A Hard, Happy Announcement
I have some exciting news!
I’m excited to tell you that all of “Sheila Atchley Fine Art” (otherwise known as the website www.sheilaatchley.art) is getting a refresh! You’re already looking at it!
Can you tell? Go ahead and click around! You’ll find a brand new artist statement page and the beginnings of a gallery page as well as a much-tightened-up “About Page”.
“Why”, you ask?
Because I am, as we speak, working hard, writing the outline for my first Masterclass, to be offered right here on my very own website.
After speaking at The Illuminate Conference last week, I sat in on a break-out session with Douglas McKelvey, author of the series of books “Every Moment Holy”. The title of Doug’s session was called “Wrestling With Angels”, and in it he gave us seven “guideposts” that point the way to the fact that I am, in fact, doing exactly what I have been called to do, in terms of my art.
I was wiping tears by the third guidepost. I had a feeling (which soon proved to be accurate) that I may have encountered all seven of those guideposts, in my journey as an artist and a writer. I have.
I also met a new friend named Lori. Lori is an accomplished fiber artist, married to a guy who just retired from a career in working what she called “K and R” otherwise known as “kidnap and ransom”. (!!). He worked with high-level instances of kidnap and ransom, helping with negotiations for the freedom of the person or persons held hostage.
Whoa.
She approached me to let me know that she (quite recently) found me through my course “Middle Makers”. And she needed me to know that everything I have ever said (basically) about “the middle” has resonated deeply with her, and she wants more.
We all spoke on “Nourishing Young Souls With Beauty”
Doug McKelvey, killing us softly with his song (ha ha)
Back to my new friend Lori.
I basically promised her, right over our catered Chipotle lunch, that I would follow through with developing more content for women “in the middle”. And she generously low-key pledged her support, all the way down to the use of her vacation home as a place to go to write, if need be.
Hold me. (I cried on the drive home).
Somehow, by the Spirit of God, I knew that Lori represents many, many women.
Big doors are opening, and I must walk through.
This is a happy announcement, because doing my calling brings joy.
This is a hard announcement, because I am doing every bit of the work of refreshing my website, and developing it to sustain class video and class content, all by myself.
…moments before Andrew Peterson came to chat with us…
“I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me!”
A Glance Back at Easter
Pondering the gift that is “the” Gathering. I hope you’ll allow me to give Easter Sunday a backwards glance (I know it was ten days ago).
Easter is the Holy I Told You So. I love the way the Scripture reads, “He is risen, just as He said.”
If you only attend church on Easter, I want you to know Jesus welcomed you into the assembly, Sunday before last. Oh, for sure. He welcomed you there, with joy.
And He wants to offer you so much more.
He offers you a rhythm of life, where every week, on the first day of the week, you can rush out the door in order to slow your whole life down to the manageable pace of grace. I don’t care how busy you are, I promise you that skipping a Sunday church gathering will not give you space to breathe.
Heading out on that day, carving out that time, is like doing with time what the tithe (or “regular financial giving”) does for your money: give the first fruits of the 10 percent, and that somehow multiplies the effectiveness of the 90 percent that is yours to do with as you please.
Jesus offers you a lifestyle of gathering with certainty around mysteries. And that looks however that looks!
What I mean is this: Some church leaders think they have all the questions figured out, and that’s fine. I challenge you to allow them that. Their certainty does not make them wrong. Other pastors and Bible teachers prefer some mystery, and they can acknowlege not knowing some things. And they’re not wrong.
But all know for sure that Jesus is alive.
In the act of Sunday gathering Christ offers you a liturgy of celebrating wholeness - sometimes we experience instant healing of brokenness, sometimes we lift holy hands (without an agenda…with zero anger or scheming contention) in hopeful certainty of heaven’s perfection laid in store for the time that comes after time.
And I hope you ate some form of ham/pork, ten days ago, even if it was just a bit of bacon for breakfast. Because Easter celebrates the New Covenant. We no longer get to call anything unclean that God has declared clean. This includes food.
““The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’”
This also includes church. This heavenly word refers to much more than bacon (as though the fact that Jesus has sanctified our bacon is a small thing - it most certainly is no small thing!) it also includes the assembly of the made-righteous.
In all its fragile faulty realness, in spite of the fact that sometimes churches miss the mark, you don’t get to call “toxic faith” what God has saved by grace alone.
And I hope you bought some cute Easter shoes. Because you also get to have beautiful feet, as you embody the good news that Christ died and rose again.
He came for the Pharisee in you and me.
And the one in “them”.
