Art And All That + Heaven + Radical

I apologize ahead of time that this post is somewhat stream-of-consciousness.  That’s the way God works sometimes, though, have you noticed?  You read a book, then you hear a sermon.  Perhaps you pick up a tract, or something in your Bible study time jumps out at you and “click”…it all links together like a huge train engine that just backed up and latched onto a 40 car train.  A few chugs from the engine and suddenly you’re full steam ahead on a whole new perspective about life.

Well, that’s what happened to me last Saturday.  I’ll try to keep it simple for you, but HOLD FAST…’cause it may be a bumpy ride.

I tried to sort out the chronology of all the different facets of my thought process that morning.  Here’s how I remember it.

First, I read the book Heaven by Randy Alcorn—at least I think that was first.  If it wasn’t first, it was first concurrent with number 2 below.  This amazing book is summarized in part by the following paragraph from its description over at Barnes & Noble’s website:

In the most comprehensive and definitive book on Heaven to date, Randy invites you to picture Heaven the way Scripture describes it—a bright, vibrant, and physical New Earth, free from sin, suffering, and death, and brimming with Christ's presence, wondrous natural beauty, and the richness of human culture as God intended it.

Read it.  It will ramp your passion for evangelism at least 3 notches while at the same time flattening your complaining attitude by at least a figure of 6 decibels.  You’ll never look at life or read the Bible the same again.

Second (or perhaps concurrently with number 1 above), I listened to an entire quarter’s worth of teachings from over at  Discover The Word, a radio/podcast program that I have found to be not only very biblically solid, but also enjoyable to listen to (and not just because the lead teacher, Haddon Robinson, sounds like my maternal grandfather).  The programs aired from January of this year through March.  The programs are in the archives over there—I encourage you to listen to them.

These programs were on the theology of work.

Later in the year my son-in-law started reading, and eventually reviewed, a book by David Platt entitled Radical.  Disclaimer:  I have not read the book.  I have only watched the video and discussed the premises of the book with my daughter and son-in-law.  The video summarizes the point of the book by stating:

“Church, we are Plan A…and there IS NO PLAN B”

And a paragraph at the official website for the book reads as follows:

It’s easy for American Christians to forget how Jesus said his followers would actually live, what their new lifestyle would actually look like. They would, he said, leave behind security, money, convenience, even family for him. They would abandon everything for the gospel. They would take up their crosses daily…But who do you know who lives like that? Do you?

However, the problem is perhaps stated well by the review my son-in-law wrote for his church’s website:

No one should object to reminders of neglected foreign mission fields, or reiterating the Gospel call. But for many readers who already struggle with basic needs, who aren’t in Platt’s main audience of consumer-driven Christians, and who want to support a local church, what does the call to radical faith look like? One answer: very often it looks like being faithful in small ways, living a quiet life and working with one’s hands (1 Thess. 4:11). Very often Christians who have not devoted more time to Ministry are already being radical in their homes, churches and jobs.

The third event that formed a car in this thought train was the beginning of this blog, and the main focus it has providentially assumed so far:  Art And All That.  This is a subject close to my heart and upon which I meditate quite frequently.

So now we come finally to last Saturday morning, when I was doing something as prosaic as cooking breakfast:  just standing there not-so-innocently in my jammies, non-chalantly frying up some delicious home made sourdough French toast for the family.  And Ka-CHINK, BOOM, CLANK, ClanK, Clank, clank…the engine linked up and began moving ahead, all cars attached.

I thought “This meal is totally unhealthy, but otherwise it is going to be so exquisite that it will be like giving my family a little taste of heaven” (clank clank).  That's when I realized that this was exactly what we should all be doing, every day.  Giving everyone around us a little taste of heaven by doing whatever it is that we do as excellently as we can with as good an attitude as we can in as much love and compassion as we can because they need to have their appetites whetted for Heaven.  It’s the Gospel…or at least a large part of it.

And that is Art.  And.  All.  That. 

This makes it so that everything we do is a work of Art.  Cleaning a toilet excellently, with a good attitude, so that your family enjoys a taste of the cleanliness and comfort we will experience in Heaven.  Closing an account, accurate to the penny, with an attitude of joy so that your client will get a taste of the faithfulness and justice they can experience in Heaven.  Cooking a delicious meal…you get the idea.

One of the stories used during the Discover the Word program to illustrate such a situation was told by Haddon Robinson.  I’ve summarized it.

A man works in a union job in a factory, in an area where there's a lot of steam.  Two coworkers know he is a Christian, and to torment him, they open the window, letting in the cold air and jeapordizing the health of the Christian worker each day.  The Christian prays for God to help him continually react in a kind manner each day.  Eventually one of the coworkers is saved, not because the Christian did anything radical or witnessed to him, but because he remembered his endurance and kindness.  He heard the gospel preached in a church, not one he was invited to by this coworker, just one he happened to attend; but when he heard the Gospel, he remembered that coworker's patience, and that made up his mind for him to come to Christ.

Clank clank.

Then I thought “what I do for my family is the same day in and day out.  I clean the toilets, do the laundry, cook the breakfast.  Every day.  It gets old.  It gets tiresome, and boring.  But let’s say I decide to follow Mr. Platt’s call to be Radical, sell all I have, put my kids in boarding school, and head off into the deep dark pagan mists.”

Well, what happens then?

I still have the goal of attempting to give the pagans a little taste of heaven in all that I do, whether it's preaching the gospel or drilling a water well.  I will still have to do it excellently, and with a good attitude that shows I know that there are more important things--eternal things--that dwarf our little frustrations here.  And I'll have to do it every day, all the time.  I’ll still be cleaning toilets, doing laundry, and cooking.

It’s going to get old.  It’s going to get tiresome, and boring.  And after awhile, it’s not going to seem so radical anymore.

Clank, clank.  Chug, chug.

So, here’s my question for Mr. Platt, and for all the gifted Christian computer programmers and CPAs  who’ve quit their perfectly good jobs which supported their families to become a seminary wonk and go to school to become a…whatever:  something in “ministry” so they can be radical, something which may or may not actually fit the gifts God has given them.

If you can't do that (Giving everyone around you a little taste of heaven by doing whatever it is that you  do as excellently as you can with as good an attitude as you can in as much love and compassion as you can because they need to have their appetites whetted for Heaven) in the here and now, in your very UN-radical life, what makes you think you could do it in a third-world, pagan country, or in the inner city?

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I’m not saying that if you answer that question with “I don’t think I can”, that lets you off the hook for going on mission.

Nosirree.  What it does is call you to begin living your radically UN-radical life where God has you now in a decidedly RADICAL way.

In a way that communicates the Gospel in a True Art way.  In a way that shows you know what is eternal and what is not.  In a way that shows you know you own NOTHING (does your living room couch belong to Christ?  Can He use it any way He wants?  How about your computer?  Your big screen t.v.--or even more radical, the t.v. controls?), and you owe EVERYTHING to Christ (your life.  your giftings--does He have your permission to use them anyway He wants? your children.  your time).  In a way that creates a hunger for Heaven in everyone with whom you come into contact.

Every.  Single.  Day.

Dayindayoutbuythegroceriesgotoworkcomehomefromworkplaywiththekidshugthewifedothedishesloveyourneighbor
keepthespeedlimitvoteconscientiouslypatientlyendurethestupidcoworkeranonymouslyheroicallycreateahungerfore
Heavenineveryonearoundyou.

You live like that, God says He’ll give you even more (Matt 25:21).  He’ll see to it you live radically, oh yes.  You may find yourself in the inner city or a pagan third world country preaching the gospel...but it won't be because you did something different--it will be because you were already living radically in your every day life, and God led you there step by providential step.  And while you're there you won't face the temptation of thinking you might be more useful, more radical somewhere else.

Begin today.  What you are doing TODAY is PLAN A…BE RADICAL in it.

Oh.  And here’s the toilet brush.

HOLD FAST

Art And All That Part IX

I've mentioned this fellow before--his was the article I based Part IV on. Here is a video detailing his newest project, interviewing him, and explaining some of his approach to art and the struggles that go with being a Christian artist.

Makoto Fujimura’s Illuminated Gospel Book Project: “The Four Holy Gospels”

Please watch it, and ponder. And then...

Hold Fast

Art And All That Part VIII

As they say, it never rains but it pours!  The last couple of weeks I have struggled to come up with any kind of a blog post at all, finally resorting to posting someone else’s thoughts, and then to being grateful for the troll who started spamming the comments thread with Catholic dogma just so that I could make a post about posting rules.

True to Murphy’s Law (or one of its many corollaries), this week I have material for 3 different posts!  I decided to go with the more contiguous opportunity, and here we are at Part 8 of Art and All That.  Today my friend C. L. Dyck wrote a guest post over at the Speculative Faith blog on a subject closely related to that of the Part 7 post—how should Christian artists do what they do, and why?

We’ve all heard the term “senseless evil”.  In fact, through the magic of television, we’ve probably all witnessed the results of acts of senseless evil.  The term is bandied about by politicos, moralists, and anyone who wants to sensationally sling mud, and has become somewhat dumbed-down as a result.  C. L. Dyck mentions this example:

Wherever there’s a moral podium involved, we sure can make a lot of noise about senseless evil, as I witnessed recently when a young reader posted her (Christian) opinions on the manufactured inclusion of same-sex characters in YA books. Apparently her opinions were considered by some to be an act of senseless violence in writing. (Why yes. That dripping sound is the sarcasm tank leaking. I’ll have to fix that someday. In the meantime, don’t worry, it’s not too combustible.)

CathyLyn goes on to note that we all agree that senseless evil exists, even if we can’t agree on a definition for it.

Over the years I have had the experience of being taught that reading or watching stories containing acts of senseless evil was bad.  It sounded so right when someone suggested that it would be wrong to be entertained by something that was evil in the sight of the Lord, even if it wasn’t a true story.  These teachers use several scriptures to support their teaching.  Scriptures such as:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Philippians 4:8

22 Abstain from all appearance of evil. I Thessalonians 5:22 KJV

These teachers are forgetting, as I forgot when listening to them, that the Bible includes all kinds of stories containing acts of senseless evil, and that not only the Old Testament, but Jesus Himself used stories containing acts of senseless evil to illustrate principles He was teaching (see these, for example: 2 Samuel 12:1-4; Matthew 18:23-35).

Can we just all agree here that it is generally a bad idea to try to be holier than God?  Thanks for that, then.  Now we can move on.

We love to focus on that evil thing, whether we are enjoying it or whether we are sensationalizing it and opposing it.  We Christians specialize in being against things.  But what are we for?

But CathyLyn brings forward the arresting argument of senseless beauty:

In the kerfuffle, we forget that so does senseless beauty. Some things are inarguably beautiful, for no explicable reason. Argue with a sunset, if you will. That insensate phenomenon, without a word of reply, will make you look the fool.
Evil, we can wrangle. We can invent rationalizations. We can build boxes, however poorly we manage to stuff the vagaries of evil into them. But senseless beauty? Its only defensible, rational explanation lies in a personal, infinite and good Creator God.

Indeed.  In fact, I’m tempted to depart from the subject matter at hand to comment on the irrationality of an atheist or an evolutionist who holds their beliefs in the face of a sunset, or the complexity of a snowflake, or the symmetry and brilliancy of a dying leaf.  That is why Christians ought to do Art—though it is not senseless beauty, but rather sensible, it is modeled on that beauty God built into the world, and also is an expression of loving God with all our minds.

But I digress.  We’re talking about writing, specifically writing about senseless evil.  CathyLyn next makes a profound statement:

True beauty doesn’t shy from the wretched facts any more than it indulges them; rather, it transforms their context.

Isn’t that just what God does?  Isn’t that very God-like?  Consider the following:

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. Romans 5:10

For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, Your tongue has muttered perversity. Isaiah 59:3

Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy. Micah 7:18

God doesn’t indulge us in our wretchedness.  Neither does He shy away from our wretched selves, but rather transforms the context:  we are made lovely because of Him and His Son’s finished work on the cross (a senseless evil if there ever was one—except that it wasn’t senseless.  It was planned by God Himself).

CathyLyn concludes this way:

Think about that every time you question what it is to write.
Two things, then, are necessary: to know God deeply, and to unabashedly refine your craftsmanship. Faithfulness and fluency. This is the transformation of an artist—a creature of darkness and fumbling ugliness—within a new context. (2 Cor. 5:17) God does not shy away from our wretched persons, nor our wretched facts.
When your writing of evil is a prayer of senseless beauty, you have defeated it. The pen is mightier than the sword.

THINKY THINGS

Wowza.  The only thing I would add would actually be to broaden the scope of what she said by allowing you to fill in the blank with your own choice of artistry where she has specified “write” and “writing”.  Thusly:

Think about that every time you question what it is to ___________.  When your ______________of evil is a prayer of senseless beauty, you have defeated it.

Do you know God deeply?  Are you unabashedly refining your craftsmanship?  What potential does your art have to become a prayer of senseless beauty, victorious over the evil?

HOLD FAST!
(P.S., you can read the entire article HERE .  C.L. Dyck has her own blog, well worth reading, which you can find HERE)

LET IT BEGIN, LET IT BEGIN!!!

Well, well, well.  I was wondering how long it would take for someone to force me to make rules.  And we have a winnah!!!

Comment Number 2 on the "Submission To Future Pain" post has won the award, dingdingdingdingding!

I was about to put the following in a reply to his comment, but decided that since it contains information vital to all comments here, bumped it up to Post status, instead. 

The Rules

Well, hello there, Mike.  Thanks for commenting.

Copied that right off your favorite Roman Catholic website, eh?

I’m actually grateful for your post, because it gives me a chance to start delineating the rules for this blog.  So far, no one yet has broken them.  But you came along and poof…we got rules!  So thanks for that.

Rule #1

READ THE SIDEBAR BEFORE POSTING.

If you had read the sidebar “about me” on this blog, you would be well aware that I am a 5 point (is there any other kind?) Calvinist.  Therefore your quotations from the Catholic Catechism I admit of no authority nor scriptural validity, and your Lumen Gentium is extra-canonical and therefore inadmissible as evidence as well.

Now, if you have honest questions about canon, scriptural defense of predestination, or Calvinism, come on in, sit down and make yourself comfortable. I’ll fix you a big ol’ glass of Texas sweet iced-tea (is there any other kind?) and we’ll have a friendly, if deep, discussion.

Or if you want to proselyte, that’s legal as well, long as you keep your manners.  Just remember turnabout’s fair play.  You proselyte us, we get to proselyte you, and it's all in good fun, dontcha know. 

Disagreeing with me or other comments here is also allowed, even encouraged,  as long as you mind your manners.  One ad hominem attack, one insult, one pointless post, and you’re out.  Keep to the subject, defend your point intelligently and humbly.

Rule #2

EVERYONE GETS ONE FREE TROLL PASS

First offense merits a warning and an invitation to state your question or point more clearly and relationally so that we can engage with it in a civil manner.

Anyone who shows up at the blog and knocks on the door with their troll suit on a second time will find themselves kicked under the gate and the dogs set on them to chase them back under the bridge where trolls belong.  And their comment will be deleted without warning along with all subsequent comments by them.

You just used up your Free Pass, Mike.  So if you come back, you’ll have to 1) use evidence that is admissible in a Calvinist court (that would be the Bible…Protestant Canon if it makes a difference) and 2)  make your point in such a way that it’s obvious you’re in the discussion for the long haul, planning to mind your manners, able and willing to learn, and ready to engage relationally with the posters and commenters as persons and not just infidels.

I do really hate to seem so inhospitable on a first visit like this, but you just happened to trip the wire, Mike.  No hard feelings, ok?  Just abide by the rules and we’ll all have a good ol’ time.

Now that we have rules…LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!

HOLD FAST

Cheating...

I'm cheating a bit on this post:  last week was rather challenging as well as busy and I didn't get a post made on Friday or Saturday.

We had a great Reformation celebration at our house on Sunday night, too, which was so fun.  A fire in the grill allowed us to roast marshmallows and hotdogs while gabbing with our church family and neighbors under the stars.  It's still quite warm here, so no one even needed jackets.  That made the hot apple cider and hot cocoa a little less popular, but it was fun all the same.

Anyway, busy.  But I just came across this excerpt on my Logos 4 and it was so good I thought I'd post it here as a way of keeping my promise to myself to post at least once a week--so I am cheating in a way.  Perhaps in a few days I will have pictures of the celebration to post along with some commentary as well.  For now, allow this to sink into your heart:

In the prison prayers of Paul (Eph. 1:15–23; 3:14–21; Phil. 1:9–11; Col. 1:9–12), we discover the blessings he wanted his converts to enjoy. In none of these prayers does Paul request material things. His emphasis is on spiritual perception and real Christian character. He does not ask God to give them what they do not have, but rather prays that God will reveal to them what they already have.Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Eph 1:13). Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books.

A goodly thing for us to learn about  praying for ourselves, and for others.

HOLD FAST