Hope, One Brick at a Time

 

 obsessed     TWISTING    RULES   –> poison

   

 CONTROL!   v pain.            REJECTION

...DEPRESSION     D A M A G E     LAST    THE LETDOWN

Judges   OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE.   Identity Crisis 

Unlike the computer keyboard i am using today, the healing arts workshop taught by Destiny at ICAP Global's Delight Conference moves and removes control from my internal editor's struggle for consistency and perfection – unexpectedly and predictably placing it into the capable hands of God.

The workshop becomes a treasure quest: experiencing for the first time the feel of brush strokes on canvas ...  uncovering and discovering words within the pages of soon-to-be-discarded magazines ... and permission to be messy in the sticky-fingered joy and childlike freedom of gluing tiny bricks onto canvas and even tinier words onto bricks.

Inspired by Destiny
The story she shares and the artwork she created inspires us. Her letters spelling HOPE are thin and tall and strong – the bright white graffiti reminiscent of a strong beam of light shining miraculously outward from deepest darkness. Her 3D bricks and words surround on four sides the HOPE on the painted wall.

In these post ICAP days and weeks i find myself enmeshed in an abstract longing for a clarity of connectivity, wildly seeking a deeper understanding of the comfort i often find in isolation, and striving toward elusive answers to concrete questions: why does the artistic bricks-n-mortar of my artwork lacking walls to the left and to the right? is it because i struggle most with shifting sand at my foundation? seek shelter from the storm beneath the idol of self-reliance?

The artwork now hangs on the wall above my desk. Each time i look at this recreation of Destiny's Hope, One Brick at a Time, the unfamiliar textures and processes of working in mixed media return to me, and somewhere deep within i am confident the answers will come.

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division,  envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! – Galatians 5:19-23 NIV

Rjw