Failure to Glorify

This morning in my quiet time, I became convicted. You see over the weekend I did my Creative Church Workshop. Only one person attended (no that’s not the failure) but we had a great day talking about God and creativity and how to use our creativity to serve the Lord. Maybe that’s the reason I failed.

You see the other person asked me my secret to blogging daily and I blew it. I started talking about practical things with writing and inspiration. I talked about esoteric things, like wanting to be consistent because I value my readers. I even talked about how I don’t recommend anyone try to blog every day, at least not right away (too tough to come up with consistent content for someone just beginning) and that it’s more important to post consistently than to post every day. I also thought of a few more things that I did not say but none of those was a failure either.

No, here is the failure. I failed to give her the most important reason I can blog daily. I think it was just the context of the day and maybe I felt it was understood (I’m even relatively sure it was understood, but that makes no difference). Here is my confession:

The number one reason I can post a blog post nearly every day is because I spend time in prayer and ask God to give me something to say to the people who will read my blog. People He gave me. I pray for something that will challenge and bless and inspire and God is faithful to deliver. Now that’s not to say everything I write comes from God. I’m sure there are times where I get out ahead of Him, or times were I miss the mark. Those are the times when I take over and try to do it on my own.

Here’s how you can tell. If you read something here and it touches you to the depth of your soul, if it blesses you, if it changes your life or inspires you to do something great, it’s God. If you read it and go, “MEH” well, it was probably just me.

Everything good in me comes from God. He is good all the time. Trust Him and ask Him to guide you. He will deliver.

I Want More Power!!!

No I am not turning into a supervillain who wants to rule the world. Nor am I flashing back to Tim the Tool Man Taylor (grunt, grunt, grunt). No this isn’t some sort of power grab or a desire for political leadership or some lofty position. I just want more power.

I better explain. I’m in another really busy season. I’m covering a lot of ground very quickly and doing a lot of work. Anyone who knows me, knows I like this. I love productive times and I love to create, therefore being busy for me usually feels good, but here is the issue. Times of busyness can be distracting spiritually. I can get in a place where I tend to plow through projects and sometimes the most necessary things, like prayer and devotions can move from the forefront. God continues to bless, because God is good, but I sometimes wonder how much more power could be in everything that I do, if I always kept my priorities in line. I’m getting better about this and I am seeing God moving in what I am doing, but if my greatest desire is to move in God’s power, then I can always do better. If I want to see my work have maximum impact, I need to be intimately connected with the source of my power. My own talents and gifts will only take me so far. That “he is the vine we are the branches” thing… Jesus meant that. He also meant it when He said “…apart from me you can do nothing.”

I can’t say my ministry is weak and I can’t say I am not seeing fruit. I just want to see more. Lord, if I am greedy for anything, let it be your power. If I covet anything, let it be to see your glory, to see your Kingdom advance and see people drawn to you, let this be my greatest desire. I want more of your power, Lord, until people have a hard time seeing where I end and you begin. In reference to my life, you must become greater and I must become less.

I want more of God’s power evident in my life and ministry.
How about you?

The Problem of Compliments

I love doing art in the church and I hope it doesn’t sound braggadocious to say this, but a lot of other people love what I do. That makes me very happy but there is something that is a little awkward and I could actually use your help with it. You see, the natural reaction to people loving what I do is to pay me a compliment and to be really honest, I like and appreciate that. Affirmation is always nice, but how should I respond?

I mean I really want to give glory to God for everything I do. Without Him nothing I do would work and He deserves all the credit. At the same time, I want to acknowledge the acknowledgment. I sometimes say, “Praise God” but I don’t want to come off sounding like I am correcting the person or trying to fake some sort of religious piety. Then sometimes I simply say “Thank you” but I wonder does that claim credit and glory for myself? I don’t want to appear in any way aloof because I’m not. I’d love to hang out and chat with these people all night because I appreciate them immensely. At the same time, I usually have an hour of cleaning and packing before me so I have to keep it short. I don’t ever want to appear prideful and I certainly don’t want to throw around some sort of false humility because God allows me to do some great things.

Basically here’s what I want to do, I want to be gracious and let the person know I genuinely appreciate the fact that they stepped out to affirm the work that I did, because I do. I want to encourage each one to use what God has given them, I want to encourage them to enter into a deeper relationship with me through various channels so I can continue to encourage them. Even more I want them to enter into a deeper relationship with Jesus, using their gifts to serve Him. Most of all, I want to make sure they know I credit God for every good thing in my life. That’s a lot of thought around a simple compliment.

Am I overthinking it?
How do you respond when someone compliments your work?

Abstract Bible Video Genesis 2

A few weeks back I started a new extremely sporadic devotional practice I call the Abstract Bible. This video is Genesis 2. Basically I am reading scripture and doing small sketch paintings inspired by the passage. One for each chapter for as long as it takes. This is Genesis 2. In Genesis two we get the account of God making Adam by hand out of the dust. I decided that’s what I would do. I painted the canvas brown and while it was still wet, I began to scratch a face in it using my fingers, from there I used my fingers to paint it. It’s simple, it’s abstract but it was a cool experience because as I worked on it, I kept thinking about the Father painstakingly creating this self portrait, this sculpture man made in His own image, the ultimate kinetic sculpture, fully alive.

I know some discount the creation account from Genesis, but I love it. In it we see a loving God, the ultimate artist speaking the most amazing things into existence. We see them all over the place and we are mesmerized by their beauty and that is a proper response to any work of the greatest Artist, but what He did next defies the imagination. He created his masterpiece and placed Him in the midst of it all and then gave everything else He made to His masterpiece. The beauty of nature is not his greatest creation, but rather a gift to His greatest creation. He made it all for you and for me.

He made you to love you and He does.

Bible Reading Guide
An important part of following God is knowing what He wants and a great way to know what He wants is to read His Word. Follow this plan and you will finish reading the Bible in a year.
Genesis 43, Job 15-17
You can also download your own chart here.