I have the privilege from time to time of receiving review copies of books for my blog from Hachette books and I just received a pretty great one called Gutsy by Natalie Franke. I think Ms. Franke’s target market is probably women based on some of the information held within, but there is a lot of gold in here for anyone who has a somewhat entrepreneurial spirit, and as such it really hit me. One particular quote reached right off the page and grabbed me. It said, 

“Every day, we are one raised hand away from an entirely different life.”

This statement is a great truth. Opportunities are out there for everyone, even you, to live an extraordinary, remarkable life. I believe they are available to you and me, and it is as if someone is standing there saying who will take advantage of this opportunity? When that happens, sometimes we need only to raise our hand. What about you? Is your hand up?

See too often we limit ourselves. We look at our qualifications rather than asking the questions, can I do that and do I want to? Of course the bigger question is, is God leading/calling me to this? I think sometimes we need a fundamental shift in our thinking from “Why would someone choose me?” To “Why not me?” 

I’ve lived in both worlds. For the longest time, I questioned my value and my worth. Some of that came from the opinions of others. A few rejections started to feel like everyone would reject me. And then there were the other times. When I was in youth ministry, I started using a teaching resource that I loved. I began to desire lessons on other topics than the ones that I was seeing, so I looked at their formatting and wrote my own lessons on the topics I needed to teach. I should probably mention that I was a volunteer leader in a small church in the middle of a corn field with ten to fifteen kids. Still something in me, made me think why not me? So I submitted my lessons and ended up on a group of writers that included published authors and even the youth pastor of one of the largest, most famous churches in the country. If I had started to look at the qualifications of my peers, I would have thought I didn’t belong in that group. Instead I realized teaching students is teaching students. I decided to share what I was coming up with and I ended up with an amazing opportunity.

After submitting art to the publishers of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, and getting several rejections, I ended up contacting a licensee of the Turtles, about a very part time job, that was not art related. I didn’t even know that they worked with the Turtles, but in our discussion, I mentioned that I enjoyed drawing and that I had been submitting designs to the Turtles publisher. The licensee gave me a shot and I ended up working on several projects for them. If I had let the rejections stop me, I would never have tried. 

My creative arts ministry started at a time where very few people even knew what arts ministry was. I started using art as a teaching tool, about the same time I was learning to build websites for my day job. I started sharing my ideas online and before long some folks started asking me to come and speak. This gave me the courage to approach other churches about possibly coming in to speak. In the beginning a lot of people didn’t know what to do with me, and I get the idea they thought it was a weird idea, but a few gave me a shot, and I tried to make the most of it. To say God has blessed this ministry would be something of an understatement.  My ministry to people with special needs started when I was speaking to the director of a camp about their ministry and saying, “I’m no sure I could do that but I would love to try.”

Each of these experiences, in one way or another built my confidence, and changed my life and do you know what they all have in common? I could have talked myself out of trying all of them by questioning my own qualifications, but instead, I raised my hand and said “I’ll try it.” None of it happened because I am really extraordinary. Mostly it was me seeing what I perceived as God opening a door, and deciding to walk through it. Do you want to change your life, ask God for open doors and raise your hand. 

I’ve spent a lot of time this year on a single verse. Isaiah 40:31 “but they who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings like eagles. They shall run and not be a weary. They shall walk and not faint.” It was the theme verse for a camp I did this year, and in order to make eight sessions that worked from this verse, I had to look at it upside down, backwards and sideways, and in all of that study, I feel like I grew in my understanding and appreciation of all that this verse means. It is truly a great word of comfort and encouragement from our Lord. 

That being said, it makes me nervous when I apply it to creative people, because I wonder if we will get that waiting part wrong. What do I mean? How many times have you as a creative said you were waiting for something? I want to do that project but I’m waiting until I’m better. I feel like God has called me to do this, but I am waiting until I have what it takes. I’m ready to do this project but I’m waiting until condition “X” is perfect, etc. etc. etc. How many artists are waiting tables, waiting for their big break? I don’t think that is the kind of waiting the Lord is talking about here. Oh there is nothing wrong with getting a job, to cover the bills while you are doing the work God has called you to do. Jobs are sometimes the way God provides for us while we wait for things to fall into place, but as the old saying goes, it’s easier to steer a moving car. While we are waiting on the Lord to bring the call to fruition, there are usually still things to be done. 

When God calls us to something, there is only one proper response, and that is obedience. When He calls us, the waiting is over, and the time to move is now. 

You don’t have everything you need yet? 

What do you have? Start with that and trust God to provide for you as you do the work. 

I’m waiting until I get better?

You know how you usually get better? By doing the work.

I’m not good enough?

The God who called you, knows your ability, or lack thereof, to do what He wants you to do. He is not surprised by your inability, and where your ability ends is where His grace begins. 

I’m waiting for my big break.

So is everyone else. Make your own breaks. Put yourself out there and do the work. Build your skills and hunt down opportunities. In the mean time, do the work.

I love the principle of waiting on the Lord. I know in the time of waiting, God is at work, making us able, strengthening us and renewing our strength. Making us better, and wiser and sometimes quite frankly just teaching us to depend on Him instead of idolizing our own strength. What I don’t love, and I have been guilty of this more times than I care to count, is when people who are clearly called by God say they are waiting on the Lord, and I just want to say to them, “Are you sure it isn’t the other way around? Are you sure God isn’t waiting on you? 

Is there time to wait on the Lord? Of course there is, but most of the time it’s not an inactive wait. Most of the time it’s about stepping out in faithfulness and depending on God, waiting for Him to come through. To close I would remind you of Philippians 1:6: “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Who began it? God! Who will complete it? God! Who did He begin it in? You! The outcome is not up to us. It might be finished in our lifetime, or it might not be completed until the day of Christ Jesus. What is up to us is to be obedient to the call and do the work in faithfulness. Don’t worry there will be plenty of time to wait on the Lord while the thing is in process. There will be times where the only way it moves forward is if He moves. That’s how we learn to depend on Him. Wait on Him in the process, but be faithful in your obedience to Him.  

Today I was on YouTube, checking on one of my side projects. I have a channel on there that deals with my hobby of plastic model building. It’s a just for fun project, but I have to monitor it from time to time, because occasionally spammers try to hit it with inappropriate comments for inappropriate content. Before I even got into my channel though, something caught my eye. It was a music video for a band with a name that suggested it might be interesting to me and my fellow creatives and so I decided to check it out. 

The song started off well. The band has that hard rock/metal sound that, at almost 60 years old, I still have not managed to outgrow. The musicianship was really pretty good and the band was tight. Then the singer started. She was also really talented and clearly a good performer, but there was a problem. She started lifting her finger. I’ll let you imagine which one, and she began to cuss at me with words that would only maybe be appropriate if I had shot her puppy and I’m not even sure they would be appropriate even then. This band started off as one I could have been a fan of and recommended to others, but that quickly devolved between the language, the gestures and a completely unnecessary wardrobe choice. Pity. This is a band with an excessive amount of talent, I just couldn’t get into the message they were trying to convey. Don’t get me wrong, none of this will hurt the band, neither I nor many of my readers would likely be in their target demographic, nor would I want to hurt them, but it did get me thinking, when have I created with my finger in the air?

Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t done that literally, but there have been times when I have gotten out the poison pen and created things that have been more about proving a point or putting someone in their place, than they were about shining a light. How about you? There have been times where someone or something has angered me and I decided to respond using my gift, but lately I have come away wondering is that the best use for a gift that I acknowledge comes from God. It’s a dicey proposition. Is there a time to make a statement? Sometimes, yes. Is there a time to share an uncomfortable truth? Absolutely. As a Christian, does my work always have to make people feel good about themselves and their choices? Absolutely not, but what is the attitude I am bringing to the table? Am I trying to lead people into truth, or am I creatively slapping them back for some perceived slight? And if I do that, how much different am I than the singer with her fingers in the air?

What should we be trying to make our work say and what should we be saying with our work? When we create a piece of work, what should be our guide? God, His Word and His Holy Spirit is the short answer. Beyond that, I think Philippians 4:15 gives us a good guideline. “Rather, speaking the truth in love…” When I look at my work, before I release it to the world, this would be a great place to start. “Does it speak the truth?” If it checks that box, we need to follow up with the question, “Does it speak the truth in love?” Is the motivation of my heart positive change, being helpful, etc.? If not and I want to reflect Christ, it’s not done, nor is it ready for release. Our work at it’s best should be dedicated to bringing about positive change, so maybe we should also consider the rest of the verse. After all why are we speaking the truth in love? The rest of the verse says, “we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,” The goal is to help people to come to know, love, follow and become like Christ. That is what our work should say. 

In my last post, (You can see all these posts at http://amokarts.com) I shared a post that was based on a line from the Rend Collective Song, Hallelujah Anyway that says.

I’d rather light a match than curse the dark.

And I thought I would revisit that a little bit today. I spoke to how easy it is to curse the dark, but I questioned if cursing the dark is counterproductive. As I was mowing my lawn yesterday, I was dwelling on this, and a few more thoughts came to mind. I want to be the person to “light a match” instead of cursing the dark, but how does one do that? How do you know which match to light? As I continued to do laps around the yard, a few thoughts came to mind.

The first one should be obvious, seek the Lord. If He guides us into all truth, and I believe He will, then He should guide us into the places where we need to be light. Of course there are some general areas. If someone needs help, seeing that can be an engraved invitation to strike a match. So can loving your neighbor, meeting a need, being a peacemaker, and anyone of a number of the things the Lord calls us to in His Word. To put it simply, we should bring light to all the places God where calls us to in His Word, as we see situations arise in our world. The old adage comes to mind. When you see something and think, “Someone should do something about that,” we need to at least consider that “someone” might be you! Be that someone and light a match and this sort of leans into the broader topic of life mission. 

For starters, a life’s mission can be as simple as looking for opportunities to serve and being a servant. That would be an admirable way to be a light, to light a match if you will, but let’s go a little deeper. What does it take to light a literal match? It takes friction. Where do you sense friction in the world? What cause lights you up? What burdens your heart? What makes you lose sleep? Who needs love and mercy? Who needs help that you can help? What tugs at your heart? What gives you a holy dissatisfaction (emphasis on the word “holy”)? A word of caution here—make sure this feeling of mission lines up with the word of God, otherwise your match might end up igniting a destructive fire of sin that ends up running counter to the will of God. Otherwise these feelings of friction are likely a holy nudge to do some good in our world. Basically when we see darkness encroaching on the things that burden our hearts, we can either curse the dark or we can light a match and be a part of the solution. 

Sometimes the key to all of this is “Do you nave a match?” Is there a gift, talent, skill set or experience that draws you to this cause? I find that our calling is usually found at the place where our gifts, experiences and opportunities meet. As any example, I have found my abilities in the arts to be a very useful tool in my mission. In a sense that might be my “match.” My passion is to see as many people as possible to come to know Jesus and to help people find and use their God given gifts to serve the Lord. God has especially given me a heart for people with “special needs.” The abilities He has given me help me to communicate the Gospel and “draw people into the story.” That’s mine. What’s yours? 

One last thing. I love that Rend Collective used the term “light a match.” A match is not a huge light, it’s small, and I think that’s important. A lot of people get discouraged because they look at the size of their cause, feel too small to do anything “significant” and decide they don’t have what it takes. That’s not the right way to look at this. In a totally dark room a small flame becomes the focus. It’s the only thing that can be seen. The idea is not necessarily to start a big blaze. The idea is to make a dent in the darkness and inspire others to do the same. Some will get to do bigger things, sometimes the things we do will spread, but that’s not up to us. Our job is to light the match. Be a match lighter.  

I was on my way home from a fantastic week of ministry when I heard this on the radio.

I’d rather light a match than curse the dark (Rend Collective) 

The line hit me like a ton of lead. I’d been trying to understand my struggle with social media for a while now. I’ve cut my use back lately (well at least most of the time) and in the past week, the busyness of a great week of ministry really helped me with that. Still I wondered why social media affects me the way it does at times. When I heard this line from the Rend Collective song Hallelujah Anyway, it kind of became clear. 

Social media (and the news, etc.) can make me angry, and I don’t want to be angry. I see so many things that are wrong in our world and it makes me want to “curse the dark.” I’m starting to wonder if that is really the best cause of action. After all most of the things I read that anger me come from people who couldn’t care less if I’m angry. So does me being angry about a situation really help? Will it change anything? For the most part, that answer is no.

Some might want to take me to Ephesians 4:26 which says “Be angry and sin not.” And that’s true. I’m not condemning the emotion of anger. It has it’s place, but a little further in the verse it also says, “let not the sun go down upon your wrath: 27 Neither give place to the devil.” The kind of anger I can experience over these things often goes far beyond sundown. I’m not condemning anger, but again, I question the value of my anger. Does it change anything but my mood and my attitude? I think that answer is no, and cursing the dark might be allowing the devil to live rent free in my head, as negativity can follow anger and negativity is the exact opposite of the positivity I desire.

The thing is my head and my heart should have a “No Vacancy” sign. My heart and mind should be filled by the Savior. Am I saying ignore sin and the evil in our world? No, I’m saying why curse the darkness when I can light a match. I can be the light of the world that Jesus called all believers to be. I saw it this week. I got to minister to a bunch of wonderful people with a bunch of other wonderful people. We had struggles from time to time, but it was a very positive experience all the way around, and it was a real joy. We weren’t spending a lot of time cursing the darkness. Instead we were shining the light of the Lord. I agree with Rend Collective. There ma y be a time when I will need to curse the darkness, but I’d rather be a light. After all, anger and cursing don’t overcome darkness, they enhance it. What overcomes darkness is light. 

Remember what Jesus said to us in Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Next time you feel like cursing the darkness, maybe it’s time to light a match.

A long time ago, when I was just a little kid, I knew what I wanted to do when I grew up. I wanted to make art and tell stories. I used to love to do puppet shows and ventriloquism, and all kinds of stuff, largely to entertain my sister and my cousins. As I grew, the storytelling part became problematic. Years of being a human target in school drove my desire to stand before people and tell my stories deep into my psyche, to the point where public speaking terrified me, and I largely forgot about it. That part of my dream died because no way could I speak in public. So I decided I would be a professional artist. 

That dream died too. Oh it fought valiantly, and there were some bright shining moments, but eventually I was reduced to doing things that had some artistry to them, but they really didn’t allow me to be overly creative. I told myself I was still an artist, but most of what I was doing really didn’t feel very artistic. I earned a living designing things, most of which involved making things fit into existing formats, which was about as fulfilling as it sounds. I still made some art on my own, and tried to promote it, and yes I got some really fun freelance work, but never enough to strike out on my own, and it often felt like something was missing. 

The struggle to hit my artistic goals was taking it’s toll, My priorities got all out of whack, and I suffered for a while. Then one day something weird happened. God called me to ministry. The fact that by now I was pretty terrified of public speaking made this seem that I was missing God’s point. Speaking is, after all, a pretty large part of ministry. I started to work in youth ministry as a volunteer. I began to feel led to use art as a teaching tool and some of the pieces began to fall into place, but something was still missing. I was bivocational, and earning most of my living in my design work. This was problematic, not because there was anything wrong with being bivocational, but I really think it came down to a matter if identity. Deep down inside I still identified as a professional artist. 

It all started to come together when I began to realize art was not to be my profession. It was to be a tool for me to use to communicate God’s Word. It was never designed to be my career. I began to realize that what I had desired since childhood was God’s design for my life. I was created to make pictures and tell stories. No, as a child I didn’t realize I would be telling His story, but that was His design for me nonetheless. Since I have been using art in ministry, I have found my sweet spot—the thing God created me to do and the person God created me to be. Does your identity line up with God’s call? What were your earliest dreams? Could those desires give you a clue to what it is that you want to do and finally what’s your sweet spot?