2011 A Year in Books

I really pushed myself to read this year, of course getting my Kindle didn’t hurt at all and neither did Seth Godin’s Domino Project putting out several small concise books which really helped boost my total.

I also found a gem in Thomas Nelson’s Booksneeze.com which provides free Christian books to bloggers in exchange for a review (positive or negative). If you’re a blogger, this is one that is highly worth checking out.

Here’s my list for this year.
1. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years—Donald Miller
2. Linchpin—Seth Godin
3. Peaks and Valleys—Spencer Johnson
4. The Final Summit—Andy Andrews
5. The End IS Now—Rob Stennett
6. Poke The Box—Seth Godin
7. Heaven—Randy Alcorn
8. Relentless—Robin Parrish
9. Tales from the Revolution—Seth Godin
10. Revolutionary Leadership—Tri Robinson
11. Graceful—Seth Godin
12. Disrupt: Think the Unthinkable—Luke Williams
13. Shoeless Joe—W.P. Kinsella
14. Do the Work—Steven Pressfield
15. Riven—Jerry B. Jenkins
16. Anthem—Ayn Rand
17. Self-Reliance—Ralph Waldo Emerson
18. Unleashing the Idea Virus—Seth Godin
19. The Idiot—Dostoyevsky
20. Read This Before Our Next Meeting—Al Pattampalli
21. The War of Art—Steven Pressfield
22. Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness Engineering—Dan Zarella
23. The Man Who Knew Too Much G.K. Chesterton
24. Imaginary Jesus—Matt Mikalatos
25. The 3 most powerful presentation techniques of Seth Godin by Alfons Grabher
26. Too Close to Home by Lynette Eason
27. We Are All Weird by Seth Godin
28. The Gift of the Magi (Short Story) by O Henry
29. Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo
30. The Christian Zombie Killers Handbook by Jeff Kinley
31. With by Skye Jethani
32. A Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
33. George Washington Carver by John Perry
34. You Are Talented by Patrick Kavanaugh
35. The Flinch by Julien Smith
36. Proverbs Reconstructed by Gus Dallas
37. Quitter by Jon Acuff
38. Anything You Want by Derek Sivers
39. Running A.M.O.K. (proof read for print) Dave Weiss
40. The Bible by God

As you can see in number 39. I also published my own book this year, a compilation of the best posts on this blog re-edited and enhanced along with a good bit of new copy and fully illustrated. If you’d like to read it, it’s available through Amazon for both the Kindle and as a print book.

Of course the most important book I read this year was the last one. The Bible. I read this on a one year plan and it was great. As a pastor I read the Bible a lot, but to be quite honest, it is easy to fall into a trap of reading just for something to preach, engaging in the one year Bible discipline really helped me to get the grand scope of the book all over again. I really encourage all my readers to do this, as a matter of fact, if you’d like to join my wife and I on our journey through the Scriptures in 2012, this is the plan we will be using.

2011 A Year In Art

On January 1, 2011, I set out on a journey to create at least one new work of art every day for the whole year and to record them on my website. It’s December 31, 2011 and mission accomplished. The video above shows all 365 pieces. If you want to see them a little closer go to http://www.amokarts.com/ayearinart.html. It has been a great year and I can honestly say I believe I have grown as an artist through the process. Now here are the questions that I ask and you may be asking as well.

Did you really do a piece of art every day?
No. For the most part, yes I did, but like everyone else there are days where busyness, fatigue set in. I have a job, a ministry and a family and some days my schedule got the better of me, however on other days the creativity was really flowing and I did a couple of pieces. Also some of the projects took much more than a day so I had multiple projects going at times. All 365 of these pieces were done between January 1 and December 31, 2011.

Am I happy with every piece I did here?
No, but by and large I see growth from beginning to end and I have learned a lot of new things and that was the main purpose.

Was every one of these pieces divinely inspired?
Many were, but all? Probably not. There were days where I’m sure I did something simply because needed a piece for the day. Consequently these are the pieces with which I am less pleased.

Will I be doing this again in 2012?
No, in 2012 I am starting something new. For some time now, I have been feeling led to really develop and grow my speaking/painting ministry and so my goal for 2012 is to do something each day to advance the Kingdom of God and work toward the speaking/painting ministry goal. More on this tomorrow, Lord willing.

What did you learn?
Doing a unique and different piece of art every day for a year is somewhat unrealistic. Unless you have nothing else to do, it will mess with your priorities as it did with mine. I ended up some days just doing a piece to get one done which is not a great reason to do art or anything else. On the other hand, disciplining myself to create each day was helpful. I did grow as an artist over the year and learned many new techniques which I will no doubt carry into the future, Lord willing.

I learned something of my own creative process. When a new project comes to mind, creating a logo for it or a graphic for it tends to make it real for me. Giving a concept a physical representation early in the process tends to help me focus on it. You’ll see several logos in the video. Some of them didn’t pass the “reality test.” Others are at varying positions in the launch cue. Getting ideas down on paper helps me not to lose them.

Also I was able to help several friends and ministries with graphics this year and a few of these projects opened doors to more ministry. I didn’t do them for the sake of opening doors, I did them for the Kingdom and God blessed it. This is a key, serve he Lord faithfully and trust Him with the blessing. Also I learned of new venues for my work, like IllustrationFriday.com doing projects on there helped me to meet some friends outside my usual circle and it challenged me to create work that communicates the Gospel. This was very beneficial in connecting my work with my faith.

Lastly, seeking God for a project every day did help me to learn to hear from God. I wish I could say I did this perfectly but of course I didn’t. I have some regrets from this year and I wonder how may times this project took me off task, but on the other hand, seeing a project like this through to completion was a wonderful blessing in itself. All in all it was a great year in a lot of ways and I am glad you in the tribe have shared this journey with me. I look forward to seeing what God does with 2012.

Urgent Prayer Request

My wife and son and I are just back from a short vacation. On our way home we received a text from one of our church members. She said that she came home to find her mom, a long time friend and founding member of our church, unconscious. As I write this she is in intensive care, has not regained consciousness and the doctors say she will really have to fight to survive. Please keep her in your prayers.
Thanks and God bless,
Dave

AMOKArts Illustrated Illustration: Lessons from a Duck

I was out on a walk this morning and God showed me something pretty cool using of all things, a duck. No not some mallard taking off on a long migratory flight, but rather a flightless white duck. You see my route takes me past a farm that raises ducks, ostensibly for meat. What you may not know about domestic ducks is farmers will clip some of the feathers from their wings. This keeps the ducks from flying away and as I understand it also helps to fatten them up so they’re better to eat.

I see these ducks nearly every morning and every time they see me, I strike fear into their hearts and they start to run, but that’s not the funny part. The funny part is when they try to fly. They run quacking and squawking as fast as they can flapping their wings for all they’re worth. They think if they keep flapping hard enough eventually they will fly. The duck this morning must have done this 50 yards and it looked hilarious.

The thing is sin does the same thing to us. It clips our wings and makes us unable to fly as God intended. Now let’s be clear on something, as soon as I start to talk about sin, a lot of church folks start to think about unbelievers. I’m not talking about them. How can we expect people who don’t have Jesus in their hearts not to sin, when we who do have Him sin regularly. Today is a day to check yourself. What’s clipping your wings?

For me, sin comes easiest when I’m frustrated especially when I’m having to wait. I get a vision to do something and my old wings start flapping and I keep flapping and flapping and flapping and wonder why I’m not getting anywhere. Have you been there. I’m like that stupid duck, not realizing I don’t have everything I need to fly yet. I just keep flapping, After a while I start to take shortcuts I shouldn’t take and I start acting out about my frustration. I start to sin and sin doesn’t help me to fly. There has to be a better way and there is, but you’re not going to like it.

The answer is to wait. To wait on the Lord, to pray and ask God to help you grow your wings back. To provide the resources, to show you the way. To trust Him to show you the next move. It’s either that or run around like an idiot flapping useless wings. The choice is yours but I don’t want to be a duck. After all his prognosis isn’t very good.

The Bible tells us in Isaiah 40:31, “but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” If you feel like you spend all your time flapping and not getting anywhere, if you feel tired and worn out, maybe you need to wait on the Lord for a while. After all if you watch an eagle fly, they don’t flap their wings very often, they stretch out their wings and ride the wind. They soar supported on a power mightier than themselves. Isn’t it time you soared?

Then wait.

AMOKArts Creative Arts Ministry presents Dichotomy II

This is a subject came to me one day on a prayer walk. I have painted it many times before but never like this. It’s an image that has never managed to stay with me very long before someone has acquired it. It just seems to speak to hearts and for that I praise God.

I call it Dichotomy, a most unusual portrait of Jesus. It portrays Him as the lion of the tribe of Judah and the lamb of God. To me this captures both parts of his mission, Lord and Savior, the King and the Sacrifice. He is both to me, My Lord and mighty protector and gentle savior. I love this image but in the past, whenever I painted it, both faces were painted gentle with mouths closed, pictures of gentle strength. I always felt like something was missing.

I was reminded of this when reading the Chronicles of Narnia. In describing Aslan the lion, the Christ figure in the story, one of the children said, He’s not a tame lion but He is good. Somehow We’ve made the lion of the Tribe of Judah a soft little kitty cat and that is hardly the case. Jesus is the very essence of power. My lion needed to roar.

And the lamb. We have so sanitized the price He paid on that cross, that I don’t think we really think about the agony our sins cost. Maybe it’s easier that way. My sins could hardly have caused more than a flesh wound. No your sins and mine caused brutal agony and death, no matter how good we may think we are. Jesus paid a high price for you and me and we need to be grateful.

Putting these images together should provoke deep emotion. We see the mighty powerful roaring King. He could easily destroy us and with good reason, but instead He puts His might to use as our protector. We see the gentle lamb, who could have run but instead He stood in our places and took our beating. It’s a picture of a love without limits, a picture of boundless grace. It shows how much our Lord values you and me and begs the question, how much do you value Him.

Christmas

Think about what it is that we really celebrate today. The one who made the universe and everything in it, the Word, the eternal wisdom controlling the universe, lays aside the power and privilege of heaven, to come to earth as a newborn baby. To be born as we are born, to live with all the stuff we live with, to suffer the same temptations we all face and no doubt more. To live a perfect life as an example to us all and then to suffer and die for our sins and rise again. The Creator of the universe humbles Himself to be born a baby, having to cry to have his most basic needs met. That’s how much He loves you… That’s Christmas.

IllustrationFriday.com challenge, Post 500 and Merry Christmas

Messenger

Thanks to the folks at IllustrationFriday.com for making the challenge word “Messenger” this week. After all the word Angel means messenger and with tomorrow being Christmas what a great time to key in on the message of the angels, “An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ[a] the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:9-12)

The angels were the first to bring the good news, Jesus has come! And so I want to bring some even better news. In this time of great joy, not everyone is joyful. Some are hurting and some are alone. To you, I want to say, that baby in the manger came for you. He came because He loves you. You were worth everything to Him. If you already know that, if you already follow Him., Seek out someone who is alone or hurting and be good news of great joy for them.

That baby in the manger was God incarnate, God in the flesh, come to love us, show us the way to God and die in our place to pave the way. No matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done He will meet you right where you are and change your life for the better. I know this for a fact because He did it for me. He took me from being a suicidal drunk to where I am today. His grace and His love are amazing and they know no bounds. Trusting Him has changed everything for me. I didn’t become a preacher because I think I’m good, I’m a preacher because He is good and I want to help as many people as possible to experience the love He has for each of us. I’ll say it again, He loves you and with help, so do I.

I hope you have the greatest Christmas of your life. (If you have questions about Jesus, contact me at amokarts@aol.com. I’d love to tell you more.

One other thing, this is my 500th post to the “tribe” and to each of you who faithfully follows this, I want to thank you so much for all you do. You have no idea how much your support means to me. I really love my tribe. Merry Christmas!

End of Year Check Up With John Waller

In March, I will be working with a musician named John Waller at an event called Called2Ministry in Chattanooga, TN. I’ve been a fan of John’s for quite a few years and I am excited to do this conference and meet him. I was checking out his video for the song As for Me and My House and I noticed a video at the bottom of the page with the story behind the song. As I watched that video, I realized that while our roads have been different, we have something in common. There came a time in both our lives when our work became an idol. So as we look at the end of the year and our hopes and dreams for 2012, it might be wise to check yourself. Here John and his wife Josee tell the story. Please take the time to listen. It will be worth your time.

Here is the song born out of the story, As for Me and My House

Lastly, here is one more song from John, called Because God is Good. At the end of the video he shares a little more about this concept. The basic idea is “my life didn’t work out the way I thought it would because God is good. I, Dave Weiss, can claim that as my testimony as well. How about you?

As we approach the new year, check yourself. Is there something you need to leave behind. Take it to the cross and leave it there.

God Can Use Anything…

Okay, I’m not a tattoo guy, but when I saw my Facebook friend, Eric Samuel Timm’s post saying that some of his work was featured on the TV show LA Ink and that the Gospel was shared, I had to take a look.

A new book all my readers should read, Quitter by Jon Acuff

The new book Quitter by Jon Acuff is an amazing and challenging resource for anyone who is thinking they want to be doing something different with their lives.

I just finished reading Quitter. Non-fiction books are rarely page-turners for me but this one is. Jon Acuff wrote a book about how to leave your day job and pursue your dream job, a topic near and dear to my heart, not because I hate my job because I don’t, I like it, but I have a dream. Maybe you do too.

There are quite a few things I love about this book. First of all it’s really funny. Jon Acuff has a clear gift for humor and it really helps him handle a tough topic. Secondly this book is really responsible. Jon Acuff got his dream job and it involves working for the Dave Ramsey organization. Ramsey is the pinnacle of personal fiscal responsibility and his philosophies are well represented by Acuff.

The first chapter in the book counsels “Don’t quit your day job.” This is such wisdom. I have spoken to more than a few people over the years who quit their jobs because “God told them to” leaving them in a panic trying to figure out how to pay their bills, keep a roof over their heads. I have very little doubt that God had a call on their lives, nor do I doubt that He gave them a dream and a vision. I’ve just always wrestled with God telling them to be irresponsible. Instead Acuff counsels to build your dream and work toward your dream while you have a steady job. He further advises you to “fall in like” with your day job and use it to practice the excellence you will need to live your dream.

Acuff gives a lot of questions to ask yourself, a lot of useful information and intersperses it all with stories from his own personal journey to his dream job. This is one of those books I will read over and over throughout my journey. Quitter is a Godsend for pretty much anyone with a dream.

Here’s his promo video. Please, please please read this book.