Rocky Mountain High

The Preacher and I just returned from a trip to Colorado.

We attended a minister’s conference hosted by Andrew Wommack and Charis Bible College. This year (2023) was our first year to go to the minister’s conference, which celebrated its 40th consecutive year while we were there! The teaching was rich, and the connections felt solid and substantial.

One of ARMI’s regional leaders (Association of Related Ministers International) who is also a dear friend, told us that the conference had more than doubled in size since just last year. So we felt a bit like fish out of water.

We sat in a room with about 2,000 people. We are not accustomed to that.

Therefore, since we are now part of ARMI: we adapted.

The second thing we weren’t accustomed to, was a minister’s conference that went Monday through Friday.

Therefore: we adapted.

The third thing we were not accustomed to, was incredible facilities. Jaw dropping facilities. Built with zero debt.

There’s a soothing, gorgeous, at least two stories tall waterfall inside the building. There’s a great little coffee shop and bookstore. Every single person there was happy to serve.

Upstairs, in the mezzanine, there had to be at least 50 leather couches, in more than a dozen well appointed conversational groupings, with a view directly looking at Pike’s Peak.

The dining area was like a very large, very fine restaurant, complete with large round tables, tablecloths, plush padded seats, and an enormous stacked stone fireplace. It was all absolutely stunning. And with one goal: to facilitate deep connections. We happily adapted.

Here’s where we did not need to adapt: we know the presence of God, when He broods over a gathering. We felt right at home. We don’t know any other way, except to be authentic, and therefore we make deep and authentic friendships. The favor of God rests upon us, and meeting people comes easy for us. We felt well within our element, in that respect.

And we two are still in love, and we know how to spend time together. If a conference structure doesn’t allow enough time for that, well, we know what must take precedent: our romance. We know exactly how to be Bohemians, and keep important principles but break picky rules, and therefore leaving some sessions early to go roam Woodland Park came really, really easy to us.

(…we laughed so hard at this one…)

We found out that we are highly adaptable, can function under less-than-optimal conditions (our VRBO was absolute garbage - with a busted double bed, in a musty shed that they advertised as a “cozy cabin”. Buyer beware), that we are blessed and incredibly favored, and that altitude is a thing.

But we thrashed it. We hiked, frolicked, friended, explored, prayed, laughed, cried, sang, and basically wore ourselves out, acting half our age.

Until next year, Colorado. Until next year.

With deep gratitude for all the great lifelong friendships that have led up to this season of our lives, with excitement for what now is, and all the incredible new connections we are making, and with great hope for the future.

Because the next Great Awakening will be stewarded into the earth through Great Relationships.

Thanks, Andrew Wommack, for your incredible vision. Thank you Greg and Janice Mohr, Mark and Jennifer Machen, Jeremiah and Stacey Johnson, Brad and Celina Holliman, Randall Barrington, Rob and Glenda Rufus, Charis Bible College, and all who we’ve met and fallen in love with since 2018. We stand ready to serve. My goodness, we are thankful.

And it’s so so good to be home. I can’t wait to get in the studio to paint some scenes I sketched in Colorado.

Studio Shorts

Courting the muse as a painter is an exhilarating sway of emotions, colors, and creativity. It feels like a delicate balance between anticipation and surrender. There is a palpable, even spiritual energy in the air, a connection to something beyond the physical realm.

For me, this is a lifestyle full of both frustration and elation, as inspiration ebbs and flows. With each encounter, the muse reveals new facets of my own desires, kindling a fire that eventually must have its way in the studio…

…or at the keyboard. Because I also paint with words. All of it, words and art, prose and paint, feels just like how I imagine a flamenco dance would feel - full of passion and vulnerability.

All I knew before beginning this piece was I had not done it quite this way before.

It needed to come out wild and free.

It wanted to be impetuous and beautiful.

She materialized exactly as I imagined she would. A gestural drawing, with strong lines and small imperfections that actually make her perfect. She flew out of my arms, hands and fingertips, onto the paper in moments, boldly and with courage, no erasing the history of any mark.

The intention was to distill a lifetime of noticing with more than a decade of art practice, into one manifestation of ease and grace and something of my own impetuousness.

It had to feel for sure like it might not work.

But then it did.

Her marks have been safeguarded. Next, she will be beautifully and simply framed. She will be available for someone to bring her home and be inspired every day by the ease and grace with which she simply IS.

Message me, if that someone is you.

She took less than twenty minutes from start to finish. She took great courage. She took my whole lifetime to execute. Someone will want everything she represents, and will be most willing to make that beautiful equal exchange of energy. I for sure won’t be discounting this piece.

The greater the ease with which an artist works, the better the energy in the finished piece. If you love art…really love it…you are looking for that fresh urgency. You love the immediacy of certain types of marks and paint strokes.

This is that. Oh, for sure.