This past Thursday night was the first meeting for my church group called Next Step. Every week small groups meet to watch a mini sermon and then go over some questions and discuss what God's next step is for our lives.
I was a little intimidated at first because I thought it was going to be stuffy people that might break out a guitar and sing kumbaya (that really did happen to my friend Cam) or break out in hives if I accidentally slipped a cuss word. Everyone turned out to be cool and very real. Which was refreshing. It seemed like we all clicked pretty well and I can't wait to see what the next few weeks will bring for all of us. It will be good to learn from each other.
Yesterday I went out with a new friend. I guess he got the word that I'm pretty in to Jesus because that seemed to be a lot of what getting to know each other consisted of talking about. It was great to try to fix a few misconceptions he had about us, and to apologize for the idiot Christians he'd had some not so great run ins with in the past. I kept hearing the word "judgment" being thrown around and I couldn't agree more. I told him I also did not like those kind of people and was sorry that those were the people he identified Christ with. And that they got it all wrong, even though they might have meant well doing it.
Talking about faith is a lot like talking about my artwork. I'm not really sure what to say and it's usually vague responses. But yesterday I felt so confident and guided because the more and more I study who Jesus is and the more and more I fall for him, the more I want others to get it. The real it. Because the description is so different than the one most of the world has believed for the past hundred years and so different from what I thought just a couple years ago. I'm not sure where we got it wrong. Maybe when people starting molding him to fit their agenda.
Describing a spirit or a presence or a movement makes you sound as if you take LSD regularly. And have posters of Jerry Garcia or Phish on your walls. Or read energies and see colors (shout out to my hippie friends....jokes!). Like with art, it's not quite something that can be put in to exact words. There's a limitation. So when we are called to spread the gospel, how do we do that?
I think that's where spiritual gifts and passion kicks in. For me, it's not professing something or coming up to someone I don't know and being the weirdo that confronts them about knowing Jesus. No no no. It might have worked in Jesus's day, but our world is so different and broken now. Some would argue this and that's fine but I personally think there are more effective ways of communicating and that particular strategy has been done unsuccessfully for far too long. (Words have done more harm than help for us lately.) My work is my outlet. I'm sure reading, discussing, experiencing, and learning from others about and through faith will weigh heavy in to my concepts during the next couple years. I anticipate this. It will be a challenge in every form. In the book I'm reading (The Irresistible Revolution, Shane Claiborne) the author talks about how living for Jesus is uncomfortable, uncool, and will wreck your life. But in the best possible way. I anticipate that the consumption of that in graduate school will be straining and stressful. But also rewarding and liberating.
The sketchbook is fresh. Classes start on Wednesday; we will see how it all progresses.
No comments:
Post a Comment