Contemplation...again

You know how it is; you start to study or read about something and it pops up everywhere. Everything I read now-a-days seems to have a thread about contemplation running through it. But then, I guess that the topics I've been reading about and the authors I've been reading have a bent toward the contemplative ~ solitude and Sabbath-keeping, rhythms of life, prayer, Henri Nouwen, Ruth Haley Barton, practicing being in God's presence, Greg Boyd, Richard Foster, hospitality ~ these all carry similar threads. So they weave together in my mind and in my heart and make their way onto the pages of my art journals.

I lean so much more toward solitude now than when I was younger. Sometimes too much so, and I have to be gently reminded by God that He made me to be in community also. Since learning that the way I have kept my written journals in the past is actually a known practice called "commonplacing", I find I want to put more and more of what I'm reading on the pages of my art journals. (See previous blog post here: Commonplace )

It's been a nice long weekend. I've spent good time in solitude, reading and making art. I've spent time with my husband watching movies. And later today and tomorrow I will enjoy time in community at a birthday party and then an adoption celebration. Overall a very good weekend. And also the perfect calm I need before the storm of crazy busyness over the next three weeks. You can't work in a church and with kids and partner in ministry to a school and not be busy at Christmastime! So, there will be limited art time and limited blog time in the weeks ahead, but I will make bits and pieces of time for solitude and contemplation to keep my heart and soul connected to Him who provides all that we need. :)

From the pages of the books I'm reading:

The books:

Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership by Ruth Haley Barton

Repenting of Religion by Gregory Boyd

Reaching Out by Henri Nouwen

The Greatest Command

Jesus said: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' (Matthew 22:33-37) 

He also said: "This is my command, that you love one another as I have loved you." (John 15:12)

"He (Jesus) spoke as though there were no other command because, as a matter of fact, there really isn't any other command. Every other commandment  and every other message is contained in this one." 
Gregory Boyd

There's no getting around the fact that as followers of Christ we have been called to love others ~ to love others in the same manner God loves us ~ sacrificially, unconditionally. Boyd calls God's love for us "unsurpassable". This is the kind of love called "agape" love in the Bible. Agape love "is the act of unconditionally ascribing worth to another at a cost to oneself." ~Boyd

I can't wrap my mind around this great call on us, maybe because I can't wrap my mind around the fact that God loves me just like this. And He does. This is the place I must abide: secure in knowing experientially this unsurpassable love God has for me. I am incapable of loving others in this manner. My call is to abide in Christ and rely on Him to love others through me.

Some recent art journal pages:

I'm also reading "Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art" by Madeleine L'Engle for the Made Course FB discussion group. A quote from chapter one:

Gregory Boyd quotes are from his book "Repenting of Religion: Turning From Judgment to the Love of God"

This and That and...Love

Thank you Julie Fei-Fan Balzer for selecting one of my art journal pages from the Art Journal Every Day Flickr pool and posting it on your blog on Friday.

 http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com.  

It was such a thrill to visit her blog, as I do each Friday, and find some of my art!

I've been in kind of an art slump since I went on my personal retreat a few weeks ago. I have the desire, I just don't seem to have any ideas or creativity lately. I don't know if the heat has something to do with it. I HATE heat and humidity. It zaps my energy and about all I want to do is read or watch movies. Well, hopefully the heat and my art slump will pass soon. I did make a page spread the other day in my altered book art journal.

I'm reading a book called "Repenting of Religion: Turning From Judgment to the Love of God" by Gregory Boyd. This book is blowing me away! We are going through the book of 1 John in our worship service on Sundays and as I study John's letter for our Creative Team meetings each week, I find that Gregory Boyd's writing is going right along with our study. Our prayer for our church as we move through 1 John is that we would connect experientially with God's great love for us and His call on us to love others, Boyd calls this love God has for us "unsurpassable".

John says, "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters." 1 John 3:16.  This is the verse we will focus on this coming Sunday as we seek to define Biblical love. This verse begins the heart of John's message about love (3:16-5:2) and our plan is to slow down in the weeks ahead and take this message in.

From Gregory Boyd:

"Everything we are in Christ, and thus everything we are called to be in Christ, is summed up in the word love. The central defining truth of the believer is that in Christ God ascribed unsurpassable worth to us, though we did not deserve it. Hence, the central defining mark of disciples of Christ is that they in turn ascribe unconditional worth to themselves and all others, knowing that Christ died for them as well." (He then quotes 1 John 3:16).

Everything we are and everything we are called to  - in Christ - is summed up in the word LOVE.

I look forward to what God is going to do in me and in our church as we go through the rest of 1 John (and as I go through the rest of Boyd;s book).