Community and isolation

My sister Yolanda pointed me to this article on community and isolation.

"We live in strange times. While we have more ways and opportunities to communicate than ever before, we are more lonely and less communal than ever before. The technologies that promise closeness instead drive us further from one another. We live in over-crowded and polluted cities - often far away from our families - where we do not even know our neighbors.

We favor pseudo-community over real community. We instant message instead of converse. We date online instead of in person. Instead of enjoying the natural (conversation, family, marriage, community, land), we are dependent on the mechanical (computers, drugs, telephones, cars, corporations).

We are surrounded by lonely, unhappy, and depressed people. The drug industry continues to grow as more and more people turn to anti-depressants and other drugs to solve their loneliness and despondency. In the past, people turned to family, friends, community, and church. But we have willingly cut ourselves away from all these things: families hardly talk; friendships are shallow; community interaction is outdated; church attendance continues to decline.

Generally, we prefer to avoid those around us - unless it is to wave a finger at another vehicle. We have an entire range of entertainments ready to distract and isolate ourselves at the first sign of boredom: personal mp3 players, PDAs, portable video games, portable movie players and, of course, our ever-present (and ever-ringing) cell phones."

Read the rest of the article here.

Sing us a song

When we began Creativity Encouraged we wanted it to be a place where people would find encouragement in their lives for whatever they are doing creatively. We didn't feel the group should be about artists because not everyone considers themselves an artist but everyone is creative in some way or another. I'm not even saying that people have the same amount of creative talent either but everyone is still creative.

One of the things I felt the Lord really pressing into me was the piano. I started playing classical piano in third grade. I began playing because two of my best friends started playing so I said, "why not me?" Their interest in piano quickly died off and mine was dying too. After they decided to quit I didn't have much of a desire to play either but something happened when I told my parents I was ready to stop taking lessons. They told me plain and simple, "We didn't raise a quitter." We talked and my parents told me that I should stick with it for awhile longer and if I still didn't like it then I could stop playing. Well, I loved it and continued playing through high school up until college.

With college I stopped playing all together. Sadly, I wish that hadn't happened. God placed on my heart a real appreciation for music and reminded me of it often through school. Last summer I felt that the Lord was going to give me the opportunity in my schedule to begin playing agin after VLI was finished. That opportunity came last week. I had my first lesson in almost 15 years. I'm pretty rusty especially since I'm making the switch from classical to jazz but I have to say that I'm pretty exicted at the opportunity. I know that God wants to use this for His glory and I continue to pray that He will. I want to use this to shine light on Him, not myself.

My word of encouragement to everyone is that God is a God of a second chance... and third, and forth, and fifth... and ten thousand two hundred and twenty first...

How to keep a prayer journal

We (Creativity Encouraged small group) finished talking about spiritual disciplines a few weeks ago. One of the things we tossed around was the idea of keeping a prayer journal. I started journaling 3 months ago but wasn't really sure how exactly to go about it. I know how to write my prayers down but I wanted to know a little more so I talked to Steve Robbins. I remembered him saying that he has 15-20 years of college ruled journals piled up at his house and I was curious to hear what he did. Here's what he said:

"When I was younger I kept getting frustrated because I never felt I was hearing from God. I didn't feel I was growing spiritually. I decided that I was going to begin journaling 3 or 4 times a week and I followed this simple method. I would read a few chapters my bible and reflect what I felt the Holy Spirit illuminated from the text. What did the Lord want me to see in the text I read. I would turn that into a prayer for my own life and write that prayer in my journal. Often, when I was writing down my prayer the Spirit would bring something else to mind so I would begin meditating again which would often turn me back to the text for more meditation and journaling. This let me apply what I read to my own life instead of numbly reading.

To be honest, most Christians do not know how to pray. We go to God and pray for pretty much the same things over and over not growing spiritually in the disicpline of prayer. I never go into my quiet time with some sort of prayer agenda. I let the bible and the Spirit direct my prayer life which caused me to pray for things I never would have prayed for. It was then that I started hearing God speak to me."

Spiritual Gifts

1 Corinthians 12:4-13

"There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free - and we were all given the one Spirit to drink."

Pray that the Spirit gives you a passion to eagerly desire more spiritual gifts.

God, Art, and the Church

I read a very intriguing article recently by David Boyd in Cutting Edge, an awesome magazine produced by the Vineyard Church in Evanston, IL. Although the magazine is geared toward Church Planting it has some interesting articles on all topics. Also it's free and back issues are online, check it out!
After reading the title of the article "truth & beauty: how the vienna, austria vineyard is reclaiming the arts" I was all set to get specific direction and ideas on reclaiming the arts. I guess that wouldn't be very creative, instead I got a very thought provoking piece with a definite call to action. There was so much in this article that I related with that as I highlighted pieces to include in this blog I highlighted entire paragraphs, so the whole article is really worth reading.

I thought I'd list a few of the more inspiring quotes and open things up for discussion...

Art is used by every political and social group in the world and the kingdom of God ought to be about the same activity

about some of their art programs... We've had to explain to some Christians, "Don't look at this as if we were doing an evangelistic program here, because there is not going to be an altar call at the end of the evening" Some Christians criticize us for that.

There is a lot of difference between Christian intent and Christian content. If an artist is intentionally working out of his perspective as a Christian they will be creating something that reflects those values and that perspective on life.

In our art, if we ignore the fact that there's dirt, people will view the work as irrelevant because you're presenting a fairy tale too good to be true.

on the church supporting artist outside of boundaries of the church community... If your city is a better place in which to live because there are Christians doing good and beautiful things, you should encourage that.

OK... there are lot more I'd love to list but I'll stop there. So how do we put these things into action? Do you agree with these things or disagree? Is there anyone even reading this?

Now discuss.....