Just Go

“What if we identified where God was moving & joined him?” That was a question Jamie posed my first Sunday at Journey after moving to Nashville exactly a year ago today. And that question has been in the back of my mind ever since.

I think sometimes we make it too complicated. God is always working which means there is always something for us to join Him in. Unfortunately I think we spend so much time trying to make our own dreams or projects into His will that we miss thousands of opportunities He has for us to join Him in the incredible things He is already doing.

When God says, “go,” go! Stop analyzing. Stop trying to be sure. Just go. And if He hasn’t said “go here,” then look at where He’s working & join Him. Because the truth is, we’ve already been given to the command to go. All of us. Go may mean across the world, it may mean across the country, or it may mean just across the street or even across the room. It’s all going.

Either way, I think most of the time it really is that simple. Just go.

 

Throwback Sundays…A Month in Pictures (And a few words)

Today marks exactly one year since I moved to Nashville. I left Appleton,WI that day & haven’t looked back yet. Not only am I still in Nashville but it is 100% home.

This was the first “update on Nashville life” post I did…most in picture form :) It was was fun to read back through it today. For the record, I still think almost everything I own would fit in my car. I’ve been super intentional about not collecting “things.” I still LOVE the sunsets. I still spend a lot of time in coffee shops. I did move from Franklin & am in that same place. And STORY 2011 planning is in full swing & the event is just around the corner. I’m excited about spending that week in Chicago.

Beyond that, I am truly in awe of the story God has written in my life over the last year. The people, the experiences, the places, the lessons. I could not have predicted any part of it except that it would be hard, that I would want to give up at times, & that it would require patience & faith. It hasn’t failed on any of those counts, but it has also been pretty incredible. What I wrote a year ago still holds true…I moved here for life and life is what I’ve found.

What’s happened in your life in the last year?

Art & Pain

What is the relationship between art & pain?

Gary Molander posed that question a few months back on his blog & it’s been bouncing around in my head ever since.

I believe that pain may be one of the greatest catalysts for art we will ever know. When we feel pain we are alive. And pain most often leads to brokenness. There, our hearts are exposed. And we create from a place of vulnerability & truth. A place of honesty where we get out of own way. Where our masks have been shed & we have less to protect.

We create in those moments because we can’t not create. Because we know of no other response than to paint or write or dance or sing. And the result is art that embodies brokenness & grace. Suffering & joy. Redemption & restoration. Art that cries out desperately for the Kingdom that is to come but that lives in the hope of the Kingdom that is here.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that many of history’s great artists also suffered much. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that artists are stereotypically “emotional” or “moody.” I think God has wired artists to feel more intensely than most & He’s given us that as a gift to propel us to create. To create art that reflects His constant work of creating beauty out of our ashes…wholeness from shattered pieces…life from pain.

Do you think there is a relationship between art & pain?

Throwback Sundays…Choosing Silence

“I think television has betrayed the meaning of democratic speech, adding visual chaos to the confusion of voices. What role does silence play in all this noise?”
– Federico Fellini

I’m still asking that question…”What role does silence play in all this noise?” Read the rest of the original post here.

Ponder…Severest Tests of Friendship

It is one of the severest tests of friendship to tell your friend his faults.
So to love a man that you cannot bear to see a stain upon him, and to speak painful truth through loving words, that is friendship.
-Henry Ward Beecher