Last night I painted differently. I participated in a worship gather called Breathing Room with Dave Helmuth of Ad-Lib Music. It was a wonderful evening of worship. I could really feel the Spirit moving and I was blessed. It was truly a refreshing time. What was different about the painting? Well first there was no agenda. I went in with almost no idea what I would do. Instead I prayed and asked God for an image. That seemed a little slow in coming, but something really cool happened instead. Rather than the image coming to my heart, it came in pieces, God speaking through His people.
The worship leader shared a passage with me just before I left from 2 Timothy1:
6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.
I was kind of thinking flames from that point on, but I wasn’t sure. Then upon listening to another person who mentioned about God lighting a fire under people, I knew fire had to be a part of it. I was thinking about painting hands (maybe Jesus’ hands) working a bellows and fanning the flame, but I couldn’t work that out in my mind, one of the songs mentioned the Holy Spirit and it hit me that since the dove is usually a symbol of the Spirit, what if He was fanning the flames with his wings, now it was coming together. The last remaining image was a heart. The idea behind that was two fold. First, we often speak of the Spirit lighting our hearts on fire, secondly I have a feeling this image came to be because I found out a little earlier in the evening that the doctor who worked on me when I had my heart attack attends that church. That got me thinking about where I would be had he not developed his God given gift. When I got to share about my piece this was also something that I felt strongly I needed to share. Fanning those gifts into a flame and using them is huge, but God never asked us to work outselves into an early grave, which was why I needed the good doctor in the first place. We have many gifts from God, one of them is rest.
What was funny was before the service, I had a goal not to use any traditional Christian symbols and came away with a piece that featured three of the most iconic Christian symbols in existence. But what does it say? The Holy Spirit fans the flame of faith into our hearts until it burns bright. All in all that’s a pretty important message.
The other thing that was really cool about this time of painting was that I got to express something that is always on my heart. For me making art is an act of worship and on this night I got to bring a gift to the altar. I got to connect with God nad express it, which is the very heart of worship. Where usually I paint very quickly, last night, I had “breathing room.” I was able to slow down, take my time and create with my Creator.
It was different, and while I really love what I do, it was nice.
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