What on earth am I thinking...

Do you ever question that the life you are living is real... that maybe you and the small amount of Christians in the world got it wrong?

It's a sad wrestle that we 'all' go through? I know I did for many years. And it is sad to see it in your friends who were once pumped for life of loving Jesus...

I think Tom Steller sums up the emotion well in this parallel from the Wizard of Oz:

Toto wanders behind the curtain, pulls the curtain open, and reveals the truth behind the great Wizard of Oz. The Wizard of Oz was a hoax. He was a kindly but pathetic old man without any special powers. He merely projected his face on to a giant screen and amplified his voice. What Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Lion, and the Tin Man, and I had hoped in turned out not to be real.

As a result of this movie I can specifically remember wondering for the first time in my life if God was a hoax. Maybe my priest, Father Winzerling, was a fraud, or perhaps he too was deceived. Maybe there was some mastermind who thought up religion and who created the Bible to fool naïve, desperate people. Maybe God wasn't real. Maybe there really wasn't a God at all, except the ones we could dream up in our imagination. What a frightening thought for a religious boy like me to have. Have you ever had those thoughts? Do you even wonder now sometimes if God exists—I mean really exists? Is God real, or is he a concoction of our wishful thinking. Are we just playing games here Sunday after Sunday? Sometimes, even since I have become a Christian, those thoughts enter my mind.

Steller also describes the perfect solution:

JESUS

"And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know shim who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life." 1 John 5:20

Creativity and the Arts #4

What do Manet, Gauguin, Koons, Henson and Serrano all have in common? ART CONTROVERSY...

Who would have thought that an orchid, upswept hair, a black cat, and a bouquet of flowers would enhance the sexual explicitness of an artwork? Well in the day of Eduoard Manet's Olympia, 1863 these objects were recognized symbols of sexuality.

Art has been and will remain to be a source of cultural reflection, critique and confrontation.

So how are we to engage with art that we don’t agree with? Personally, I think we learn more about ourselves when we discover things we disagree with or find offensive. Controversy provokes a response and impassioned to stand up about truth. Pushing boundaries helps you know what you really think.

Since the arts have become less of the prerogative of the church, Christians have stepped back from debates and forums where art critiques, argues and searches for meaning in humanity. Rightly so have we taken a step back, but perhaps a too far back where there is no Christian voice being heard. After all, isn't this the very stuff that we were so good at talking about?

Steve Turner in Imagine:A vision for Christians and the arts 2001; says

… Consistently, Christians didn’t consume much art either. On the whole they didn’t own televisions (“the devil’s box), collect art or go to the theatre. Fiction, like dancing, was okay for children but not for adults. Rock music was worldly. Movies were suitable only if they were cartoon, family entertainment or, oddly enough, fact-based war epics. The reasoning was that most art was created by nonbelievers and could therefore damage our spiritual health...

Is this type of response the right reponse to 1 Thessalonians 5:1-22's threefold command for a discerning mind:

Judge everything, Cling to what is good, shun what is evil.

And...

...whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Philippians. 4:8

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Ephesians 5:3

How far back do we need to stand?

Discernment is out of fashion. We all think we should have exactly what we want, with little regard to the effect it may have on ourselves and on others. As we discussed said last night: some images are just impossible to erase from your memory... and it is in our senses that much of our memory is stored in".

So how do we make clear distinctions and judgments to live lives worthy of the gospel, especially when we are labeled for going against accepted modern culture values.

At the same time, Christianity brings freedom and what suppose you don't find Manet's Olympia sexually stimulating, it doesn't envoke evil thoughts or desires - must you not view it because?

Personally, I think it depends.... may seem like a cop out but isn't that what discernment is all about? It's the tension we all live with in our everyday life... what is the godly choice?

And so " … we need to bring any work of art before the bar of moral criteria. We must ask questions about the moral intention of the artist. Is the purpose of a work to deprave or corrupt? If a work contains immoral behavior or evil, what is the context? It should be evident to us that the Bible contains many accounts of wicked behavior, sometimes very graphically portrayed. Works of art must not necessarily be condemned because they contain such violence, but context and intention have to be considered. (Christianity and the Arts - Jerram Barrs)

And so with all this in mind...
What say you about the Statue of David?
Is this work reason for concern - is it art controversy?

Indigenous Prayer Group

Creativity and the Arts #3

The 2008 Biennale of Sydney

REVOLUTIONS :: Forms that turn

Revolutions is a historic look at the contemporary art world. It shows works through different eras that questioned the norm, that comments on world and art of ages past. It is one of the most over-stimulating and overwhelming exhibitions I have been to.

There was so much crammed into the exhibition. There were kinetic works that demanded your engagement there were mirrored reflections, soundscapes, bells ringing, whiteboard art, optic illusions, films, moving walls, sketches, paintings, styrofoam artworks that looked like they were breathing and more... It was hard to focus and fully give your attention to the artwork in front of you.

This exhibition is trying to explore the idea of creating possibilities from going against the mainstream or dominant perspective. When we are able to steer away from the hum-drum, safe, same old same old, traditional, proven ways of old, we free our minds to the endless creative power and choices of fashioning something new or exploring the vast alternatives. I think this is a great theme to explore, but not sure if the collection as a whole said this or whether a whole lot of artworks individually said this.

One of the clearest examples of what this exhibition is trying to explore is Duchamp's bicycle wheel. It is placed upside down. It alters our perception of what a wheel is. It makes you think, doesn't it? What is it's purpose? What is it if now it's upside down and functionless?

There was soundscape by a Japanese artist. The viewer was drawn in to press a button and hold it down to experience the different bells that rung. The button was bells throughout the exhibition forcing people to be apart of the work whether they chose to participate or not. And so it would scare people, annoy people, and disturb tours. I found it hilarious that one of the tour guides told a viewer that they needed to stop pressing the bell as her group is unable to hear her. I listened in to the lady's judgement on this bell artwork and she decided that the artist was wrong in calling it a sound landscape and should rather be called a sound sculpture. How presumptuous, especially at an exhibition that is supposed to alter perceptions and get you questioning?? Maybe it did get the guide questioning, hence her conclusion and so the artwork has fulfilled its point?

The works that got me thinking the most were the one about mass production, the facelessness of life as a number and the mundane nature of life. It reminded me of Ecclesiastes and the meaninglessness of vapour. It made me sad and was slightly depressing. I really appreciated the amazing technical detail in the works!

Another highlight was a patron in bare feet. The art gallery space is one of my favourite places for the same reason I like Airports. Both these spaces host a strange and diverse bunch of people all with their own stories and quirky behaviours. I love to work out who they are, what relationships they are in, what their occupation is and why they are where they are? So much fun!

Wasn't the biggest fan of this collection. It gave me a headache!

Men and tears...

This year a girl in my connect group shared with us her theory that "Tears prove there is a God", as there is no real need for them. Emotional tears are useless, purposeless function of the body that seems to have remained in our 'evolution. And for my friend she attributes that pure expression of emotion as a gift of God, a means to know that we were made for something more than black and white of life.

Tears now remind me of that there is a God and its a great comfort when I do cry. But tears in general remind me of the brokenness of this world, the need for redemption from the bondage of sin, corruption and decay in this world. Yet we don't just cry over the sad things, we cry tears of joy when babies are born, when people get married, when friends are healed, when the sun shines and the world sings, and when we see the merciful hand of God on our lives...

There seem to be different things that set us off in tears... for me tears come when I am overwhelmed by thoughts happy and sad, frustration with 'unanswered' prayers, when I am tired and run down, and especially driving in my car with music up load.

A journalist did a survey of the words "crying" and "tears" in a newspaper over a period of time. The most common causes of crying are low-level frustration or sad moments on TV. Other subjects worth crying over were:

• the deaths, births and illnesses of children; and of parents;
  
• cheating husbands; and violent ones;
  
• absent fathers;
  
• pedophilia;
  
• rape;
  
• adoption;
  
• the hell of school exams;
• remembering lost loves;
  
• retired guide dogs;
  
• accepting an award for acting;
  
• problems with builders; and
  
• onions.
  

Adults apparently also cry most frequently when they are alone, at home, between 7pm and 10pm, and women cry on average 64 times a year (more than once a week), men just 17 (more than once a month).

I find that really interesting that men do cry as much as 17 times a year. Most men I have spoken to about crying say that it is rare. Do you think it is wrong for men to cry? When we call men little girls, weak or a woose, I feel we trivialise their grief or sadness and say that there is no room for tears in manhood.

For women, we seem to much easily get worked up, cry for no reason or break down in hysteria - regularly. Not to diminish the emotions of women and the privilege to be a friend for my female friends when they cry, but it is a real privilege to witness a man cry.

I have had this privilege a number of times: at funerals, when a friend was missing his homeland and family, when a friend was on drugs, breaking up with a girl, at the end of a tough year, while battling depression, amidst physical pain, and in frustration by the inability to pray...

In the last 2 months or so, I have seen three grown men cry at church. It really moved me to see these men shed tears silently over a sermon, publicly when church family & partners in the gospel move overseas, quietly in response to a song and in conversation over their chronically ill sister. I felt honored when that guy cried in our conversation, that he was willing to share and express his emotions with family at church.

......

Who do you think of when you read that the Israelites 'cried out, and their desperate cry' (Ex2:23)?

How do you view men like David and Job who cry? (I do notice though that each instance of their crying does not always result in tears, but calling out to God in desperation)

Who longs for the day when “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more—or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.”?
(Revelation 21:4)

This Is Our God...

New Hillsong Album...

We sung 'This is our God' for the first time last night at church. The bridge lead in to the chorus freely you gave it all for us was really moving and I was humbled before the feet of our God. Our worship team lead us really well. I am so thankful for their service and enabling me with my church family to sing a prayer of adoration, supplication and praise!