Category: artist

Pray Continually

 
Rejoice always,  pray continually,  give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
(1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV)

As I thumbed through a couple journals from summer 2012, I was searching for poetry and flowers, and instead I discovered a garden of prayer.

Last year, I was reading, The Hour that Changes the World by Dick Eastman and I adapted his twelve steps of prayer into a time of creative prayer. Here’s an example of one of my more colorful times praying:

 
Each bud in the pot names the topic of prayer!

 
 
 
Prayer of An Artist’s Need

 
 
I need
stunning vistas
wild wonders
great vantage points
a bridge to the past
the best seat in history
novel ideas
to experience art
to be filled with holy
INSPIRATION
 
 
 

Linking up with Random Journal Day.

Posted on by kelrohlf 11

Hobo: Homeward Bound

We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace.
(1 Chronicles 29:15 NLT)
 
 
For the rest of the Lenten journey, I’ve decided to become a hobo. My good friend, Carol Ann, found a devotion with the intriguing title: A Lenten Hobo Honeymoon, written by Edward Hays. In this devotion, the author relates that the word hobo was coined as a contraction of “homeward bound.” I like it! I want to live with a greater consciousness of my transitory status here on earth. I want this consciousness to inform how I live my life now.
 
So with that in mind, I am adding this devotion to my stack.  The book invites me to see myself as a sojourner longing for home, as well as a newly wed bride, who savors every waking moment with her Bridegroom. An interesting combination to be sure, but the unlikely companionship of these two words, challenges me to take my eyes off of me and put them back on the Beloved Son of God.
 
 
 
I have always wanted to pick up and just go see the world. And while I can’t just leave my husband with TV dinners and hop a train, I can imagine what it would be like to start each day wondering where my Beloved Jesus will invite me to go next. As an artist and writer, I have been looking forward to dedicating the next month to creative pursuits.
 
Even before, Carol Ann hollered, “All Aboard!” with this gem of a devotion, I was dreaming about planning my calendar for March in such a way as to explore more of our hometown, with a heart open to where Jesus might want to go this month as we contemplate His life, passion and ressurection.
 
Here’s how I want to honor Jesus for the rest of Lent:
 
1.) I’m going to continue writing letters to my Beloved Savior, little notes or poems each day to tell Him how much I love Him.
 
2.) I am going to plan several out of the ordinary day trips to explore St. Louis with the eyes of an artist/writer, rather than a tourist.
 
3.) And to top it all off, I hope to report back with some spiritual insights and a deeper love for Jesus.

Posted on by kelrohlf 8

Creation: An Original Work of Art

 
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
(Psalm 51:10 NIV)




Digging into the archives today . . . I wrote this post last winter.

As I was mulling over why I desire  the act of making, inventing or producing something, this post came to mind. 

So I offer this post as an offering of praise to our Creator:



 As you survey all the materials within your reach, your artist’s eye alights upon dirt—the very medium for growth.

And then you exclaim, “This will do. Yes, indeed. I see it. I will form man out of nothing, yet something.”

In your mercy you choose dust-soil-earth to become the seedbed of humanity. You gather up handfuls mixing it with water—maybe even your own sweat and blood. Wiping sweat from your brow you form the man you imagined. In your work did you pick up a stick to sculpt the features of his face? No, I see you taking this lump of clay into your hands deliberately shaping a body, a forehead, an ear, eyes and a nose.

You are plying your finishing touches, when you take a moment to step back to observe your progress on his face—and a smile breaks across your own. You add a mouth with two lips desiring that he be able to form words just like you. You bend over his form kissing his lips with the breath of life.

Did Adam cough and shudder awake? Did his eyes flutter open, seeing for the first time, the One who sees him—and did he smile back? You reach out your hand lifting him from the ground, the very soil that became his essence—mixed with water and imbued with life giving oxygen. You introduce him to your world.

Later you would see that he needed companionship. You would invite him to recline on that same ground, to reach into his side to create a suitable companion—to eat bread with, to amble and admire the garden together and to commune with their Maker.

Did you add the same mixture of soil and water to that rib? Was the rib a structure to build, to sculpt and to shape this next being around—a female image bearer? I imagine that your desire to make another human hinges on the joy and satisfaction you experienced in making the first. Similar, but different.

This comes with a womb. Did you knit together her inner person before forming the body around this cradle of civilization? A being that would be able to produce fruit—not like a tree, but in a mysterious, soul-drenched way. In her womb would combine blood, water and soil cells.

Another soul born out of two. A new way of conceiving life. Their bodies designed to become one in the most intimate, delicate and creative act.

An act of love.




Posted on by kelrohlf 2