Wow, Randy. I really like this one! Perhaps b/c it's got some straight lines in it???
The Spirit rising over a somewhat familiar new world, flooding it with deep passionate reds and merciful greens/ yellows and the deep blues of His love. I feel the reflection of Jesus.
:-) Blessings! ChaplainChas.
Randy
· 1 year ago
Good. Only you know why you really like it so I think you just confessed you like to see structure in art. Thank you for offering your interpretation too. It's a good one.
Pianomankugie
· 1 year ago
I like that the outflow from the sun is like a covering, a protective sheet, not something invasive or harmful that is heading straight for me......my brain thinks that the "rays" would be coming off the sphere in all directions like needles pointing out of a pin cushion in all directions up, down, around, outward; my heart is glad that the sun is not doing what my brain expects. Viewing this art is a good practice for my mind to work in ways it is not accustomed. Perhaps I'm one of those lefties who is in his left mind, not his right.....and if so, that's OK.
Randy
· 1 year ago
Well, whatever side you are in it sounds like you are of sound mind.
bah-dum bum!
Others have told me that my artwork exercises their brain. I find that fascinating feedback.
editorgal
· 1 year ago
Still not my cuppa as far as wanting it in my home or office, but your work is so visually compelling and vibrant. The structure at the edges of this one are a nice departure . . . and give it a unique depth. Not better, just unique, when compared to your other work.
Randy
· 1 year ago
Thanks ... I think :)
editorgal
· 1 year ago
You're welcome, it was definitely a compliment! The touches of linear color were nice; what I've seen of your work thus far is usually free-flowing -- no linear blocks of color . . . hmm, or at least not as structured.
Randy
· 1 year ago
You are correct. It was the second time you said "not my cuppa" so you like it but ... not? Great feedback though and I appreciate it.
And yes, the linear blocks of color are a departure and they are what I referred to in the post as driving me a little crazy. :) I just want to fill them in with all kinds of stuff but felt it needed to simply stop. After hearing the different interps, here and on facebook, I know why now. They speak something different to the viewer.
Cheryl
· 1 year ago
They do speak something very different to the viewer. I really like this one. The blocks really pop out the flow. In music it's often the rest that gives incredible power to the sound. I hope you continue to play with more ideas along this line.
Randy
· 1 year ago
Thanks! A lady from my church just facebooked me with some very helpful suggestions. She is also downloading it as a wallpaper for her cell phone :).
I am SO honored ;).
editorgal
· 1 year ago
Oh, I like it. I like some Picasso, and some Van Gogh, Monet, Windbergh, and more, but not all of their works. I like lots of different artists. I guess "not my cuppa" reflects what I said, I wouldn't be inclined to have this type of art in my home or office. Both are pretty traditional, and I think your art needs space to be seen and appreciated. Neither of my spaces fit that bill. I've got bookshelves as integral pieces of my decor (if I have a decor!), pictures of family everywhere, blah, blah, blah! Either your work would get lost in the clutter, or overpower it. Neither of those options would do justice to the piece.
Randy
· 1 year ago
Completely understood. Thank you very much for explaining. I know that not everyone could work something like my style into their everyday decor.
You wanna' hear something funny? One of my pieces was hanging here in the office. An older board member walked past it while I happened to be there. He was like, "I don't get it. That looks ... I mean ... I could do something like that." I said playfully," really?" "Oh yeah... this abstract stuff ... anyone can do this art?'
His wife knew that I had drawn it and was mortified. I said, "It took me over fifty hours to draw it." The look on his face was priceless (it's a good thing we are good friends.) I told him to take a closer look and he could see the detail (excruciating detail) and then I said, "guess how many colors?" Before he could answer I said "... around seven or eight."
I know he still didn't like it but he walked away with an appreciation and not so quick to dismiss that some abstract art isn't an artist simply having a tantrum.
Sidenote: I love using a LOT of different colors OR just a handful in varying patterns. I have one drawing that has 37 separate colors and it is just one crazy looking spectrum piece. It's one of my fav's.
editorgal
· 1 year ago
I appreciate art, and the artist's passion and commitment to getting their vision down in a medium. I don't have that gift. I can admire others gifts, though, and do!! So, yeah, I'm sure I could "do that" -- in Heaven!! :D
ChaplianChas.
· 1 year ago
Wow, Randy. I really like this one! Perhaps b/c it's got some straight lines in it???
The Spirit rising over a somewhat familiar new world, flooding it with deep passionate reds and merciful greens/ yellows and the deep blues of His love. I feel the reflection of Jesus.
:-) Blessings! ChaplainChas.
Randy
· 1 year ago
Good. Only you know why you really like it so I think you just confessed you like to see structure in art. Thank you for offering your interpretation too. It's a good one.
Randy
· 1 year ago
~Community and Trust....A demonstration of God's faithfulness If I were to offer my parting words to SWC, this is what they'd look like.
This campus has grown so much in the past 4 years, most of you may not know who I am except that you've seen me around here, to the point where some of you have remarked that I must live here. When I first sat down to write this, I thought that'd it'd be another explanation of the causes that led people to wind up on a journey like mine, and ways to help us out, but instead I'd like to share the story of how God has used Southwestern to shape my life, but I can't do it justice starting there. I'll start with the part of story of a man you've by now all come to know, Tim Reed. Prior to his time at Southwestern, Tim pastored a church in Tucson, and got them involved with a particular missions program. Involvement with this program spead back and forth among local churches, and at some point Tim moved on in his service to the Lord. I came to the church Tim previously pastored, long after he left, and during my 4 years there, they went through more 'youth leaders' then I could count. Now we didn't have a particularly missions focused mindset, but on one occasion they decided to again participate in it, and team up with another church. That was the only time they'd do something like this during my time, but that was enough. It was on this trip that God revealed to me part of the involuntary calling he'd placed on my life.It was going to be some kind of youth work. Despite my attempts at rejection of this call by trying to change God's mind, I earnestly desired to follow him. Highschool is a time of identity formation for most of us, so it's no surprise that all around me, people made statements that caused me to wrestle with what my identity was. During this time I'd had to transition from a private Christian schooling to a public highschool. Oddly the only thing that really major seemed to change was I had less required of me. I was called the same names, physically attacked at the same level, and so on. Being the active Christian I was, I'd heard the traditional speeches on purity by now, and I was cool with that, but it really wasn't as big of a deal to me, because I didn't struggle with lust toward women. I know what you're thinking now, woah, wait, you're a guy, we're stimulated visually, we live in a world inundated with graphic depictions of sexuality. Yes, we are, and sure I struggled keeping a reign on my eyes. But having sex before marriage wasn't even something remotely in my realm of possibility, my struggle was something of a different sort, no worse, no better, and no more difficult then the one any of you must have had. Because of the very limited role my father played in my life, I ended up with an unmet need for a healthy male relationship. Puberty hit, my hormones shifted the desire from the emotional to the physical, and here I was, faced with a choice, "Do I reject the identity I have in Christ? Or do I seek to live it, despite the desire of my flesh?" At my time my understanding from God was simple, "I live in a fallen world, so no matter what the cause of my current problem might be, he can get me through it." I'd been fortunate to have enough of a Bible background to know that it was a problem, not just merely something that was culturaly unaccepted by 1st century Jews. Part of my underlining being, the core of what I was in Christ recognized that the problem stemmed from a lack of healthy relationships, but that didn't really empower me to fix it on my own. Nor did the fact that Philippians 4:13 tells us "I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me." If I knew how to get out of this struggle, I would, and so would most Christians I know at first. Over time under the weight of sin, many Christians without the freedom of Christ, many sucumb, to the pressure to accept that they understood the Bible wrong, they say that because they aren't done dealing with it yet, so they must not be supposed to deal with it. I didn't think there was anyone else out there I could talk to about it, I'd seen the way the kids in my youth group threw around terms like "Gay, and Fag" with no respect what-so-ever to the seriousness of the issue, but after months of adamently saying that I was still struggling with temptation, while denying the specific things they were trying to suggest were issues, were problems at all , this married couple that I'd been working in minstry with, finally confronted me and asked me point blank if I was struggling with thoughts toward other guys, ...I checked, it took 20minutes to get up the nerve to answer them, but it felt like an eternity. Their reactions gave me hope and reminded me how I was still loved, as did the rest that of the community of belivers I'd grown apart of, but that was an online ministry. And though I knew the couple outside of that ministry, they weren't in Tucson at the time, and so even though they were willing to work with me through the healing process, they encouraged me to find someone locally I could talk to, insisting that I tell an trusted adult, and I refused for the longest time, because the closest adult I trusted signed my mother's paycheck. When I finally obeyed God and spoke to Dan, the basic extent of what he did in response was simply pray for me, and it seemed, that he did it out of obligation. He did made the commitment to draw me into community and walk beside me. Shortly after that, Gen and Kevin, came down on one of their visits, and hoping to get on Dan on the same page in working with me, tried to have lunch with him, and it didn't work out. What happened instead was we decided that there was no better time then to tell my then-best friend and took him to lunch instead. Some of you know him as Ari, but at the time his name was Jacob, despite the Godly love I'd seen him display toward sinners of all kinds, I was terrified that he'd bolt, that it'd be the last time I'd have any real interaction with someone who'd been my only real peer who'd been thus far willing to give me the healthy physical affirmation I needed. Little did I know that God had been preparing him before he Got in the car, despite his fear of what I might do TO him, he continued to be open to learning about what I was going through and how to help, and he too commited to walk along side me in my journey. Not more then 2 months later, Dan didn't really have any involvement in my life short of occassionally saying, often right as I was trying to leave, "How's it going."...That's not exactly a question I could say anything more honest then alright in public to, nor was it seem 'safe' to anything more negitive than 'ok'. Jacob was still walking along side me, to the point that my mother walked in on us watching tv, and at least 3 things were decided about us in rapid succession. 1. We were both Gay. 2.He was my boyfriend 3.We were obviously having sex when they weren't around. Nothing inappropriate was going on nor did it ever, in fact, what she walked in on looked alot like John 13:23 "There was reclining on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved." Over and over we see depictions of God's love involving close touch, Ps 91:4. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. **I want at least one more example here*. Despite our adement attempts to convince them of just what was going on, they refused to listen to us, shutting us down before we could even finish our sentances, and Jacob was sent on his way home. Fortunately my youth pastor was able to make time the following night, to provide an atmosphere where I could explain just what I was dealing, just what was going on, the fact that I knew just where the Bible stood, and that I served a God who desires to bring healing and restoration to our lives. It's not that my parent' s weren't desiring to follow God and help me, its that God didn't make them to be the kinds of people who could provide all of my needs in the healing process. They supported me every step of my journey, even as I moved up to live with the married couple I mentioned earlier, and asked them to adopt me, as a permant symbol of what Christ had done for me at the Cross, and the role they were taking in my journey. That's not to say that I set aside my biological parents, I just gained another strong link in this community of Christ. I was given a Hebrew name in addition to my own, focused on the an aspect of the identity of Christ, just like Saul became Paul when he followed Christ. I'd come up here to go to college, and live with them and afew months later, I got word that Southwestern wanted me to come in and interview for a scholarship. I didnt know it at the time, but it was the start of SL program, the offer of a full ride with the condition that I'd live here as a part of helping to form the community and atmosphere here at Southwestern. Immediately prior to the interview I discovered this requirement, so I walked into this interview knowing only that I couldn't live here, I wasn't ready to make that step in my journey. Fearing that this school would drop kick me on my way out as many unloving churches would, if I told them exactly what I was going through, I stood before 3 people and told them a different tale, not one that was untrue, but one that convientantly placed my reason for living off campus out of the realm of my need, and squarely in the realm of helping someone else. Over the course of my time here, I shared my story with several others, and the somewhat clear purpose I felt God had for it in my future, but on more then one occasion, I refused to obey God and speak about it. Once was with an RA my Freshman year, which led to a brief public blog post out of a desire to appease God rather then obey him. As a result I don't know how many have you have known about my struggle without talking to me directly. As awkward as it is living with a broken understanding of relationship, that certainly didn't help me in my fear and doubt of the way other's would treat me if they knew. It did help force me to not stay silent when it came up in the future, and enabled me to share the hope that Christ offers. Another was when I had the opportunity to visit a conference for people dealing with my struggle, and friends and family, I ran into people who know who I was, and I didnt share my real reason for being there with them either. I was still learning to trust, and this message has been another step in a long series of steps of learning to rely on him. I've spent a pretty anonymous time at Southwestern, but now I see just why brought me here. In times of where my hope ran dry, Tim Reed imparted God's continuial hope, and a fervant belief that he knew what God knew what He was doing. In times of weakness, Professor Mitchel showed me how to confront with the truth in Love. Despite my social awkwardness, a group of you have taught me how to lovingly disagree, and yet still dialogue intelligently about many things. Many of my professors have armed me with the knowledge and wisdom I'm to need as I go out to share the hope of Christ. I leave you with the challenge Christ has placed in my heart, Express your Love to everyone, temptation does not equal sin, because that's the one aspect of Christ that the hurting world needs to see. When someone walks into the homosexual community and embraces the gay identity they find a support system of people who will love them unconditionally, and until believers in the Church are willing to do just that, they will continue to fulfill their legitimate needs for love in unhealthy ways.
Any of you who'd like with me more about just what that looks like, or prayer for anything feel free to come talk to me.
-Close in prayer
Piano Man Kugie
· 1 year ago
I like that the outflow from the sun is like a covering, a protective sheet, not something invasive or harmful that is heading straight for me......my brain thinks that the "rays" would be coming off the sphere in all directions like needles pointing out of a pin cushion in all directions up, down, around, outward; my heart is glad that the sun is not doing what my brain expects. Viewing this art is a good practice for my mind to work in ways it is not accustomed. Perhaps I'm one of those lefties who is in his left mind, not his right.....and if so, that's OK.
Randy
· 1 year ago
Well, whatever side you are in it sounds like you are of sound mind.
bah-dum bum!
Others have told me that my artwork exercises their brain. I find that fascinating feedback.
editorgal
· 1 year ago
Still not my cuppa as far as wanting it in my home or office, but your work is so visually compelling and vibrant. The structure at the edges of this one are a nice departure . . . and give it a unique depth. Not better, just unique, when compared to your other work.
Randy
· 1 year ago
Thanks ... I think :)
editorgal
· 1 year ago
You're welcome, it was definitely a compliment! The touches of linear color were nice; what I've seen of your work thus far is usually free-flowing -- no linear blocks of color . . . hmm, or at least not as structured.
Randy
· 1 year ago
You are correct. It was the second time you said "not my cuppa" so you like it but ... not? Great feedback though and I appreciate it.
And yes, the linear blocks of color are a departure and they are what I referred to in the post as driving me a little crazy. :) I just want to fill them in with all kinds of stuff but felt it needed to simply stop. After hearing the different interps, here and on facebook, I know why now. They speak something different to the viewer.
Cheryl
· 1 year ago
They do speak something very different to the viewer. I really like this one. The blocks really pop out the flow. In music it's often the rest that gives incredible power to the sound. I hope you continue to play with more ideas along this line.
editorgal
· 1 year ago
Oh, I like it. I like some Picasso, and some Van Gogh, Monet, Windbergh, and more, but not all of their works. I like lots of different artists. I guess "not my cuppa" reflects what I said, I wouldn't be inclined to have this type of art in my home or office. Both are pretty traditional, and I think your art needs space to be seen and appreciated. Neither of my spaces fit that bill. I've got bookshelves as integral pieces of my decor (if I have a decor!), pictures of family everywhere, blah, blah, blah! Either your work would get lost in the clutter, or overpower it. Neither of those options would do justice to the piece.
Randy
· 1 year ago
Thanks! A lady from my church just facebooked me with some very helpful suggestions. She is also downloading it as a wallpaper for her cell phone :).
I am SO honored ;).
Randy
· 1 year ago
Completely understood. Thank you very much for explaining. I know that not everyone could work something like my style into their everyday decor.
You wanna' hear something funny? One of my pieces was hanging here in the office. An older board member walked past it while I happened to be there. He was like, "I don't get it. That looks ... I mean ... I could do something like that." I said playfully," really?" "Oh yeah... this abstract stuff ... anyone can do this art?'
His wife knew that I had drawn it and was mortified. I said, "It took me over fifty hours to draw it." The look on his face was priceless (it's a good thing we are good friends.) I told him to take a closer look and he could see the detail (excruciating detail) and then I said, "guess how many colors?" Before he could answer I said "... around seven or eight."
I know he still didn't like it but he walked away with an appreciation and not so quick to dismiss that some abstract art isn't an artist simply having a tantrum.
Sidenote: I love using a LOT of different colors OR just a handful in varying patterns. I have one drawing that has 37 separate colors and it is just one crazy looking spectrum piece. It's one of my fav's.
editorgal
· 1 year ago
I appreciate art, and the artist's passion and commitment to getting their vision down in a medium. I don't have that gift. I can admire others gifts, though, and do!! So, yeah, I'm sure I could "do that" -- in Heaven!! :D
wall art
· 1 year ago
You did this with just pens? V.good! I'm interested to know why you decided to use pens as oppose to acrylics?
Randy
· 1 year ago
I have never learned how to paint :)
wall art
· 1 year ago
You did this with just pens? V.good! I'm interested to know why you decided to use pens as oppose to acrylics?
All Comments
The Spirit rising over a somewhat familiar new world, flooding it with deep passionate reds and merciful greens/ yellows and the deep blues of His love. I feel the reflection of Jesus.
:-) Blessings!
ChaplainChas.
bah-dum bum!
Others have told me that my artwork exercises their brain. I find that fascinating feedback.
And yes, the linear blocks of color are a departure and they are what I referred to in the post as driving me a little crazy. :) I just want to fill them in with all kinds of stuff but felt it needed to simply stop. After hearing the different interps, here and on facebook, I know why now. They speak something different to the viewer.
I am SO honored ;).
You wanna' hear something funny? One of my pieces was hanging here in the office. An older board member walked past it while I happened to be there. He was like, "I don't get it. That looks ... I mean ... I could do something like that." I said playfully," really?" "Oh yeah... this abstract stuff ... anyone can do this art?'
His wife knew that I had drawn it and was mortified. I said, "It took me over fifty hours to draw it." The look on his face was priceless (it's a good thing we are good friends.) I told him to take a closer look and he could see the detail (excruciating detail) and then I said, "guess how many colors?" Before he could answer I said "... around seven or eight."
I know he still didn't like it but he walked away with an appreciation and not so quick to dismiss that some abstract art isn't an artist simply having a tantrum.
Sidenote: I love using a LOT of different colors OR just a handful in varying patterns. I have one drawing that has 37 separate colors and it is just one crazy looking spectrum piece. It's one of my fav's.
The Spirit rising over a somewhat familiar new world, flooding it with deep passionate reds and merciful greens/ yellows and the deep blues of His love. I feel the reflection of Jesus.
:-) Blessings!
ChaplainChas.
If I were to offer my parting words to SWC, this is what they'd look like.
This campus has grown so much in the past 4 years, most of you may not know who I am except that you've seen me around here, to the point where some of you have remarked that I must live here. When I first sat down to write this, I thought that'd it'd be another explanation of the causes that led people to wind up on a journey like mine, and ways to help us out, but instead I'd like to share the story of how God has used Southwestern to shape my life, but I can't do it justice starting there. I'll start with the part of story of a man you've by now all come to know, Tim Reed. Prior to his time at Southwestern, Tim pastored a church in Tucson, and got them involved with a particular missions program. Involvement with this program spead back and forth among local churches, and at some point Tim moved on in his service to the Lord. I came to the church Tim previously pastored, long after he left, and during my 4 years there, they went through more 'youth leaders' then I could count. Now we didn't have a particularly missions focused mindset, but on one occasion they decided to again participate in it, and team up with another church. That was the only time they'd do something like this during my time, but that was enough. It was on this trip that God revealed to me part of the involuntary calling he'd placed on my life.It was going to be some kind of youth work. Despite my attempts at rejection of this call by trying to change God's mind, I earnestly desired to follow him. Highschool is a time of identity formation for most of us, so it's no surprise that all around me, people made statements that caused me to wrestle with what my identity was. During this time I'd had to transition from a private Christian schooling to a public highschool. Oddly the only thing that really major seemed to change was I had less required of me. I was called the same names, physically attacked at the same level, and so on. Being the active Christian I was, I'd heard the traditional speeches on purity by now, and I was cool with that, but it really wasn't as big of a deal to me, because I didn't struggle with lust toward women. I know what you're thinking now, woah, wait, you're a guy, we're stimulated visually, we live in a world inundated with graphic depictions of sexuality. Yes, we are, and sure I struggled keeping a reign on my eyes. But having sex before marriage wasn't even something remotely in my realm of possibility, my struggle was something of a different sort, no worse, no better, and no more difficult then the one any of you must have had. Because of the very limited role my father played in my life, I ended up with an unmet need for a healthy male relationship. Puberty hit, my hormones shifted the desire from the emotional to the physical, and here I was, faced with a choice, "Do I reject the identity I have in Christ? Or do I seek to live it, despite the desire of my flesh?" At my time my understanding from God was simple, "I live in a fallen world, so no matter what the cause of my current problem might be, he can get me through it." I'd been fortunate to have enough of a Bible background to know that it was a problem, not just merely something that was culturaly unaccepted by 1st century Jews. Part of my underlining being, the core of what I was in Christ recognized that the problem stemmed from a lack of healthy relationships, but that didn't really empower me to fix it on my own. Nor did the fact that Philippians 4:13 tells us "I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me." If I knew how to get out of this struggle, I would, and so would most Christians I know at first. Over time under the weight of sin, many Christians without the freedom of Christ, many sucumb, to the pressure to accept that they understood the Bible wrong, they say that because they aren't done dealing with it yet, so they must not be supposed to deal with it. I didn't think there was anyone else out there I could talk to about it, I'd seen the way the kids in my youth group threw around terms like "Gay, and Fag" with no respect what-so-ever to the seriousness of the issue, but after months of adamently saying that I was still struggling with temptation, while denying the specific things they were trying to suggest were issues, were problems at all , this married couple that I'd been working in minstry with, finally confronted me and asked me point blank if I was struggling with thoughts toward other guys, ...I checked, it took 20minutes to get up the nerve to answer them, but it felt like an eternity. Their reactions gave me hope and reminded me how I was still loved, as did the rest that of the community of belivers I'd grown apart of, but that was an online ministry. And though I knew the couple outside of that ministry, they weren't in Tucson at the time, and so even though they were willing to work with me through the healing process, they encouraged me to find someone locally I could talk to, insisting that I tell an trusted adult, and I refused for the longest time, because the closest adult I trusted signed my mother's paycheck. When I finally obeyed God and spoke to Dan, the basic extent of what he did in response was simply pray for me, and it seemed, that he did it out of obligation. He did made the commitment to draw me into community and walk beside me. Shortly after that, Gen and Kevin, came down on one of their visits, and hoping to get on Dan on the same page in working with me, tried to have lunch with him, and it didn't work out. What happened instead was we decided that there was no better time then to tell my then-best friend and took him to lunch instead. Some of you know him as Ari, but at the time his name was Jacob, despite the Godly love I'd seen him display toward sinners of all kinds, I was terrified that he'd bolt, that it'd be the last time I'd have any real interaction with someone who'd been my only real peer who'd been thus far willing to give me the healthy physical affirmation I needed. Little did I know that God had been preparing him before he Got in the car, despite his fear of what I might do TO him, he continued to be open to learning about what I was going through and how to help, and he too commited to walk along side me in my journey. Not more then 2 months later, Dan didn't really have any involvement in my life short of occassionally saying, often right as I was trying to leave, "How's it going."...That's not exactly a question I could say anything more honest then alright in public to, nor was it seem 'safe' to anything more negitive than 'ok'. Jacob was still walking along side me, to the point that my mother walked in on us watching tv, and at least 3 things were decided about us in rapid succession. 1. We were both Gay. 2.He was my boyfriend 3.We were obviously having sex when they weren't around. Nothing inappropriate was going on nor did it ever, in fact, what she walked in on looked alot like John 13:23 "There was reclining on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved." Over and over we see depictions of God's love involving close touch, Ps 91:4. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. **I want at least one more example here*. Despite our adement attempts to convince them of just what was going on, they refused to listen to us, shutting us down before we could even finish our sentances, and Jacob was sent on his way home. Fortunately my youth pastor was able to make time the following night, to provide an atmosphere where I could explain just what I was dealing, just what was going on, the fact that I knew just where the Bible stood, and that I served a God who desires to bring healing and restoration to our lives. It's not that my parent'
s weren't desiring to follow God and help me, its that God didn't make them to be the kinds of people who could provide all of my needs in the healing process. They supported me every step of my journey, even as I moved up to live with the married couple I mentioned earlier, and asked them to adopt me, as a permant symbol of what Christ had done for me at the Cross, and the role they were taking in my journey. That's not to say that I set aside my biological parents, I just gained another strong link in this community of Christ. I was given a Hebrew name in addition to my own, focused on the an aspect of the identity of Christ, just like Saul became Paul when he followed Christ. I'd come up here to go to college, and live with them and afew months later, I got word that Southwestern wanted me to come in and interview for a scholarship. I didnt know it at the time, but it was the start of SL program, the offer of a full ride with the condition that I'd live here as a part of helping to form the community and atmosphere here at Southwestern. Immediately prior to the interview I discovered this requirement, so I walked into this interview knowing only that I couldn't live here, I wasn't ready to make that step in my journey. Fearing that this school would drop kick me on my way out as many unloving churches would, if I told them exactly what I was going through, I stood before 3 people and told them a different tale, not one that was untrue, but one that convientantly placed my reason for living off campus out of the realm of my need, and squarely in the realm of helping someone else. Over the course of my time here, I shared my story with several others, and the somewhat clear purpose I felt God had for it in my future, but on more then one occasion, I refused to obey God and speak about it. Once was with an RA my Freshman year, which led to a brief public blog post out of a desire to appease God rather then obey him. As a result I don't know how many have you have known about my struggle without talking to me directly. As awkward as it is living with a broken understanding of relationship, that certainly didn't help me in my fear and doubt of the way other's would treat me if they knew. It did help force me to not stay silent when it came up in the future, and enabled me to share the hope that Christ offers. Another was when I had the opportunity to visit a conference for people dealing with my struggle, and friends and family, I ran into people who know who I was, and I didnt share my real reason for being there with them either. I was still learning to trust, and this message has been another step in a long series of steps of learning to rely on him. I've spent a pretty anonymous time at Southwestern, but now I see just why brought me here. In times of where my hope ran dry, Tim Reed imparted God's continuial hope, and a fervant belief that he knew what God knew what He was doing. In times of weakness, Professor Mitchel showed me how to confront with the truth in Love. Despite my social awkwardness, a group of you have taught me how to lovingly disagree, and yet still dialogue intelligently about many things. Many of my professors have armed me with the knowledge and wisdom I'm to need as I go out to share the hope of Christ. I leave you with the challenge Christ has placed in my heart, Express your Love to everyone, temptation does not equal sin, because that's the one aspect of Christ that the hurting world needs to see. When someone walks into the homosexual community and embraces the gay identity they find a support system of people who will love them unconditionally, and until believers in the Church are willing to do just that, they will continue to fulfill their legitimate needs for love in unhealthy ways.
Any of you who'd like with me more about just what that looks like, or prayer for anything feel free to come talk to me.
-Close in prayer
bah-dum bum!
Others have told me that my artwork exercises their brain. I find that fascinating feedback.
And yes, the linear blocks of color are a departure and they are what I referred to in the post as driving me a little crazy. :) I just want to fill them in with all kinds of stuff but felt it needed to simply stop. After hearing the different interps, here and on facebook, I know why now. They speak something different to the viewer.
I am SO honored ;).
You wanna' hear something funny? One of my pieces was hanging here in the office. An older board member walked past it while I happened to be there. He was like, "I don't get it. That looks ... I mean ... I could do something like that." I said playfully," really?" "Oh yeah... this abstract stuff ... anyone can do this art?'
His wife knew that I had drawn it and was mortified. I said, "It took me over fifty hours to draw it." The look on his face was priceless (it's a good thing we are good friends.) I told him to take a closer look and he could see the detail (excruciating detail) and then I said, "guess how many colors?" Before he could answer I said "... around seven or eight."
I know he still didn't like it but he walked away with an appreciation and not so quick to dismiss that some abstract art isn't an artist simply having a tantrum.
Sidenote: I love using a LOT of different colors OR just a handful in varying patterns. I have one drawing that has 37 separate colors and it is just one crazy looking spectrum piece. It's one of my fav's.