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Are You A Paint By Number Or An Original Work Of Art?

No great radical idea can survive unless it is embodied in individuals whose lives are the message. ~Erich Fromm

painting in progress

“Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world.” Romans 12:2 may be the most universally ignored command in the Bible, yet the key to all the others. Are you a work of art in progress, or do you counterfeit the crowd?

10 signs you are stuck on a paint-by-number canvas:

  1. You assume God thinks like you do. If you are disgusted, he must be. If you are delighted with yourself, he must be. If you hate yourself, he must too.
  2. When you ask, “What would Jesus do?” you really mean, “What would I do if I were in a good mood?”
  3. You are more excited about the idea of meeting a celebrity than getting to know what Jesus really did.
  4. You are easily swayed to fear, anger or sentimental tears by what you read or watch.
  5. Your opinions reflect the crowd you hang with.
  6. You worry about how you look, or are perceived.
  7. You fret over what you don’t have.
  8. You are more self-protective than self-giving.
  9. You avoid thinking about the suffering of people you don’t know.
  10. You are easily offended and quick to judge.

If you admit to any of these, congratulations. Recognizing the mold you are being squeezed into is the first, important step to resistance. Why be a pre-planned paint-by- number, when you are meant to be a work of art?

10 Steps To Becoming A Work Of Art

  1. Grab onto this truth–God does not think like you do. Isaiah 55:8: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways my ways, says the LORD.” Left to your own devices, chances are very good that the way you perceive things, the ways you respond, are the opposite of God’s. But your mind can be changed.  You can learn to think like God.
  2. Read the Bible yourself. God hasn’t left us clueless, but has ultimately revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ. If you read the Gospels carefully, you will notice that almost every time Jesus  speaks, thinks, and acts, the people around him expect the opposite. If you aren’t astonished by Jesus you haven’t met him yet.
  3. Look in the mirror and repeat these words, “The world around me is bullying me to be something I was never meant to be.”
  4. Look for patterns. One popular paint-by-number perspective? God is indifferent, people are disposable, life is cruel, it’s every man for himself. There you have the subplot of postmodernity.
  5. What you think about God matters. If you believe God is perpetually angry, disgusted, indifferent–that’s the kind of person you will be. If you are perpetually angry, disgusted and indifferent to others, that’s who you suspect God is.
  6. Open yourself to the incomparable mercy and grace of God, and you will become like him.
  7. Die. Actually, die to your presuppositions, prejudices, pressures and patterns–lay down on the operating table and let God give you a self-transplant.
  8. Be renewed by listening to God and loving others the way he does.
  9. Let God fit you with lenses of trust and hope in him.
  10. Turn your attention all day long to what is “true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, or worthy of praise.” Philippians 4:8

 

How are you choosing to be a work of art?

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Faith Life

Happiness Is Overrated: J Is For Joy

There are joys which long to be ours. ~Henry Ward Beecher

child laughing

I stand at my front door and fret for happiness while joy taps patiently at my back window. I listen to the “if only” whispers in my head, even as the soaring promise of today fills the air.

Happiness teases, like a dust mote, dancing just beyond my grasp.

Happiness, the kind that means life is going my way, makes an unsteady target. I aim too low, wish too small, and often hit the bulls-eye to find it was at someone else’s expense. My prayer for sun cancels a farmer’s thirsty hope.  His blue ribbon win means someone else goes home a loser. Her bargain purchase guarantees someone else’s shrinking funds.

But the pursuit of happiness is a human addiction, and sometimes our dearest god.

Happiness And The Biblical Story

The day the wilderness-wandering Israelites finally reach the Jordan River, expecting an easy milk and honey welcome, they peer through the border mists and panic.

There are giants in the Promised Land.

There always are. Problems never take vacations. Bickering, battles (see the book of Joshua), and bad leadership (see the book of Judges)–we bring ourselves wherever we go.

And then the book of Ruth, where we read about Naomi.

Naomi is bitter. Famine in Israel drove her family to immigrate to foreign pastures, away from the land of promise. Did her reluctant feet lag behind, and turn for one last look at familiar faces and farmland? Did she wonder if they left too soon? Would everything have been fine if they had waited for God to act?

The signposts to happiness are often hidden from view. And oh, the grief we carry if we choose the wrong move. Maybe today you are reeling with regret. Or looking with disgust at the cards in your hand, feeling forgotten. The lie is shouted in every ear, “It’s too late for you.”

Naomi’s husband died among strangers, the two sons put down roots, marrying women not of their faith. And Naomi, a displaced widow, spent a decade, daily tallying the cost of a long ago decision. Then, a final blow–the sons died too, and Naomi and their foreign wives were left to their fate.

But even in dungeons of self-pity, joy will keep on knocking. The rest of the story of Naomi, and the daughter-in-law who would not desert her, is a beautiful read. Themes of self-giving kindness, and God’s welcome embrace enchant us still today. It’s the story of how a woman can endure life-crushing blows, the end of all possibility of happiness, and be given something better. It’s the tale of Ruth giving birth to King David’s grandfather and placing the baby on Naomi’s empty lap, and God stirring all the good and poor choices together and making for Naomi a hearty stew of Joy.

 

How does joy differ from happiness in your experience?

In our series, An Alphabet Adagio, we are savoring the story of the Bible, our story, alphabetically. You can subscribe to e-mail above so you won’t miss a letter. Next: K is for King.

 

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