Day 22 of Lent - A Tired and Cranky Post
I have spent all day working on this large 24x36” painting:
this process photo was shot at about 2/3 of the way into the painting…a bit more to be done.
To me, this speaks of these children’s confidence in their mother’s love for them. She looks a bit disheveled, she looks even tired - with two little ones climbing all over her for a story. The airy brush strokes and the splashes in that atmospheric back ground speak volumes. Motherhood is messy. There are tears, baths, and hearts held as gently as possible. All of it, building confidence into those two little ones.
But that kind of confidence can help grow loving, hopeful humans. Children who live with assurance and imagination are able to calm their insides enough to notice beauty.
Fear makes us supremely self centered. Scarcity makes cowards of us all. But these little ones are hopeful and whimsical - and a whimsical hope lets us notice others, care for them, and hold space in our imagination to conceive of a creative way we can act for their benefit.
All lovely thoughts, these.
But at the moment, I am exhausted and cranky. My hands are fumbling all over the keyboard, fingers splotched with gesso and soft pastel. Wave after wave of hot flashes are rolling over me, and I’m going on about 5 hours of sleep last night.
So stick a fork in me, I’m done. All the lovely thoughts that began this painting have leaked out of me.
And it is time to say goodnight.
(much, much earlier in the day….)
Day 1 of Lent {...it's not about what you do not do - it's about what you DO...}
This past Sunday, The Preacher taught on 2 Peter 1:5, “Add to your faith, virtue.”
And, though this year I’m “giving up” certain things, choosing to pray at certain times, and finding new ways to give to others as a Lenten practice, I thought his message was actually far-and-away the clearest “Lent message” I had ever heard.
(Caveat: my preacher is an out-of-the-box charismatic, interdenominational, reformed, somewhat evangelical protestant who has never preached an “official” Lent message in his life. He is a new covenant Pauline gospel guy, with an apostolic heart and a deep understanding of Hebrew roots (thank you to his many Jewish best friends) - a hybrid mutt - and he refuses to be ashamed of it.)
(I’m humming me some Tammy Wynette: “…stand by your man…”)
The definition of that Greek work “virtue” can easily be defined as “courageous initiative”. It most decisively involves action.
I am not what I know. I am not a list of moral codes that define what I “do not do”. I am definitely not what I talk about. I am not what I profess. I am what I have already done.
No one can reverse-engineer that. I cannot suddenly call myself an artist or an author. (Well, I could, but that is a potential problem that goes beyond the scope of this short blog post!). I have to have written. I have to have made art that others would want to buy.
If I could rewind the movie of my life, say, ten years, I could show you all the seemingly one thousand ordinary Monday mornings where I “added to my faith, virtue”. I picked up the paintbrush and I painted (crap).
I sat down at the computer and I wrote (garbage).
And I worked. And I did. And I acted. And I took initiative after initiative after initiative.
This is something that, though you cannot reverse engineer it, I hope you can identify areas in your life where you have already taken decisive, courageous action. Daily, decisive action. Consistent initiative.
This is also the virtue spoken of in Proverbs 31.
For me, this morning, a lenten practice looks like a fresh, new morning prayer practice. It also looks like “adding to my faith, virtue”. And virtue looks like finishing a painting and having the courage to offer it when (oh, for sure) not everyone will love it. It may not sell. But I love it. It came from a place of passion, deep in my spirit.
This morning, this is a practice of Lent. This morning, virtue be like….
….this.
(post edit: this painting sold in less than five minutes after posting this! Thank you! For future reference, if you see a piece of art shared in a blog post, check my shop for availability -OR- tap the “contact” button at the top of each blog post, and inquire!)