FTC Challenge… Are You In?

My friend, Artist’s Suitcase Founder, Kent Sanders posted what I consider to be a very worthwhile challenge: The FTC (Fit to Create) Challenge. It’s not a diet plan or anything like that, it’s encouragement to meet your fitness goals which should give you more energy to create. As a person who has always struggled with weight and who has used the excuse that I am too busy working to exercise, this is something I really need, so I am signing up. My total goal is to lose 50 pounds. This is only a 40 day challenge so I know I won’t lose over a pound a day without doing something crazy or stupid, but for the term of the challenge I am setting the goal of losing 15 pounds. That might be aggressive but that’s what I’m working toward.

Are you in?
You can sign up at http://www.artistssuitcase.com/are-you-ready-for-the-ftc-challenge/

By the way, you should really check out Kent’s site. He is doing some great stuff and his podcast is really well done. http://www.artistssuitcase.com/

Turning Liabilities Into Assets

Some of you have seen Phil Hansen’s story on this blog before but since he is one of my favorite artists and he recently appeared on Last Call with Carson Daly, I thought I’d tell you again. Phil always dreamed of being an artist but doing massive amounts of pointillism caused him to have permanent nerve damage in his drawing hand, which caused his hand to shake. It could have been the end of his art career but instead he decided to “embrace the shake.” In the process, he became (in my opinion) one of the most inventive artists of our time.

What in your life feels like a liability? How can you turn it into an asset?
For more on Phil Hansen go to Philinthecircle.com
To be a part of his latest project, click here.

Two Sides of Deadlines

Deadlines can be both friend and foe.

On one hand a deadline forces you to finish a project and ship it. Without deadlines some of us would never finish anything. In this case a deadline is your friend.

Other times, and I can be really guilty of this, a deadline can cause stress, aggravation and fear. In my life, this type of deadline is almost always self-imposed. I set a goal for myself, often an unrealistic one, and then stress myself out trying to do the impossible. Actually maybe calling the deadline the foe here is misstated. If the deadline is self imposed and unrealistic, the foe is the one who set it, in other words, I’m my own worst enemy.

How we handle deadlines matters. Often a deadline will feel unrealistic because we have waited too long to begin or because we focus on the whole job that needs to be done, rather than working incrementally, chipping away at the job a little at a time. I hear people say that they work better under pressure all the time. I’m not convinced that’s true. You may feel that, but if I asked your family what you’re like under pressure, would they have the same response?

If you are in the place to set your own deadlines, I highly recommend it. Meeting goals is a wonderful thing and as artists, without a drop dead date, some of us will tweak forever, especially if you have tendencies toward perfectionism. Just make sure the deadline is realistic and attainable.

No one will want to be around you if it isn’t.

Happy Mother’s Day!

I wanted to take the time to wish all the moms out there a Happy Mother’s Day, especially my mom Beatrice Weiss, my Mother-in-law Ruth Good and my lovely wife Dawn. This song is one of my favorite songs about moms. Grab a tissue and have a listen.

Happy Mother’s Day!

It’s Finally Here…

Last week I did the long version of this program as a series of revival/spiritual renewal services at the church where I came to Christ in 1986. This morning I will be doing the “A Night AMOK” version of my new presentation Story: Parables of Jesus at St. Thomas Independent Church of the Brethren in Mt. Pleasant Mills, PA. I’m excited to finally do this thing. Here’s the outline of the presentation.

This is the gifts and talents part of Story. There will also be another one that deals with our relationships with others and God that contains the prodigal son and The sheep and the goats/lost sheep.

Jesus gave these stories to help us “live a better story.”

I’d love to bring either presentation to your church. It comes in a variety of formats from a single message to a full presentation to a series perfect for a retreat/camp/revival/Spiritual renewal meeting format. The presentations contain live painting, story telling and the Word and sometimes even a little drama. I’ve built this one to fly so I can take it anywhere. If you’d like to bring me in, contact me and I’ll tell you how.

Hearing from God?

There have been times in my life where I’ve heard the phrase “hearing from God” and I’ve gotten a little bit skeptical. There have been a few times in my life and ministry where people have told me that God says I should do something and they have been right, while other times there is absolutely nothing in my Spirit that confirms it. In times like that I remember how Paul commended the Bereans for checking everything against the Word that and prayers for discernment are key and crucial. That’s pretty much what I do.

Now don’t read this wrong. I do believe God speaks to and leads His people and I know there have been many times in my life when I felt the leading of the Spirit, and many times where I have heard from God through His Word, prayer and others. I’ve also often heard people ask how to hear from God or why they don’t hear from God. I drew this cartoon some time back to give you something to check…

Do you get quiet long enough to hear from God?

How to Get a Free Painting…

No it’s not a contest but it is very cool. I had such a good week this week. I preached my last revival/spiritual renewal service at Mohrsville Church of the Brethren last night. This was a great thing for me. You see it was at a revival meeting at Mohrsville Church of the Brethren in 1986 that I came to Christ. I also got my call to ministry there, preached my first sermon there and it was there that the first “seeds” of AMOKArts were planted. It was like coming full circle. It was really nice to connect with old friends and make new ones. I had a really great time.
What was even better was a little boy asked me to pray with him to receive Jesus Christ as His Lord and Savior, which is always awesome. Pray for him as He begins his journey.

IN each of these meetings, I did a live painting based on the parable I was preaching, but I also set up several paintings on smaller easels that I painted in advance. I used all these paintings to illustrate the message and it worked pretty well. Last night as I was greeting the people as they left One couple came up to me and told me about their son. Evidently he set up his easel in their kitchen after the meeting the night before. He also took several of their kitchen chairs and set them up around the easel, with other drawings he did clipped to them. (He didn’t notice that I put tarps on the floor, so it seems like mom had a pretty substantial cleanup but she was smiling, so I’m guessing it was okay). A young boy was trying to emulate what I do. Needless to say, that put a huge smile on my face. Who knows? Maybe he will be the next generation of art ministry. I can’t say for sure, only God knows his path, but I do know this,

I gave him last nights painting. What a blessing!