Most of us have been downtown, pulled into a parking place, ready to fish out a coin for the meter, only to find there’s still time on it. It kind of feels good. A little guilty pleasure. We’re getting something for nothing.
Nearly all of us will go through things in our lives that have the potential of destroying us but they don’t. We survive, we move on, we grow stronger. What’s more those intense times help create a quality of endurance in us that can help with the everyday stresses of life.
God doesn’t need your money. Neither do we.
It’s simple. This Ministry is going to continue with or without you. In fact, it could go on without us. Why? The message of Grace Turned Outward is bigger than any one of us. It’s a God Message and God will be the one to carry it out.
This is an important day: June 17, 2019. Mark it. This is the day we discover that we are a part of something bigger than we ever dreamed.
Yesterday I wrote about the story of a Mexican immigrant who drives a short-haul truck route all over Los Angeles and has found a way to express his artistic nature and training in the the dirt and muck that forms on the back of his truck. Instead of washing his truck every couple weeks, he creates a work of art there. The grime from the streets is a never-ending supply of ink on the canvas of his white truck.
Arnulfo Gonzalez is a Mexican immigrant who lives in Los Angeles. He wants to be an artist. He earned a degree in art from East Los Angeles College and attends drawing classes with his wife whenever he can. But art is not something that will support a family of four. So after trying out a number of jobs, he found that becoming a short-haul trucker on the streets and freeways of southern California suited him best.
I have recently been introduced to a new organization that has chosen beauty along with truth and goodness as one of its core values. I think this is splendid. Beauty has never been an important value in evangelical Christianity, at least as long as I’ve been around. It’s been there and has influenced various aspects of the Christian life, but not necessarily as a stated, intentional goal. I remember in the 1970s, Edith Schaeffer came out with a book, Hidden Art, in which she talked about the value of surrounding ourselves with beauty. It was sort of an art-in-everyday-life book. But beyond that, I know of no one who has done a lot of thinking about beauty from a Christian standpoint. We need to start.
Shari, one of our Catch readers, commented that she is currently in a book club that is reading the book, A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline. It’s a historical novel based on the life and times of Andrew Wyeth, and especially the painting “Christina’s World” which we discussed yesterday. How great that she was able to connect a novel she is reading with some insights that faith brings. We’ve been saying for some time here that one of our most important tasks is to connect faith to life. Faith and life have to be intertwined, or faith is just a static set of beliefs that sits on a web page or on the back of a bulletin. What we have found is that art, creativity, and beauty are all around us, and that we need to have eyes to see it, appreciate it and worship God when we do.
My son, Christopher took this picture recently with his cell phone on a walk with Jocelyn, our granddaughter. He texted it to us in a group text along with five other pictures and it could have easily gotten lost in there, but this one immediately jumped out at me. I was mesmerized. First, the way the picture is framed and balanced, the way the road starts and then continues further ahead, and the way Jocelyn is not the focus of the picture, gives it more the feeling of a work of art than just a snapshot he took on their walk. Whether this was intentional or accidental doesn’t matter; it looks to me like a framable piece of art.
“Bill Buckner passed away early the morning of May 27th surrounded by his family. Bill fought with courage and grit as he did all things in life. Our hearts are broken but we are at peace knowing he is in the arms of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Bill was 69.” A statement from Bill’s wife, Jody Buckner.
John Fischer The Catch 