How does Pain give birth to Art?

First, I want to thank everyone for being so patient with me.  It has been a rough year.  During 2011, I had to resign from my job as a church clerk, had two surgeries and a procedure done, and have been out of church for a few months now.  I had to stop teaching Sunday school, put Young Women’s Fellowship on hold, and leave most of the chores to my husband.  It has been a very rough year.

Now, I would like to say, throughout all this, God has not only been by my side, but he has done more than carried me through.  He has dragged me through.  I have never been closer in my relationship with Christ than I am now.  I thought I knew before what it was to be in constant prayer.  I had no idea.  Now I understand.  The way I see it, God is always with me.  Yes, we all know that.  But just like my disabilities never leave me, I can be sure that God never leaves me.

Well, we already know all this.  Let me explain further.  I know I’m not alone in this as far as someone who had to go through what I went through and what I am going through.  Twelve years is a long time to live with a disability, but even so, I know that there are people who have cancer, people who are coming back from war injured, people who have lost everything, people who know how it is to be in a state of pain, in constant pain.  I am following a few blogs on people who are suffering so badly that they are living in the hospital.  They are away from their church.  They had to put everything on hold.  And those that are at home, I know what they are feeling.  I know what you are feeling.  But you must remember that our battle is not against flesh and blood.  The darkness of this world will do whatever it takes to keep you from God during your time of pain and suffering.  But don’t allow that to happen.  This is where Art comes in.

There are so many forms of Art, from writing to drawing, from painting to singing, from photography to what I like to call Artography – Graphics design. There’s ceramics, wood carving, knitting, crocheting…in short, Art is Creating.  God is the Master Artist.  Do you need some inspiration?  Take a look around you.  I know how easily one can fall into a state of depression and anxiety because of their pain.  But with God, there’s no need for that.  All you need to worry about is Him.  Don’t worry about what people will say about you because you are not able to do certain things.  As long as you know that you are TRULY not able, then you know that God knows.  THAT is what got me through.

Knowing that God knew what I felt, He knew what I was going through, He knew what I could and couldn’t do, what I can and can’t do…this gave me hope.  I constantly talked to Him.  I constantly asked Him what He wanted me to do since I couldn’t do so much.  I have always loved being a part of all forms of art.  But to somehow spread the Word of God through art, that’s what I wanted to do.

It started with Painting.  I wanted to paint for God…but how?  I didn’t know then, but I did know that when I played my christian music and put the brush to the canvas, I was doing what God wanted me to do at that time.  Then, from Painting, as my condition worsened, I went on to writing.  I had always written, but never wrote for God.  I ended up finishing a Christian Novel in one month during NanoWrimo (National Novel Writing Month).  During that time, my husband gave me an early Christmas present.  I think because he felt bad for me because of all I was going through.  He purchased a Nikon D5100.  To this day I have no idea how he got it.  I still poke him to make sure he still has his soul in tact.  But seriously, I know it was God.  All these things, the painting, the writing, the photography, the poking…all these things were desires that were deeply placed within my heart for years, but until now, I never realized that they were placed there by God.

So, you may say, that’s all good and dandy for you, but I have no talent.  I can’t do anything right.  I hate art.  Well, for that person, I have one thing to say: It’s because you’ve never done it for God before.  I will give you the perfect example, my husband (I hope he doesn’t shoot me for this).  A few months ago, he started a Referee blog.  He is a great referee.  No, seriously, he is like the best referee in the world right now and should be pushed all the way to ref for DC United this Summer.  But anyway, he was struggling with creating the blog.  I just couldn’t understand why because he was so good at what he did, so in my mind, all he had to do was write about it!  Seems simple, right?  But he couldn’t do it.

Two days ago, he started a blog about the Word of God.  He completed the blog, posted his first two posts, and already has like 50 hits…all in two days.  Hmmmmm…I wonder why.  Could it be because he is doing something that not only glorifies God, but also spreads the Word of God? And he enjoys doing it!  It is a desire that God has placed within his heart.

Now, there are some days where my fingers hurt so bad from writing, that I actually try to negotiate with God.  Seriously?  I mean, Really?  But that doesn’t take away the fact that I love writing.  But, loosing track of the reason why I’m writing is where the danger lies.  It’s easy to allow selfish intent to get in the way of putting God first.  It’s also easy to allow others to make you think that what you are doing is for selfish reasons when you are working for the Lord.  For example, there are missionaries that are looked down upon because people think they are going away for a vacation or for other reasons, so it gets harder and harder for missionaries to raise money to spread the Word of God.  This can put doubt in a missionary’s mind whether they should be fulfilling the great commission…Uh, I’d say yeah, continue to obey God’s Word.

Pain gives birth to Art by freeing your mind, body and soul to concentrate on nothing else but your pain and God.  Once that happens, there are no distractions between you and your TRUE relationship with God.  It goes to a totally different level.  You are faced with God every second of your pain.  And you know that only God can take it away IF He chooses to.  When I am writing, painting, picturing…i mean taking pictures…all i think about is God.  Does the pain magically disappear?  Uh, how bout Noooooo.  My intentions are not to lie to you.  But, I am filled with TRUE PEACE.  I now know what peace feels like.  And it’s awesome.

So, let’s back track.  Art is Creating and God is the Master Artist.  To create an opportunity to bring someone closer to God, that is Art.  And only God can do that.  But He uses us (how cool is that) to tell others about Him.  Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.  As I create by allowing God to use me, by showing God’s creation to others, it opens up an opportunity to share God’s Word with others.

So, in closing, I would like to introduce you to some of my Photography which you can find by clicking here.  I hope to have my paintings featured there later this year.  My Painting room is still being set up.  Please, share with me on that site what you think about the photos you see there.  Your comments are very important to me.

Don’t let your disabilities keep you from telling others how good God is.  Don’t let your pain stop you from showing others how much Jesus loves you through the way you live.  Live for Him no matter what.  Jesus died for us, the least we can do is live for Him, don’t you think?

‘Till Next Time…