Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Charisa!!!



Your blue eyes and curly mop have got me hooked!

2 years... it seems like I've always known you.

-Dad-dee

Make Your Lives Extraordinary

I had a student doing an art appreciation report for a college class where they had to analyse the design elements of a famous masterwork of art. She chose Bouguereau's The Return of Spring, a work that I have blogged about before. I was literally jumping for joy. I watched in anticipation as she described the elements of the work that made it good. She wrote details about the artist's use of line, the grouping of three cherubs, the golden mean and various other technical things... and never touched on what the work means. Bouguereau was making this work for a reason. He wanted to communicate something very important, something monumental, spiritual that relates to the very essences of human existence. He wanted to touch people.

The student explained that they weren't allowed to give opinions on what works of art meant or how they made them feel. This class was about things that weren't subjective, standards not style.

Isn't that sad?




We are human beings. We aren't robots. With art and poetry you can try to cut out the spiritual element but then its left hollow.

I took some grad classes at a bible college. The biblical studies classes felt the same way to me. In the dispansationalist view of the world, the Gospel is free of magic, mystery, and power. It was like studying a history book.... Boo!!!

The Spirit speaks through the Bible and touches the heart of man, just like a powerful work of art moves the us. That is the essence of the creative arts and the reason we are alive.

Tattoo

I think I may get a tattoo to mark the end of this chapter of my life. I can't decided between a nautical lamp to light my way through the dark or a treble hook cross to represent being a fisher of men. I have two days to decide.





I'll keep you posted.

Graduation

I participated in my school's graduation ceremony earlier today. I said goodbye to the students, but really I was saying goodbye to this chapter of my life. The students that I love here will still be a part of me. Our relationships will just change. Daily conversation will become an occasional phone call or text conversation or myspace message. But our connects cannot be broken, just changed by distance and circumstance.

This place doesn't feel the same to me anymore. Roland would say that 'the world has moved on.' So it's time to gather up my things and follow the beam onwards towards my own destiny. And there is no need to look back. The world has passed on.

The Black Suit

In the third installment of the big screen Spiderman, Peter Parker fights three powerful super villains, Sandman, Hobgoblin and Venom. But the true enemy that he fights is his own sinnful nature.

Symbolized by a new black suit created from intergalactic goo, Spiderman finds an avenue for empowering himself with fame, fortune and ladies. The suit allows him to use his power to seek revenge. It's mostly the same powers, but used to better himself instead of the world.

I enjoyed this element of the movie. Sin is like a suit that clings to us. It is very hard to escape. Cloaked in sin we do use our gifts for selfish gains not for the betterment of society. And revenge and anger can be sweet drugs. But with all drugs, a time comes when the high is gone and you are left with nothing but an empty core, devoured by you lack of self-control.

Spiderman strips off his sin atop the spire of a cathedral. He come to the vantage point to escape everything and reach out for help... and sin is shed like a layer of dry skin.

Later Spiderman has to battle Venom, the embodiment of all the consequences of his sin. This lead to the death of Pete's best friend. Often in life we repent our sins and trust in the Jesus, but the legacy of those sins aren't easy to escape. They haunt us. In fact, it take courage, faith and stength to make things right.

Spiderman 3 isn't as good as the last epic thriller pitting the webbed crusader vs mad scientist Doc Oc, but its visuals are entertaining, the story while slow in the beginning picks up, and the morality play might, just might, give you food for thought.

Pearl Jam- Rearview Mirror

Rearview Mirror

Rearview Mirror

Pearl Jam

I took a drive today
Time to emancipate
I guess it was the beatings made me wise
But I'm not about to give thanks or apologize

I couldn't breathe holdin' me down
Hand on my face kissin' the ground
Enmity gauged united by fear
'Posed to endure what I could not forgive...


Oh, Eddy Vedder, how you spoke for my teenage angst. How your words seemed to sum up all of my inner struggles, all of my battles when I was half the age I am now. It's so sweet that I find your words again quoted by a friend.

I seem to look away
Wounds in the mirror waved
It wasn't my surface most defiled
Head at your feet fool to your crown
Fist on my plate, swallowed it down
Enmity gauged, united by fear
Tried to endure what I could not forgive

I haven't been wounded by stones, but I have been stung by barbed words uttered behind my back, unsigned letters scribbled by ignorant, elderly paws and worst of all, the poorly veiled public letter to the people. Whoever first said, 'Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me!" was lying to himself. But I had a flash of light today... a brilliant moment of clarity when I realized that it no longer had any hold over me. I am set free.

I gather speed from you f**king with me
Once and for all I'm far away
I hardly believe, finally the shades are raised

"Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave. As you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves."

-Matthew 10:11-16

Saw things so much clearer
Once you, once you...
Saw things so much clearer
Once you, once you...


I saw the words, building an empire of lies
All apologies but never a look in the eyes
Running in circles, end and means are the same
Invisible subjects without any names

Saw things so much clearer
Once you, once you...

Why would I cry as I shake the dust from my feet? Keep your castles in the sand. Like water off a ducks back I reject these words as I never look back, never look back.

Saw things so much clearer once you were in my rearview mirror!

Happyness

I saw two movies this past weekend. The first was Spiderman 3. It had big name actors, a big budget, and lots of special effects. I liked it. It didn't change my life of anything but I thought it was worth my eight bucks. I liked the morality play in the middle of the film. I am sure I will blog about it in the near future.

Tonight though, I sat down and watched The Pursuit of Happyness. I wasn't prepared for JUST HOW GOOD a movie it would be. It touched me deep in my soul. The film is an immediate favorite of mine. It will join the Dead Poet Society, The Fisher King, and As Good As It Gets as one of my very very favorite movies.



If you haven't seen it, GO RENT IT TODAY! It's a story of a father's love for his child. He is tenacious, unwavering. He could have quit as times got rough but he stands true and prevails.

MONEY doesn't equal happiness... Peace comes from finding a way to protect those you love.

Made Alive in Christ

Ephesians 2:1-10

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.


We are God's workmanship? We are His masterpieces- the work of His hand? His living artwork?

I can almost see this... I have a lump of clay in the back of my art room. My Art Studio kids left it there after class the other day. Right now its not much. It's just a mass of clay smashed together in a plastic bag. It doesn't do anything. It can't be fired because it hasn't been refined into workable vessels. It's just there... taking up space. But it has potential.

If an artist comes along and lovingly works it in their hands, if they have a vision and sacrifice some of that creativity to create something more, that clay can be transformed into a functional vessel, a cup or an ash tray... or even into powerful sculptures that speak to the soul... We are God's work. Through Christ we aren't just clay in the bag taking up space. We become something more. We are worked and changed by the Artist into masterpieces... not by our own inherent qualities but by the work of the Artist.

I came to this piece of Scripture searching for the 'Dominion over the Air' line I discussed the other day. I found an amazing story of how He is working a masterpiece in me. God bless wild goose chases.

Danish Artists Visit My Room

Danish artists Susanne Thea and Kurt Dupont Larsen visited Elk Horn-Kimballton art students on Monday to discuss art as well to talk about their participation in the “Immigrants” exhibition in the United States.

READ THE STORY HERE

Spaceships on the Moon

I keep thinking about the devil. I am not quite sure why. Perhaps it's Chris William's emails about the Screwtape Letters. But I keep coming back to the observation that most good intentioned people spend their time chasing a devil of their own creation and they don't even know his face.

I once had a very earnest Christian tell me that she thought that the devil had a secret base on the dark side of the moon where his demon-minions were busy constructing flying saucers for his master plan. At the opportune time, once enough TV shows about almond-eyed aliens had saturated the skies, the demon spaceships would evade and turn us into cattle...

The proof that they had of this, other than some scared little man on some obscure late night AM radio program was a line from the Bible stating something to the effect that the enemy will have dominion over the air.

Again, this would make a good X-files plot, I may even like to watch that episode, but to think that the devil works in this way is just plain ridiculous to me.


We have already turned over the airwaves to sin... turn on the television and you see what absolute disregard our society has for the weak, the hurting and the poor. Instead POP culture worships glitz, silicone skin, and monastical wealth. In a world where little kids idolize Paris Hilton over Mother Teresa, and boys strive to build WWE bodies and becoming an army of ONE over humbly becoming a member of a community it seems to me that the airwaves are already controlled by a force that wants to press us all down into servitude of greed, lust, and vice.

No, the devil doesn't build spaceships on the dark side of the moon. Instead he sits back in his easy chair and cackles as this society speeds every faster out of control chasing plastic beauty, quick highs, and piles of little green paper napkins painted with kings of ages past.

I think Honest Abe might want his visage back if he saw what we were doing with our all mighty dollars. That is where real sin is... We have and we hold our money while people hurt and we are blind to anything but our own itching eyes.

Demons Ate My Homework

I just heard a remarkable tale told to me by a teenage boy. He said his pastor told him that he was possessed by a demon while playing with a OIUGI board as a youngest.... Oh my!

The kid asked if I thought that was true. I smiled and said, "Yes, and Dungeons and Dragons makes you commit suicide, heavy metal music makes you kill your classmates and girls wearing short dresses are asking to get attacked by perverts."

I certainly believe in the devil. He is real. He is present in this world. He tempts us with lies of our own self importance. But many many people have things all mixed up when it comes to how he works.

We have a need to create boogie men in this world. We use them as excuses for why we fail to do what we know is right. Guilty parents have passed the buck off on invisible monsters for decades... in fact I imagine that this is probably part of human nature.

Black magic 8 balls and OIUGI boards are stupid gimmicks that appeal to a certain kind of kid. They are just silly toys. They might lead to a fascination with the occult that could turn dangerous... but one silly time pretending to talk with the ghost of Elvis doesn't make you possessed by anything but boredom.

When Jesus is in our heart we have nothing to fear. Cardboard games, floating dice in black plastic and such are just dust of this earth. They mean nothing in the 4th dimension of the KINGDOM.

Instead of blaming boardgames for your problems as a teenager, perhaps one should look deeper... What was really the issue? I believe one might find that excuses are just made to cover up a guilty conscious.

Narrow Door

Everyone's driving, driving down the wide road, down the wide road
So fast, so blindly drunk on the flumes, they don't even see
Changing lanes and running their cars into the ground
counting mile markers on the road to know how far You've gone wrong

Take the narrow road, take the hard way

The Big Dance

The Big Dance
Originally posted Friday, April 21, 2006

Prom

My final EH-K prom is in the books. It's quite funny to look back a year ago at my prom angst and compare it to my thoughts this year. There were other pressures baring down on me as well; my marriage was falling apart, I was dissatisfied with graduate school, I wasn't getting my spiritual needs met by the quality of sermon at my former church, and I was battling an identity crisis.

I went to school to be an abstract painter. I had become the prom monkey. All of my spiritual energies were being poured into living the beatitudes. My work was promoting a false front, a decadent worship of the material, the flashy, the fleshy. I couldn't bring those two into alignment.

I will repost my thought of one year ago. Enjoy.


Bollman