Category: collage

Paraphrase: A Restatement of a Text


All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the faith and correcting error, for re-setting the direction of a man’s life and training him in good living. The scriptures are the comprehensive equipment of the man of God 
and fit him fully for all branches of his work.
(2 Timothy 3:16,17 J.B. Phillips translation)


Monotony gives birth to boredom. This is my paraphrase of the familiar quote: “Familiarity breeds contempt.” To have contempt towards someone is to say that someone is not worthy or to lack respect towards him. God is totally worthy of my respect and adoration, but I must admit that sometimes I gloss over a familiar Scripture. I repeat it with little heart and not much mental engagement. 

One of the most comforting prayers for me is the Lord’s Prayer. Yet at times, I just recite it without much thought. Several years ago, I translated the words based on a study of the prayer in the original Aramaic. And today, I decided to paraphrase the prayer into a colorful collage! (See above.)

Here’s my translation:

Our Father of heaven–
Only so very holy is your name.
Come your kingdom, Your will to be (accomplished) in what manner, means and process of our heaven; also (likewise, in the like manner) on our earth.
Give us the bread of our need (relief or supply, necessity) today, this very day, on this present day of the week, twenty four hours, from daybreak to sunset.
Leave (take away, without interference) our sins in the same manner, that we likewise leave (let go) these sins done to us.
Protect us by not letting us enter, pass into or cause temptation (the act of tempting, or enticing to evil, seduction; that which tempts nor an inducement or allurement to evil.)
But cut through, cleave us from, separate and deliver us from evil (Satan, as well as wickedness, worthlessness and unfortunate and sinful tendencies.)


Try your own paraphrase of a familiar passage of Scripture to see how it changes your perspective.


In 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time, Pam Farrel relates a time when she was struggling with depression after a major move and life transition. She called a friend, who listened to her, then asked her this question: “Pam, what character trait, what attribute of God are you forgetting?” Pam said, “Well, pretty much all of them!” This conversation led Pam to go to her Bible to paraphrase favorite Scriptures into affirmations of God’s character.

Here is her strategy for personalizing Scripture during your quiet time:

Simply brainstorm key words that might lead you to verses that would help [you or a friend]. You might need to take the key words and find biblical words that are similar. For example, stress is a very common feeling, but the word stress is not in the Bible. The words perseverance, endure, endurance, long-suffering are. Sometimes it is helpful to look for opposites. For example, if you are struggling with worry, look up peace.

What struggles are hitting your life or the lives of the ones you love? Brainstorm a list of words you can look up to find verses of comfort and hope.

©Pam Farrel from 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time (IVP). For more devotional books by Pam http://www.Love-wise.com


To find Scriptures by topic, check out the topical index tab at www.biblegateway.com.


If you are just joining us for 31 Days of Quiet, click here to see the whole list of ideas to spice up your quiet times with God.
To check out all nine categories of 31 Days Of…click over to the nesting place to see the multitude of topics! Surely one will pique your interest.


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Treasure: To Hold or Keep as Precious; Cherish

Who is a God like you . . .?
(Micah 7:18a NIV)

Children are precious. We treasure their tender hearts and we learn from their curious minds. Their laughter is contagious. Their quiet moments are rare, but when they are still, we usually find them nestled in their parent’s arms or curled up under the covers sleeping sweet dreams.

Jesus celebrates and welcomes the little ones. He encourages a childlike faith. In your quiet moments do you ever act childish? I don’t mean those spiritual tantrums, I am thinking about approaching God with wonder. When is the last time you got out a box of crayons and colored a Bible story? Or gathered some scissors, old magazines and a glue stick to make a collage?

Coloring and pasting appeal to my curious nature. I like to see what comes together with the images and colors. And often, I discover a topic that God wants to dialogue with me about. Like in the above collage, I sensed God asking me and possibly you: 

What do you treasure? 

And the reason I know this is a question God may be asking is that the Bible also speaks of this topic. (See Luke 12:34)

In 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time, Pam Farrel suggests, we approach our time with God like a child, literally. She suggests reading a children’s Bible, or reciting a child’s prayer or coloring a Sunday School paper or even having a quiet time with a child.

Here is what happened when she took her own advice:

 . . .one Sunday morning, I asked our eight-year-old son what he learned from Daddy’s sermon. Waiting for the typical, “Jesus loves me” answer, I was pleasantly surprised when he said, “You shouldn’t make up excuses not to obey God.” Wow! 

©Pam Farrel from 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time (IVP). For more devotional books by Pam www.Love-wise.com


What youthful activity will you incorporate 
into your quiet moments today?


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Guest Post (Part 2): Lynn D. Morrissey {and Random Journal Day}

 
For I am about to do a brand-new thing. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness for my people to come home. I will create rivers for them in the desert! 
(Isaiah 43:19 NLT)
Join us today, for more heart insights from Lynn as she works through a life transition by using collage-journaling.
 
 
Collaging My Transition
(Lynn D. Morrissey)
 
Note: If you have not read my post yesterday called “Art of My Heart” about how I began collage-journaling, I’d suggest that you read it before reading this post. 
 
 
 
In an online journaling class I attended about life transitions, one of the assignments was to collage and write about what stage I was currently experiencing.
This was a fun and fascinating process for me. Because I am such a perfectionist and had a collage collection of forty-million magazines in the basement from which to choose, to save time and curb my perfectionism, I decided to limit myself to four used magazines I had recently purchased from the library. What intrigued me is how God used these limited resources to speak to me in a powerful way.
In a journal write, I described my current state in “butterfly”terms. At this time, I was metamorphosing (transitioning) from full-time mother, author, and speaker to journal facilitator. I explained to the class that I was still in the chrysalis, but it had split and the butterfly was ready to emerge. The butterfly, fully formed, revealed my true colors: my passion for teaching journaling. I needed finally to shed my chrysalis to which I was still clinging and to pump up my wings with God’s blessing: my skills (álà the online journaling course), courage, business savvy  etc. I also needed to shed bad habits, attitudes, and sins which were impeding my flight.
I had no idea how I would depict this phase of my transition through collage images, because I didn’t expect to find butterfly life-cycle photos in the magazines. But interestingly, other pictures emerged which powerfully represented this phase of my life and informed my next steps. I have no doubt that God led me to these particular pictures and words at this particular juncture.
I found an image of what resembles a red British telephone booth. The woman had one arm and leg inside the booth, and the other arm and leg were forcefully breaking through. What a perfect image for my “emerging” mode. So I glued a big E (which stood for *emerge*) onto the booth (my chrysalis). I realized that God had revealed my purpose to facilitate journaling classes and that part of me was moving forward; yet, oppositely, part of me was lagging behind and clinging to my comfort zone and bad habits.
Interestingly, just days before when I had been prayer-journaling, I told God that I had met a wall of resistance in some areas of my life, and I needed a breakthrough. When I serendipitously found the telephone booth for my collage, I realized that I had found a “red wall of resistance,” which the woman was breaking through! This definitely conveyed significant spiritual symbolism and meaning for me, and confirmed to me that God was speaking.
Then, of all places, in a women’s magazine (!), I found pictures of cups labeled with words for sins referenced in the Bible: wrath, envy, pride, lust, gluttony, greed, and sloth. I realized that I had committed those sins at various times and was still struggling with some. I knew that if I were to have a “soul revolution,” I needed to ask God to help me to empty the poisonous “contents” of those cups through confession and repentance. (You’ll see in my collage that I have pasted those words above the cups). At the bottom of the page, I had fun juxtaposing the words from two different magazine ads to make my own slogan. “Let the secret” + “of passion” + “out of the box.” As I began to emerge into my purpose, I wanted to let the secret of my passion (for journaling) out of the box. I knew that “There is a side of [me] destined to be revealed.” Yes!
 

Collage 1
On the second collage, I depicted not just the emerging, but stages of what would become my flight in progress. Amazingly, I found a slogan which read, “What will happen to the emerging?”under which I included another phrase:“How do you get all the nourishing?” I was also stunned to find the nourishing phrase, because my teacher had asked our group how we would nourish and nurture ourselves during this transition. It was delightful for me to see three groupings of words about nourishment in the very magazines I was poring over. This, too, was no happenstance. You’ll see these phrases near the bottom of the collage: 1) “Nourishment is savoring every bite” (I wanted to savor my journaling coursework, bite by bite, and not just be a quick, thoughtless consumer). 2) “Nourishment is forgetting perfect” (I definitely knew that I needed to leave perfectionism behind; it was hindering every aspect of my life). 3) “Nourishment is laughing out loud” (I love to laugh, but I knew I needed to do it more; perfectionists can be far too serious). I realized that I needed to make some conscious efforts (which you’ll see in other words I captured in the collage, like: “I will live brightly”and exuberantly (I can be prone to depression, and so I wanted to focus on joy). I will “pump it up”! I can’t believe that I found those words that directly applied to “pumping up my wings”! I will “do everything I can to help my dreams come true.” I also added that “small steps take me from where I am to where I want to be.” Because I am a perfectionist, so often I won’t start needed projects because I think if I don’t have time to finish them, I’ll need to wait to start when I do—and then I never do! (Perfection + procrastination = passivity and paralysis!). So this is a very crucial reminder for me. There is really nothing small about small steps. They add up to big ones.
Finally, I created a new definition for “journal change,” all because I found words that leapt out at me from my magazines. I simply played with and rearranged them. This is not what the magazine ad said, but this is what my heart knew: “Journal change is something beautiful about to happen.” So often, I dread change. So suddenly to see a little tearing-and-pasting exercise transform a word of dread into a word of hope was nothing short of miraculous for me. I added the word “journal” to the words “change is,” because I think that “journal change” is a true transformational catalyst. Whenever I pick up my pen and/or collage pieces to seek the Lord for insight, change, self-knowledge, and guidance, I can anticipate that “something beautiful is about to happen”! Every time I journal, I change. And that’s beautiful!
As I completed my collage assignment, it was my hope that as I fully emerged from the chrysalis waiting period into my new beginning as a journal facilitator that my life and my purpose would become a work of art!You’ll note that phrase at the bottom of the collage.
 
 
Collage 2
 
God continues to use collage-journaling, this art of my heart, to give me insights into my soul and ways that I can grow, change, and rejoice in Him and His purposes for me.
How has He used collage to do the same for you? We’d love to hear!
(Copyright 2013. Lynn D. Morrissey. All Rights Reserved.)
Lynn D. Morrissey, is a Certified Journal Facilitator (CJF), founder of Heartsight Journaling, a ministry for reflective journal-writing, author of Love Letters to God: Deeper Intimacy through Written Prayer and other books, contributor to numerous bestsellers, an AWSA and CLASS speaker, and professional soloist. She and her beloved husband, Michael, have been married since 1975 and have a college-age daughter, Sheridan. They live in St. Louis, Missouri.
 
You may contact Lynn at words@brick.net.
 
Please feel free leave your comments for Lynn on this post.

 
 
Linking up with Random Journal Day over at Beneath the Surface: Breath of Faith with Dawn and Susie.
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Thrilling Guest Thursday: Lynn D. Morrissey

. . . and if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding, 
and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure , 
then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God. 
Proverbs 2:3-5 NIV

Today, we return to the journey of finding nourishment for our souls through words, art and the practice of journaling.  

Join us today, as Lynn shares how God introduced her to collage as a catalyst for expression and transition. This is a two-part series, so come back tomorrow, to view some of her collage work and the discoveries behind her process.

<!–[if supportFields]> SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1<![endif]–><!–[if supportFields]><![endif]–>Art of My Heart
(Lynn D. Morrissey)












Collage for me is art-of-my-heart, my soul made visible in living color on the journaling page. I love its vibrancy and free-wheeling whimsy, its colorful playfulness and startling juxtaposition, its generating of spiritual insights and soul surprises.

But I didn’t initially gravitate to collage. I thought it was silly at best and occult at worst. I’d heard so many Christian warnings, whether from Puritanic admonitions against idolizing images or from Bible teachers’ concerns about name-it-and-claim-it visualizing techniques, sometimes called manifesting or the Law of Attraction.

But just days after my beloved father’s death, God used the art-form of collage as a significant means of launching my healing journey from grief.

Shortly after Daddy died, I attended a poetry-and-journal intensive in Denver. One of our assignments was to collage a cover for a new journal. It was at the end of a long day, and I was physically and emotionally depleted from the pain of grief. The *last* thing I wanted to do was cut pictures out of old magazines that I never would have read in the first place, in an attempt to make (so-called) art. It seemed like just about the most ridiculous Mickey-Mouse undertaking I could imagine. Though I know now that my grief overshadowed my attitude, it still wasn’t the kind of activity that remotely appealed to me.

But because I had invested so much of myself, time, and resources into the seminar and because I knew that Daddy would want me to pursue my journaling-facilitator dream, I chose to cooperate in this learning experience. I took a stack of magazines back to my room around 5:00 p.m. and didn’t emerge until the next morning!

After eating an early dinner alone in my room and getting ready for bed, I began leafing through the magazines, page by glossy page, randomly cutting or tearing out pictures, words, and slogans that seemed to speak to me. As I underwent this rhythmic process of slowly scanning and cutting, something happened that even today I cannot fully explain. The process calmed and soothed me, and my emotional pain momentarily subsided. Words and images of hope, beauty, and comfort emerged that resonated on a deep heart-level. I had not set out to find them, but God knew just what I would need to see. As I began arranging and rearranging the extracted words and pictures that I would later glue to my journal covers, it was as if God were using them to rearrange my broken heart into a multi-layered mosaic of meaning and hope. The juxtaposition of a kaleidoscope of words, colors, shapes, and images registered somewhere deep in my soul that even journaling my angst at that time couldn’t do, because my despair was beyond articulation.

Since that time I have gone collage-crazy and consider myself a Christian-Collage Poster Girl. I want to be clear to say that God speaks through the Bible, and nothing—absolutely nothing—replaces His Word for providing direct, inerrant revelation of His character and will. But God can also speak to our imaginations (which He gave us!) through Creation, art, song lyrics, books, poetry, friends, and the circumstances of our lives. One significant way He has spoken to me is through collage. God has used collage-journaling (where I collage onto journal pages and write to Him about what He shows me) to spark my creativity, help me solve problems, teach me insights and truths about myself, help me to set goals, and implement dreams.

I am not worshiping images, but God who speaks through them, the God who speaks at times through the art of my heart.

Question: Have you ever tried to use collage as a means of artistic creation and self-expression or to explore your “inner landscape”—translation: what God is showing you about your life circumstances, thoughts, dreams, goals, memories, conflicts, etc.? What were the results? How have you made collage-journaling a part of your spiritual practice?
                                                                                               
Please come back tomorrow and read about and see my “transition” collages and my thought process behind creating them.

(Copyright 2013. Lynn D. Morrissey. All Rights Reserved.)
Lynn D. Morrissey, is a Certified Journal Facilitator (CJF), founder of Heartsight Journaling, a ministry for reflective journal-writing, author of Love Letters to God: Deeper Intimacy through Written Prayer and other books, contributor to numerous bestsellers, an AWSA and CLASS speaker, and professional soloist. She and her beloved husband, Michael, have been married since 1975 and have a college-age daughter, Sheridan. They live in St. Louis, Missouri.

You may contact Lynn at words@brick.net.

Please feel free leave your comments for Lynn on this post.

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Confidence: A Relation of Trust or Intimacy {Where I Reveal My Dream Come True}

 
But know that the LORD has set apart the faithful for himself;
the LORD hears when I call to him.
(Psalm 4:3 NRSV)




When I was a teenager, during a youth retreat we were encouraged to choose a name that would describe who we wanted to become. I chose the word, “confidence.” I drew a key and wrote the word across it. Probably the first time I ever used a concordance to look up Scriptures. Under the listing, I remember reading: “The LORD is my confidence.” (Proverbs 3:26a)

At that retreat was one of the first times I asked God for something for myself. I wanted Him to be my confidence, but also to make me more confident.

For many years I have been growing into that name. As I  was getting ready for a new venture today, God reminded me of that act of faith so many years ago. Back in May, through a series of God events, I took a step towards fulfilling a dream. This dream came to life today! I am calling this dream:

 
 
 
(Logo design created by Jessie Flori)


Souldare will be a place where people gather together to discover their created self through journaling, collage art and eventually, nature hikes accompanied by times of contemplative prayer.

What does this post have to do with my recent series on prayer? God hears when we call to him. And sometimes, the answer is revealed in stages, over the years. And sometimes, He uses that very request to increase our faith and confidence.

When I look at the word confidence, I think “with faith” or “with fidelity,” which when applied to my life humbles me. To think that God would call me one of his faithful ones exalts his faithfulness. It indicates a depth of intimacy with God that has grown sweeter over the years.

What a joy it was today to witness others exploring and discovering their created selves through collage art and journaling. God was in our midst. I can’t wait until next week to see how God reveals himself to us again.

 


A poem I read before I left to facilitate the workshop became another prayer for confidence:

Where fear imprisons, faith liberates;
Where fear paralyzes, faith empowers;
Where fear disheartens, faith encourages;
Where fear sickens, faith heals;
Where fear makes useless, faith makes beautiful;
Where fear puts hopelessness at the heart of life,
faith opens the windows on a new world,
a new life that knows no end.
(Father Philip Chester, as qtd by Jonathan Aitken in Prayers for People Under Pressure)



 

How is faith enabling you to overcome fears?What long forgotten request
is God answering today?

 
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