Art And All That, Part IV

Allow me to admit right up front in this post that I am a Westerner.  I am Western by birth and culture.  I’m partial to Western music and Western language.  Having said that, you can perhaps guess the corollary:  I am not Eastern.  Not by a long shot.  So sometimes I have trouble understanding the progression of thoughts of someone who is Eastern.

That is why I must admit that though I have read it 3 times, I have yet to get all of what Makoto Fujimura is trying to say in his article in the most recent Tabletalk magazine.  Nevertheless, in The Beautiful Tears I find a principle that helps to support the “why” of true Art and the importance of sacrifice in producing true Art.  Mr. Fujimura is a very fine Christian "artist, writer and catalyst" as his website states.  Certainly the article we are about to examine is an inspiring example of the art of writing, and I hope it will be a catalyst to your thinking, as well.

Before I begin delving into the article though, I’d like to tell a short story.  Recently God enabled me to acquire my Bachelor of Arts degree in Music after three years of intense schedules, neglected family, and hard work.  During those years I was privileged to hear the testimony of one of the professors.  I will never forget the part of the story in which he tells how he came to play the flute.  His main instrument was the clarinet…and he was already quite expert at that instrument.  But he decided he wanted to play the flute, also.  So he did his research, packed his bags, and moved to be near the greatest flute teacher he could find.

Then he called the teacher.  This instructor asked a few questions, and upon learning that my professor had no experience with flute whatsoever, he told him that he would not take him as a student.  My professor questioned him as to what it would take for the instructor to accept him as a student, and was told to “spend 10,000 hours practicing, then call me back.”

Did you get that number?  Let me spell it in italics for you:  

T-E-N  T-H-O-U-S-A-N-D  HOURS.

In what area of your life have you spent 10,000 hours of training? Be honest, now...

My professor, being the kind of person he is, simply began practicing.  He marked off every hour of practice on his apartment wall until he had racked up 10,000 hours.

Then he called the famous teacher back.

Of course he got the lessons.  And he’s a fabulous flute player—as fabulous as he is a clarinet player, and saxophone player.

I think the lesson that my professor learned was the necessity of extravagant sacrifice in the production of true Art.

Mr. Fujimura gives us a lesson on the extravagant sacrifice necessary by beginning with the story surrounding the shortest verse in the Bible.

Jesus and the disciples are ministering across the Jordan, near the place John the Baptizer preached.  Jesus receives word that his good friend Lazarus is ill, yet the Lord does not go to him.  Long-story-short, Lazarus ends up dying, and Jesus finally decides to go to him, even though He knows it means his own death will follow shortly afterward.  When Jesus reaches Bethany, the village where Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary live, he is met by first Martha, then Mary.  Both are grief stricken.  And it is at this point that Jesus does something different than he’s ever done before.

He weeps.

From The Beautiful Tears:

Why did Jesus weep?  He delayed coming to Bethany “so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”(John 11:4), and, when He arrived, informed Martha that He is “the resurrection and the life”(v. 25).  If He came to Bethany to show His power, the fact that He is indeed the Messiah with the power to resurrect the dead, why did He not simply wave His “magic wand” to “solve the problem” of the death and illness of Lazarus?  There would have been an immediate celebration, and all the tears would have been unnecessary.  Tears are useless, wasteful, if you possess the power to cause miracles.

So, why did Jesus weep?  And furthermore, what do His tears have to do with Art?  Let’s follow the story on into the next week of Jesus’ life.  After Lazarus is raised, the Pharisees are seeking to kill Jesus.  He slips away to a little village called Ephraim for a few days rest, and then returns to Bethany to have dinner with Lazarus, Martha and Mary.  Lazarus, Jesus, and the guys were all sitting around the table having a meal when Mary

Barged into a closed room of disciples, crushing open her alabaster jar of nard, worth a year’s wages, that she was to keep for her wedding.  She intuited in Jesus’ tears that every miracle of Jesus drew Him a step closer to His sacrificial death.  She had to respond with a direct, intuitive, but also intentional act of devotion…Jesus’ tears led to Mary’s act of sacrifice, of nard being spread in a closed room in Bethany, where a transgression by a woman opened up a new paradigm the aroma of Christ, of the reality of the gospel breathing into our broken world, filling the cracks of suffering.

Art, like Jesus’ tears and Mary’s nard, spreads in our lives, providing useless beauty for those willing to ponder.  Many consider the arts to be the “extra” of our lives, an embellishment that is mere leisure…What many consider extra, and even wasteful, may come to define our humanity….Every act of creativity is, directly or indirectly, an intuitive response to offer to God what He has given to us.

But what about faux art?  What about that which is not, by our definition, True Art?

“We twist this intuition and may create something transgressive and injurious, but this creative impulse originates from the Creator.  Jesus wept.”

Maybe you’re still asking yourself “what’s the point? I enjoy art, sure, but how is it helpful to the gospel?  Isn’t it a waste of time we could be spending witnessing?”  Mr. Fujimura continues:

Judas was livid at Mary’s act, and argued that the nard could have been sold and the money given to the poor (Mark 14:5).  Pragmatism, legalism and greed cannot comprehend…beauty.  The opposite of beauty is not ugliness; the opposite of beauty is legalism….Legalism takes away life by forbidding the nard to be spilled…

As I have stated before, I believe that Art is 1) powerful, 2) important to God, and 3) demands great sacrifice.  As a Christian, the greatest sacrifice I can imagine is that of Jesus’ willing death to pay the price for my sin.  The article continues:

Christ is the great Artist.  Maybe what He saw in Mary was a little artist, emulating and mirroring His great sacrifice….Jesus told the disciples that what Mary had done would be proclaimed “whenever the gospel is told.”  Perhaps we need to ponder the logical consequence to this extraordinary affirmation:  Is our work for the gospel saturated with the aroma of Mary’s nard?  What is our beautiful, extravagant offering that exposes Judas, an offering prepared for the cosmic wedding to come?

What we deemed a waste, Jesus called the most necessary.  Jesus wept.

What we deemed a waste…

And with that thought, I leave you for today to your meditation upon Art and all that.

On Being Single--Holding Fast

One of the roles from the sidebar that I have played in real life is that of weeping widow.  My husband was killed 12 years ago next month.  God has been faithful, but life has not been easy.  The following quote and link I found so explanatory, so encouraging, that I felt it worth posting here.  If you are not single and do not suffer the hunger Fabienne and I suffer, then you suffer some other hunger--so this article will be of encouragement to you, too.  Just substitute the name of your hunger for the one in the article.

Today, in order to worship God, my body needs to be hungry.  Today, He is giving me the blessed pain of hunger because it’s the only way I’m going to make it home, and He is nothing if not faithful to the promise to give me what I need to make it to Him.

Read the full article HERE

Art And All That, Part III

Housekeeping

My apologies, respected readers.  It has been brought to my attention that my tone in previous posts on this subject has been somewhat patronizing.   In my effort to engage you and to be cool, and make this blog a fun place where we can kid around and be silly as well as meditate soberly, I erred too far toward the silly.  Forgive me, and be assured that you will no longer find a patronizing attitude within the posts here.

That bit of housekeeping done, allow me to continue answering Stephen’s question. 

“My only curiosity is, what have you learned from all those experiences that confirms your beliefs, especially about Art and all that?”

Another belief that I have about Art is that it is important to God.  Not only is it important because He invented it, and because He uses it, but because He gifted humans with artistic abilities.

Four of my favorite people in scripture are fellows whose names you may not recognize.  Bezalel, Jeduthun, Heman and Asaph were especially gifted by God for art!  Bezalel was gifted in crafts and artistic pursuits as well as architecture for the building of the tabernacle along with Oholiab.  Jeduthun, Heman and Asaph were especially gifted in music and were ordained as part of the Levitical priesthood to serve in that capacity.
Exodus 31:2ff quotes God’s commissioning of Bezalel:

    “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs…to work in every craft.

Now Bezalel is pretty special.  Scripture says he was filled with the Spirit of God to work in EVERY craft.  Mostly these days we find that artists are truly gifted in one or two mediums, seldom in many.  That phrase “devise artistic designs” is an interesting one.  I noticed when checking it out that the word “artistic” isn’t actually in the manuscript.  I am always suspicious when this happens, wondering if someone has put their own spin on the translation.  So I looked up the reason for this word addition.  Here is the result:

The expression is לַחְשֹׁב מַחֲשָׁבֹת (lakhshov makhashavot, “to devise devices”). The infinitive emphasizes that Bezalel will be able to design or plan works that are artistic or skillful. He will think thoughts or devise the plans, and then he will execute them in silver or stone or whatever other material he uses. (from notes on the NET Bible)

Art is so important to God that He not only invented it and uses it Himself, but He has endowed his image-bearers with the skills and abilities to perform it.
 
Yet another belief about art which my experiences have confirmed is the following:  Art requires sacrifice.  Often it requires great sacrifice—the most beautiful art usually requires the greatest sacrifice.  Whether that sacrifice is measured in hours spent in the practice room or ruined canvas or useless pottery cracked in the furnace; whether it consists of great humiliation or cost in materials or time, beautiful art costs something.  I am reminded of David's exclamation:

      But King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will buy them for the full price. I will not take for the LORD what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing. (1 Chron. 21:24)

I confess to a certain amount of annoyance and frustration at that which is termed “Christian” art.  Too often it is second rate—since when have you seen a Christian movie, for instance, that had the quality of a Lord of the Rings trilogy, or Up?  Think back to the last time you heard someone perform music at church.  Was it a performance that required a firm self-reminder that it is the heart that matters and not the skill of the performer?  Or was it truly excellent, drawing your thoughts toward God, providing a glimpse of the eternal and space for your spirit to meditate upon the greatness of your Redeemer?  Have you recently seen a lot of church buildings where attention was given to artistic sensibilities, or have most of them been of the large, warehouse type?

Something stinks, and I propose that it might be that baby (art) we, the Church, threw out with the bathwater.


I can certainly understand how it happened.  Somehow we began to think that art was superfluous to what we do when we meet together as the Body of Christ, and to what we do when we evangelize.  Certainly we should never make the sacrifice of proper Godward worship or the salvation of a lost soul to get great art—that would be blasphemous.  But have we, in a too-wide swing toward pragmatism, forgotten that the sacrifice required for great art is also a picture of the sacrifice required for God’s greatest work of art—the redemption of a lost world through the death, burial and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ?
 
Or was it rather legalism that made us fear the power and influence of art?  Did we decide that God would give us more points if we got rid of anything that might tempt us to an appreciation of beauty—beauty that He created?

Regardless of the reason for it, Christianity has lost great swathes of ground to secular art.  And that brings me to another thing that I have recently begun to ponder concerning what I believe and what my experiences have taught me.  But I’ll leave that for next time!

By the way...I borrowed the phrase "thinky things" from the Scita>Scienda blog you see on my blogroll.  I hope that's alright with you, Cat!

Thinky Things

Please do comment and let me know your thoughts.  In case you need something to spark an idea for a comment, here are some suggestions:

1.     What in your experience confirms that art is important to God, powerful, and requires great sacrifice?
2.    How did we, the Church, come to throw the art baby out with the bathwater? 

Logos 4 for Mac

Alright...this is a shameless plug for my favorite Bible software.  I'm a Windows woman myself, but I drool over an iPad on occasion.  Well, the folks at Logos have been slaving away and finally come out with the Mac version.
Do click over there and look at Logos, whether you are a Mac fan or a Windows die hard...it's an awesome program, and it continues to improve all the time.
Logos 4
Oh, and by the way...you could win an iMac, iPad or iPod touch, as well as several other lovely prizes just for sharing this news with your friends Enter to win over at Logos

I did ;P

2010 Perseids Star Party

After several years of making an effort, our familiy was finally able to make a real star party out of the August 12th meteor shower this year!  We have been enjoying "star parties" for many years, though we didn't know that's what they were called.  Year after year we have tried to get a good experience of the Perseids, but often only made a stab at it...we'd go to bed, but set the alarm for 2 or 3 a.m.  Then we'd get everyone up, wander outside to the drive way, and watch a little while.  When the children were younger, the big draw for them was not the meteors or the stars, but the hot cocoa or coffee that they were allowed to sip!

Last Christmas, though, we really started making better preparations for star gazing by purchasing a pair of good binoculars.  Parents, don't miss the opportunity of experiencing the declaration of the glory of God in the heavens just because you don't have a telescope.  Binoculars will do just fine to start with.  My son had also bought me a laser pointer for my birthday a few years ago:  honestly, we've had more fun with this silly thing.  The entire family was here at my house for my daughter's wedding, and when I got out the laser pointer to show them a few constellations, they couldn't resist beginning to experiment with all that it could do.  I think they spent a couple of hours shining it in different places, and then they brought it inside and started seeing what it would do under various conditions.  Well, at least it survived.
Here are the binoculars we bought ourselves for Christmas:

Orion Binoculars

And here is the laser pointer we've had so much fun with:

Green Laser Pointer

Finally, we borrowed some camping cots from my dad.  Before it got dark, we set out the camping cots in the lot in front of our house.  We live in a roomy suburban subdivision, and the only light pollution problem is the security light on our property.  That IS a problem, but it doesn’t keep us from having a good view of the sky, and if we’re careful, the light doesn’t spoil the view too much.
During the afternoon we discovered a tip concerning listening to the meteors, so we also got out the stereo system, set it up on the ironing board, and tried to tune it so that we could hear the pings made by the meteors as they entered the atmosphere.
Here is the link that gave us the tip:

See and Hear Meteors

Unfortunately, it didn’t work for us this time.  Next time I’ll do a little more research and see if I can pinpoint it.  As a musician, I’m interested in all kinds of sounds, and it’s just fascinating to me that one can hear the “music” of the meteors!
It rained that afternoon, and in 101 degree heat, rain is not a blessing.  It was miserably hot and muggy out even around 9 o’clock when it got dark.  And so we decided to watch a movie and come back out later.  As a result, we missed the best meteor of the evening!  Apparently a large “grazer” meteor hit the atmosphere right around 10:00 CDST…and we were watching CARS.  Go figure.  We heard from several people, local and otherwise, that it was spectacular and some of them even heard a “swoosh” with it.  Interesting, because meteors hardly ever make noise we can hear.

Here’s a time-lapse video of some of the meteors:






Around 11:30 we ventured out doors to discover that the temperature had dropped significantly, leaving everything wet with dew, and even covering us with dew as we walked out of the house.  The night was continually damp, but at least it cooled off!  After wiping some of the water off the stereo, we settled down in our camping cots to watch the show.  I’m pretty sure we saw over 100 meteors, though we didn’t count.  Rosie and I stuck it out until 5:45 that morning, though I took a nap somewhere around 1:30 for about an hour and a half.
While watching for meteors, we of course had to look for constellations and sky objects.  We picked out the following constellations:

Sagittarius, Cygnus, Aquila, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Pegasus, Andromeda,

…and several others.  Another exciting thing was that I saw a deep-sky object I hadn’t viewed before.  I believe it was this one:

Galaxy M31

Once I picked it out with the binoculars, I was also able to spot it with the naked eye.  I think we picked out a few other deep-sky objects, ones we had seen before, but I have slept since then, and I wasn’t in particularly good mental shape after staying up all night, so I’ve forgotten which ones we looked at.
Here is a picture of the sky chart for that night at about 2 a.m.  We were oriented facing east and very slightly south.

You can get a sky chart like this for your area just by visiting:  Heavens-above.  Sign up for a free account and give them your zipcode.  Then you can sign in any time, and it will give you the whole sky chart for your area at the time you sign in (you have to find the "whole sky chart" in the list of things on the page...it's down nearer the bottom).

The next good meteor shower will be the Leonids, November 17th.  There is a meteor shower in October, but it will be blanked out by the full moon.  If you observe during the very early morning hours (after 3 a.m.) on November 17th, you'll probably catch a few.

But whether or not you view a meteor shower, do get out in the dark with your children and some binoculars.  Even if you don't know what you're looking at, you'll see some amazing sights.  The weather should begin cooling off in a few weeks, and as the fall approaches the constellations and sky objects will become clearer as the summer haze settles.  The moon is fabulous through binoculars, by the way.  It will be a great family time.  I promise you will end up with some deep discussion about life, the universe and everything when you and your children behold the glory of God in the heavens!

Art And All That, Part II

I see that all are in attendance, and there exists some curiosity as to the answers to the Thinky Things in Part I.  So let us begin there:

1.     Who among humans is the true artist?  Which category of humans (choose between the following:  Christians or non-Christians) is most like the First Artist?

The category of humans most like the First Artist are Christians.

2.    How would you re-word Mr. Kauflin’s definition so that it defines Art instead of the artist?

Working definition of True Art: True Art magnifies the greatness of God in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit illustrating God’s Word through the artistic medium thereby motivating the gathered Church to proclaim the Gospel, to cherish God’s presence, and to live for God’s glory.

4.    Meditate upon the following verse.  What, if anything,  does it have to say to us concerning Art?

      Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24     And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,

True Art, then, will stir us up to love and good works and encourage us to hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.

Let’s dig a little deeper.  The very first phrase of our definition of True Art states that it magnifies the greatness of God.  True Art acts like a magnifier…you know, one of those lenses designed to make whatever you are looking at through it larger, easier to see. 

Does it bother anybody that God is so great, yet scripture enjoins and commands us to “magnify” Him and His greatness over and over again?  Why do you suppose that is?  Could it be that we are so very blind ? (probably).  Or is it that no matter how large God is to us, we can never see to the end of the detail of His greatness? (very definitely!)

Have you ever used a magnifier to look at a photograph?  Often you can see more detail as you look closer.  But at some point you are going to run out of detail and begin to lose the picture altogether.  It will resolve first into more detail, but if it is magnified more, it will resolve only into patterns of colored dots, then into fibers of paper, and at that point you no longer know what the photograph is depicting.

But God is not like that.  He is so great that we cannot take Him all in at once, yet no matter how infinitely we magnify him or an aspect of His character, we still see God, we can still see the big picture! (and this is why fractals and chaos theory intrigue me!)

The most recent issue of Tabletalk magazine is entitled “The Good, The True, The Beautiful”.  Dr. Sproul states the following:

“God is the source, the fountainhead, and the norm of all that is true…good…beautiful.  Just as everything that is true points to God, and everything that is good points to God, so everything that is authentically beautiful also points to the source and fountainhead of that beauty….There is nothing in redemptive history that would make beauty, goodness, or truth suddenly passe’ or insignificant.”

And so we come to the first thing I am able to put a finger on that I have learned through my experiences that confirms my belief about Art.

I believe that God made Art powerful.  And my experiences have confirmed that.

If you have not read the “about me” section yet, you might want to take the opportunity to do so now.  Unlike many pastors I have known, I will now give you a moment of silence in which to read it.  It will be a moment of REAL silence, and not a moment of continual-yapping-encouragement-to-use-the-silence-to-really-do-business-with-God.

*shuts face.  Waits for 50 seconds while listening to the sound of people reading.*

You’ll notice that I have played the Mouse Queen in a local version of the Nutcracker, and Mother Abbess in a community theater production of The Sound of Music.  Why is it that these two stories are so enduring?  They are powerful, I think we can all admit that.  The stories themselves are powerful, and the acting out of the stories is also powerful—as the skill of the actor increases, so does the power of the performance.

Thinky Things

1.    What would you say is the the most powerful expression of art that you have experienced? 
2.    What is the most beautiful thing you have ever seen?

Please do fill in the comment section with your answers…it will be a worship event!  In Part III, we’ll look at Jesus’ idea of beauty, and find out another answer to Stephen’s question.  Until next time...



...Hold Fast

Art And All That

Most blogs begin with a great, uplifting and idealistic post describing who the blogger is and why they are starting a blog.  I considered that.  Then I took a Tylenol and went off to a music clinic.  When I returned I had seen the light.

This blog won’t begin with one of those.  It will begin right in the middle of what’s going on in my life.  A certain special son-in-law was helping me get my blog set up by giving gentle critique and encouragement from his vast store of blogging expertise (check out his blogs in the blog roll on the right).  After I submitted the text of the “About Me” section that you see in the bar on the right to him for editing, he responded with a question:

“My only curiosity is, what have you learned from all those experiences that confirms your beliefs, especially about Art and all that?”

Instead of answering him, I grabbed at the offering of blog fodder and told him I’d make the answer part of one of the first posts (pretending, of course, that I had so much to say already that I was making a bit of a sacrifice to bump his question up to ‘one of the first’ posts, when the truth was I was so desperate for a subject for the first post that I grabbed at his question like a drowning man…).

Well, Stephen:  thanks to you, here is my first official post on HoldFast.

Let The Feast Begin

I’ll have to start here, with Art, because that is the easiest, and I’m quite the novice at this blogging thing.  What have I learned from all the experiences in the “About Me” that confirms my beliefs about Art?

*Waits for readers to ponder*.

Ah, yes!  Good question.  What ARE my beliefs about Art anyway?  That would be important to know, don’t you think?

Not being a person of great intellect, I am grateful for those who are smarter and more erudite than I.  Bob Kauflin, author of Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God,  lays it out in the chapter headings pretty well, I think:

• “A Faithful Worship Leader…
• …Magnifies the Greatness of God…
• …In Jesus Christ…
• …Through the Power of the Holy Spirit…
• …Skillfully Combining God’s Word…
• …With [fill in your favorite artistic medium here]…
• …Thereby Motivating the Gathered Church…
• …To Proclaim the Gospel…
• …To Cherish God’s Presence…
• …And to Live For God’s Glory.”

*Spots hand waving in the the back of the room*.  Yes? *listens to question*.

Wow, am I blessed with thinking readers!  Great insight:  it’s true that the above description doesn’t really define Art so much as it defines an artist.  And it does a magnificent job of it.  Change the wording just a bit, and you get the following, broader description of any kind of (Christ-following) artist.
i.e.:

“A faithful [painter, dancer, musician, woodcarver, sculptor, potter, etc.] magnifies the greatness of God in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, skillfully combining God’s Word with [artistic medium through which artist expresses his/her art]  thereby motivating the gathered church to proclaim the Gospel, to cherish God’s presence, and to live for God’s glory.”

“But wait, Esther.  You have only defined a Christian artist.  There are a lot of artists who are not Christian!”

True, young grasshoppa.  But consider.  Who is The First Artist?  Who created Art?  Who first used Art to communicate the gospel and draw us into His Presence and glorified Himself through it?

Because you have already proved yourself a very smart audience, I will take the risk and make a leap of logic here—but let me know if I get ahead of you:

Who among humans, then, is the true artist?  The most like the First Artist?

Thinky Things

So here is your first HoldFastFeast.  Think upon the following, and post a comment if you like.

1.    Who among humans is the true artist?  Which category of humans (choose between the following:  Christians or non-Christians) is most like the First Artist?
2.    How would you re-word Mr. Kauflin’s definition so that it defines Art instead of the artist?
3.    Meditate upon the following verse.  What, if anything,  does it have to say to us concerning Art?

      Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24     And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works (Hebrews 10:23-24) 

As I have yet to come up with a good sign off, I’ll plagiarize a bit and borrow from one of my favorite radio program hosts.  As Todd Friel of Wretched Radio says:

“And now…Go serve your King!”

Esther

P.S.  Don’t worry.  Not all the posts here will be this ponderous, nor will they all be about art, I promise.  As they say here in Texas, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute”.  Well…if you don’t like the thinkiness here, just wait a minute…

The Star Book

I'm really just testing the email blogging feature here, but thought this was a good subject. The Perseid meteor shower should peak tomorrow night, August 12, during the early morning hours, incidentally.

Oh, and I'll share more about The Star Book later.

*Bang bang bang; "oof!"*...

Oh!  Hi.  Sorry, I didn't see you standing there.  I was just nailing that piece of trim up over there.  Don't you love the smell of new wood?

I'm still finishing this blog home out, so it may be awhile before I'm ready for company, but thanks for dropping by...I'm looking forward to your visits once I've painted, hung the doors and windows and there is carpet on the floors, furniture suitable for frivolous chatting as well as deep thinking, and the fridge is stocked.

Meanwhile, I don't want you to go away empty handed...so here's a thought to take with you as you leave:

Hebrews 10:23 "      Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. "

Now, you have a blessed day, you hear?  Mind the sawdust on your way out...