Artists and the Battle of the Spirit
The Northwest Church's Arts Ministry met last night for the first time in several months, our recent energies taken up with the Christmas musical and various beginning of the year responsibilities. It was good to finally look at each other again last night, hear of everyone's projects, the progress that has or hasn't been made. We spent the majority of the time talking about the spiritual issues each of us were facing as we approached our work, and these were some of the things we isolated.
Inadequacy
Discouragement
Discipline (or lack therof)
Completion
Identity
Laziness
Faith (or lack thereof)
Trust (or lack therof)
We then talked about what success would look like in this ministry over the next few years, and the question that popped into my mind was this: "As artists, what might be the most clear and direct way to express our trust in God?"
Answer? Make the next thing. Write the next word. Get the paints out one more time. Wrestle with the plot point one more day. Practice one more hour. In the end, that's the role of the artist, the first move, the first responsibility, without which nothing else can happen. I thought about the body of life work the dozen or so young artists sitting around the table represented, and thought about the loss if these people somehow bought into the discouragement I could see in some of their eyes.
There are many cultural battles to be fought, I suppose, but if we can't pick up our pens and simply write a word, believing that somehow we are not adequate to face the task, then we've lost already. And so has some part of the Kingdom.
...as a declaration of trust...write another word...
8:16:41 AM
