I am called to create so create is what I do.
I am blessed to have a studio full of art supplies at my fingertips, a space dedicated to the making of beauty and the visual telling of a story, a whole room where I get to open the door, enter in, and breathe in the potential and co-labor in the making of what could be communicated through a piece of art created here.
Now, without that mindset, without my interaction, this studio space I just described is simply a room with a stack of blank canvas, pads of paper, paints, markers, and brushes. It can look chaotic and messy and unorganized.
All of these supplies, four walls, a roof, and a floor will be just that... left to itself.
It will stay in it's piles and containers and collect dust. These things on shelves will remain just elements and nothing more.
The materials... just disconnected stuff until the creator with the vision and skill begins putting them to beautiful use.
In my workshops, as a set up, I often tell guests that I've done my best to set them up for success... that all these materials are nothing really until you interact with them. You make the difference. You're the difference maker.
I've thought of this so much during this season of contrast.
Let's face it, our lives don't look like they did even a month ago.
Whatever our roles, we're experiencing what I'm calling The Contrast because we've been knocked off our trajectory by an unforeseen force called Covid-19 and now we are learning to operate and function in new ways with new materials.
Our thinking and vision is different because of it.
Observations during this time have run the gambit. Some experience victim mentality, fearfulness, loss, grief, anger, sadness, loss of freedom, and mixes of all of these. Some are home more and that's ok with them....Some of the contrast is a blessing and a relief because the course of life before wasn't healthy either.
Romans 12:2 says "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.
I like the NLT which reads...
"Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think..."
"Let God Transform You" These four words jump out to me.
I woke up this morning with this thought. What if, in this time, if we look at all the feelings, difficulty, newness....the struggles as the supplies and materials and submit them before The Creator for the purpose of transformation in this studio space called Contrast?
Otherwise all of what we're experiencing now will lie in piles collecting dust and never be used for beautiful transformation in our lives. We actually could emerge from this season...unchanged and carrying even more baggage than before. What a waste of this time that would be.
I believe God is a Creator and a Re-creator. He never gives up and His goodness runs after us. He wants to take all the stuff in our lives and create something new and beautiful out of all of it so we can experience a renewing...a contrast that really means something and has nothing to do with the pattern of this world. He want us to reach our full potential and be difference makers.
I don't want to sit stagnate and collecting dust without purpose in this season where I'm told I can't go, I can't do, I can't be...for whatever reason. I can view this time with potential and opportunity in mind or think as the world thinks.
So today, I'm unlocking the door of the studio and allowing the ultimate maker, the one with the skill and vision to make a masterpiece... to take all this stuff and begin creating as He allows me to co-labor in the process.
From an Artist's perspective, allow me to share that it's the texture, the mark making, the color and "The Contrast" that makes a piece of art interesting and beautiful and gives it it's draw and connection to the viewer. Let's not miss what's being created in our own lives and stories and let's not be afraid of the transformation in the Contrast.
Blessings,
Tina
Kommentare