t-shirts and recycled bags or move on to the next fad, but let us not lose sight of what is most important…
If the roots of our motivation reach deeper than trends to the rich soil of God’s heart, we will see that responding to the needs of the broken is not a cause…
I was talking to one of my very talented, very artistic friends recently and he made this strong suggestion:
“Art is dead.”
At first, it didn’t sit very well. The period at the end is so… so defeating. If this statement stirs up a response, even indignation inside you like it did me, then I wonder why. Why are you offended by this idea that art and creativity have died a painful death?
I’m offended because I want to believe it’s not so. Somewhere deep down, beneath the indigestion and tortillas, somewhere in that “gut” region people refer to when talking about instincts, I refuse. Something in me revolts at the finality – there is no room for explanation. Just a period and that’s it.
It’s like falling off the monkey bars on the playground and landing flat on my back. I’m laying there, with the wind knocked out of me, unsteady and unsure of what just happened.
After I caught my breath, I realized I agree with him. Nearly everything “creative” these days is a well-dressed marketing ploy to respond to our basest desires. With all our technology and supposed intellectual advancement, we tread the very same trail to bark up the very same tree, whose roots reach only as deep as our most carnal desires.
Instead of searching for music or entertainment that makes us think and question and understand life, we look for a spoonful of sugar so that (what we pass for) art goes down easy. We don’t want art to challenge us or move us or convict us because… well, that doesn’t feel good. We want to take in a movie like we take in the uber-buttered, theatre popcorn… without thinking. We want to walk out with our heads bobbing, digesting the plate full of artistic pudding without questioning the grumblings in our bellies for something of more substance.
The second part of my friend’s thought took a step closer to my offended spirit. He suggested I’m to blame. Art is dead and my death killed it. I again had to shake the shock of such a suggestion, but again arrived at a convicted conclusion. I agree.
How can something dead make something living? How can an unconscious potter work with clay? How can life come from death? We re-work the same ideas, plots, notes, melodies, story lines centered around sex, money, jealousy, and greed. Then we pronounce it “version 2.0” and, with some clever advertising, have people believing they are consuming something that has “never before been seen.” I almost apologized just now for being so cynical, but I held back because it wouldn’t be genuine.
The Original Creator took great care in designing the smallest details, from the juice pockets in oranges to the strange mating habits of penguins. Creation is so complicated that we will never, ever exhaust its intricacies. If we let ourselves marvel, we will never be bored and the subject will never be dull. Never.
How does God accomplish this? How does He keep our attention?
He lives.
This is certainly not the end of my musings on this subject, but please chime in with your thoughts!
Also, I read this article over at The Gospel Coalition and I really appreciate the views on creativity, the arts, and the church.
Thanks again to social networking, I’m making more amazing connections. Yesterday, via Twitter, I talked with The CO, a band who shares a love for Honduras (Troy came here in July) and also a love for living a life redeemed with a purpose to restore. The band promotes the Dalit Freedom Network through their music and presence on Brite Revolution. I love how they are using the gifts God has given them to make louder the call to respond to the broken.
The Dalit Freedom Network works in India to restore the dignity and freedom of the lowest caste (Dalits).
This is the kind of thing that gets me excited on a Tuesday… social networking that supports freedom networking.
I’ve been listening to Piper’s series on spectacular sins that he preached back in 2007 and they’ve kind of been blowing me away. The idea that God’s sovereignty means that absolutely everything… even evil falls under His control. Yesterday, the sermon was called Fatal Disobedience of Adam and the Triumphant Obedience of Christ. God was not surprised when Adam sinned… in fact Adam was a type (foreshadowing) of Christ. Just as sin was brought into the world by one man, so salvation came through one man – Christ!
Jeremy Larson is, to be honest, lucky to have a fiance like Elsie. She’s got an amazing thing going on at Red Velvet Art and A Beautiful Mess … really inspiring what she can do with crafts and art and good ideas. Larson, himself, is a strange secret as a musician. Strange because he shouldn’t be, but the fact that he still is somewhat of a secret makes it all the more exciting to discover his complex melodies.
Little Birdie Plush tutorial – Now this is a great project that I fully intend to start soon! I would love to make a whole legion of these little birdies for Christmas gifts!
Our newly formed and not yet officially begun Book and Philosophy Club is setting off to a curious start with the book, “God’s Middle Finger,” written by a British journalist traveling through the Sierra Madre in Mexico. Interesting… can’t wait to see what’s up.
Brooke Fraser pleasantly surprises us with her new album, Flags. It came out the day before my birthday and I splurged. I’m certainly glad I did – especially for the songs, “Flags” and “Crows & Locusts.”
You want to be relevant?? you want to contextualize the Gospel? Check out this URBAN audio Bible! I’m just going to say it: I love rap. I know this might be a surprise, but I’m not talking about the big names necessarily. I am just saying that I love the way you can string words together and weave them with rhymes and rhythms and… well, anyway I love rap. And, I love the Word. So many times we convince ourselves that we need to make the Word more inviting or exciting. The Truth is – you cannot add or take away from its power. I love how rapping the Bible could help you commit it to memory.
I have a friend who lives in Philadelphia… and she knows Josh Schurr. When she mentioned him in her status on facebook, I thought it was about time I checked him out. He’s got an EP on bandcamp and itunes.
“Every contact you make with everyone you meet will help them or hinder them on their journey to heaven.” C.S. Lewis
If C.S. Lewis is as trustworthy as I believe him to be (and of course he is), then this statement is worth the many times I have re-read it. It’s got the “spit out, if lukewarm” severity hidden in between the words that describe our relationships in two ways. There is no in-between. Only two options: helping or hurting someone on their journey to heaven.
That’s a pretty strong statement, Clive Staples.
Every single contact? Like, the gas station attendant and the beggar and the person who just passed by my window selling avocados, potatoes, and yuca? Every contact with everyone I meet has some kind of eternal echo?
This past Friday, about 40 ALP students/staff stayed after school for the SLEEPOUT event. After the last buses pulled out of the campus and headed out on their regular routes to drop off students, Micah Project met us at the soccer field to begin our night of fun, fellowship, worship, and service.
Here are just a few pictures. This is a taste of a longer reflection, but I did want to say that Lewis’s words confirm my thoughts that on Friday we definitely helped each other (across lines of economic status, reputation, background, age) on our journeys to heaven. May God be praised for the way His children came together as one body!
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If CS Lewis can make strong statements then I can, too.
Timothy Keller challenges us once again to think through some of our assumptions about this time, maybe too quickly labeled “post-modern.” Keller questions whether our labels are justified in the personal accounts of this generation. Towards the end of his blog post, “Late Modern or Post-modern?” Keller writes,
“The underlying thread that ties all this together is the inconceivability of a moral order based on an authority more fundamental than one’s own reason or experience. That was the founding principle of the Enlightenment, and that is the cornerstone of the most recent generation. So how can we say the Enlightenment is over?”
Interesting. What do you think? And does the label matter as much as the question of gospel presentation? Or, is gospel presentation more effective with an understanding of the former?
All good questions to think during my lunch break at my desk!
When I worked in Austin, Texas, I saw this bumper sticker in the parking lot of the university I worked for:
“Don’t pray in my school and I won’t think in your church”
I realize bumper stickers are often cowardly ways to make big, bold statements, but this one rubbed me the wrong way. I wrote this blog post in reflection.
Now, three years later, I want to add a postscript to that blog post. John Piper has a new book out called, “Think” and it examines the questions so many raise and so few answer. Why do we have a mind? What is the purpose of thinking?
The Desiring God National Conference was actually going on this weekend and focused on just that – using our minds to glorify God, enjoy Him and share Him. I get goosebumps thinking about how our minds are made to glorify our Creator!
I’m off to worship this morning in spirit and in truth… glad for God’s design to engage my thoughts with His thoughts.
I wish I could post this video on the back of my car in bumper sticker form. Better yet, I wish I could live life proving this video true. How about that for a rebuttal?
I grew up angry at these eight words because hard work was always the guilty result of this catchy little phrase. It appeared when we discussed our 4-Hlivestock projects and how little we had worked with them (if you are not from the country, you wouldn’t understand leading a cow around by a halter in your yard). It wedged into conversations about refinishing projects and youth group commitments and grades in school. Many a conversation ended with a knowing, stern look from either Mom or Dad and these words, “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.”
Now, working with youth, I wish more parents used this guilt trip method to motivate their kids. I realize guilt should not mainly motivate us to do things ‘right,’ but guilt is not the lesson that has stayed with me these 25 years. The lesson is about worth.
Last night I watched one of my favorite movies – Steven Spielberg‘s “Amistad.” In one of the last scenes, the attorney speaks on behalf of the Africans being prosecuted for insurrection on the slave ship where they were so inhumanely transported in the slave trade en route to Spain.
John Quincy Adams, played by Anthony Hopkins, says these words in front of the Supreme Court (7 out of 9 of which are Southern slave owners),
“Yea, this is no mere property case, gentlemen. I put it to you thus: This is the most important case ever to come before this court. Because what it, in fact, concerns is the very nature of man.”
At this point in the movie, something very human in me connects with the John Quincy Adams leaning against the polished hardwood handrail. I want to shout, as his quiet words seem to do so well, “Yes, gentlemen, what are WE WORTH? What is man worth?” Is our nature – the nature of man – carry some inherent value or is rather something to discard?
I can tell you what I felt about our worth as I watched one of the captured Africans, Cinque, struggle against the chains that bruised his wrists and neck.
We were not made for this.
In Genesis, when God breathed life into the man He’d formed from the dust of the earth, He was intentional. His ways are perfect, so I refuse to believe any part of His creation process was not done “right.” Every piece and particle, from the smallest micro-organism to the most complicated systems in the human body, God designed us exactly right.
In His image we were made (Genesis 1:26-28), male and female He created us in His image. I can’t help but think my parents’ old adage came from a deeper understanding of God’s own very intentionality in our design. If creation was worth doing at all (and, I’ll admit, sometimes I wonder), then God would be the only One able to do it right. I really believe the ‘nature of man’ is a question of beginnings, which (not so ironically) is what the word “genesis” means.
Our genesis (beginning) is bound up in the intentional mind of a sovereign God, whose purposes are forever, beautifully… right.
I say all of this because I am pondering what it means to live life. I made up a word last week when I was trying to process the biography of Bonhoeffer because I was grasping at dictionaries to find a description for his approach to living out theology. I came up with vivology, after a quick greek/latin roots and suffixes search.
The question bouncing about in my head lately has been, “How do I live right?” Because, I know live is worth living (God’s intentional, perfect design)… so it must be worth doing right.
MUSINGS IN THE MIDST 