I spent the better part of today driving through Dartmouth, Massachusetts in the Padanarum bay area where my grandparents used to live. What struck me most about the area was its pristine beauty. I love Southeastern Massachusetts and its colonial/seaside/cape coddy look. There are rolling fields with grey shingled colonial style houses, there is the lovely Padanarum bay with its grassy salt marshes and deep, blue skies dotted with white fluffy clouds, and there is the sandy-growing rose bushes that I have only ever seen in this area. All of this, along with the lovely fall air makes one breath a little deeper and easier as if the earth itself is telling you, "everything is going to be alright."
As an artist, I adore creating. I believe it is one of humanities greatest traits.We inherited this ability from our Father when, in Genesis 1:27 he said we were made in His image. When I stop to think where I get my inspiration for creating art, I really don't have to think very hard...from creation itself. After spending quality time in God's creation I feel refreshed, replenished, full of vigor, excited, rested, hopeful and ready to tackle almost anything that will come my way. Creation helps me create and I would bet it is the same for many artists. If we look throughout history, most of what we see in the visual arts (up until the last 50-100 years) are pastorals and religious paintings. The subject of many artists was faith and creation. But why? Why does creation speak so powerfully?
First, I believe that any work that is the handiwork of God speaks to all humans. Because, whether we believe in God or not, we are all still His children. I have never heard a person utter, "Well, THAT is a lousy looking sunset." I don't think we would have it in us to even suggest such a claim, because every person knows that a sunset is beautiful and the sunset is beautiful because God, Himself painted it.
Second, being creators ourselves, we are interested in creation. Creation fascinates us, we can't get enough of it. If it didn't fascinate us, camping would never have been invented, or hiking, or vacations to Lake Louise in Banff, or strolling through the Redwoods, or houses by the sea, or mountain lodges, or scenic overlooks on highways, and the list keeps on going. Humans put art in their houses, make artistic choices about their interior design, exterior design, landscaping and then the value of the house goes up when it is a waterfront home or in the mountains. Why is land so expensive...the more you want to get, the more its going to cost you. I guess you could argue that there are so many people, the more land you have, the less land the rest of us has, but we know that isn't true, at least in America. Much of the west is still untamed and there is PLENTY of space out there. Ultimately, it's because nature is valuable.
Third, being made in the image of the Great Creator, we value beauty. God made gold to admire and fruit in the Garden that was both good to eat AND beautiful to look at. Let's face it, God could have made a drab, utilitarian world and it would have worked just fine...but he didn't! God loves beauty and beauty is the visual form of love. He wants us to be pleased with what we see in this world AND he wants what we see to point back to Him. Beauty does just that. Beauty is indescribable except for that word that describes it...beautiful. We are so enamored because when we see something beautiful, our lives feel more completed by it. Love does the same thing. If there is one thing I believe it is that the heartbeat of the bible is that God loves us and he wants us to love Him back. Love takes many forms, and beauty, I believe, is one of those forms.
I have an issue with cities. I am both enamored with them and disgusted with them at the same time. I find it amazing that THAT many people can live together...in relative harmony...in one place. I am blown away by the marvels of architecture within cities. I am amazed how a city incorporates nature into its urban jungle. I love the buzz of a city at Christmas. I love Times Square and the lights of Broadway. But I also find cities to be a bit cold, that relative harmony I spoke of is just that...relative, many times it is people barely tolerating each other in order to keep civility. Cities are made of concrete and steel and plastic and glass. Not high on my beauty scale. Cities are so loud, you can't think. The light pollution drowns out the stars at night. After these two lists, you can see my conundrum.
I find artistry that comes out of the city to be a bit cynical as of late. Great art has come out of cities but more and more cynicism, propaganda, social agendas, and other modern topics are bleeding into art. I suppose there is no problem with this, somebody has to create it, but I am interested in art that is revelatory, transformative and redemptive. My favorite art touches the divine and strikes a deep chord in my soul. My favorite art deals with the big picture and not the moment-to-moment issues...it doesn't ignore those issues, it just frames them in the eternal.
What is amazing to me is that many of our fine artistic universities and establishments are found in cities. This shocks me a bit because as an artist and knowing a bit about artists, I am not sure how they draw their inspiration. I would assume one would draw inspiration from other artistic works, relationships and vacations to more serene and beautiful places. Many of the older actors I know don't live in NYC proper any more but have chosen to live in southern Connecticut or upstate New York and commute in and maybe that is because they have learned a little bit about artistry and the city versus nature. Perhaps the reason there is such a cynical feel to a lot of art is that people have locked themselves in a concrete cave and then tried to deal with things eternal which just end up turning into things that matter to and happen in the City proper. Only God knows.
I believe that if artists spent more time in nature and less time in the subway, their art might look a bit different and their perspective on life might change. Don't get me wrong, many fine artists and fine art comes from the city...some of our best...I believe it must truly be God inspired because nature is hard to find in downtown NYC... unless you live near central park. Either way, I believe that spending time in nature is good for the soul of every human and good for the inspiration of every artist.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Monday, September 24, 2012
The Gift of Tongues and the Gift of Art
First, I have to say that this blog is almost entirely my wife's brainchild. Jennifer (my wife) and I had been to a charismatic-pentecostal service one day and, as you might imagine, there was much speaking in tongues. Before I get into it, I want to speak about my history with tongues. As a child, I was fairly horrified when I first saw tongues being spoken. My family an I were recent protestant converts from the Catholic church on the South Shore of Massachusetts and the gift of tongues was something that I never saw in the Catholic church growing up. One evening, I went to visit some friends at a pentecostal Christian youth camp and it was a baptism by fire. People were speaking in tongues, crying, screaming, rolling around on the ground and being slain in the spirit. As you can imagine, being from a modest Catholic upbringing...it was traumatic to say the least.
The major problem I had was that throughout all of that rolling and screaming, not once did I feel God's presence. Occasionally, I sense the presence of God heavily during a charismatic worship service where tongues are being spoken, other times, not. This had always bothered me because I felt that if the spirit of God was going to manifest himself in tongues...it would be pretty powerful and you should sense his presence. You can imagine my confusion/frustration when I felt like God's presence seems to be absent from such a strong manifestation of His gifts.
Also, Many times I would be at services like this and people would be speaking and tongues and there wouldn't be an interpreter. This confused me because I thought that the three ways tongues normally happens in the bible is 1) That tongues of flames came over the disciples heads and gave them the ability to speak in a tongues that people of different languages could all understand at the same time as in the Pentecost, or 2) That the message spoken aloud in public through the medium of tongues would also have an interpreter that would interpret the tongues, or 3) That the heavenly language was one for the personal and private prayer time between the speaker and God, not for the public. Others may have different interpretations of the scripture, but this is how I understand the bible's perspective on it.
Now, I am a much more charismatic Christian in these days than I ever was in the past. The gifts of the spirit don't bother me like they used to, in fact, I am amazed by them. But tongues had always been difficult for me and during this car ride home from the service I was previously mentioning, Jennifer gave me an amazing perspective I had never thought of before.
Jennifer said that dance was her gift of tongues. I looked at her with a mildly confused expression on my face. She went on to explain that she felt closest to God when she was dancing and that she believed dance was her heavenly language that she spoke with God.
To me, this statement was revelatory
It makes perfect sense... to me, at least. I have always felt that when I was writing songs, God had blessed me with connection to him. Something about the flow between chord and lyric, between story and the music that underlies the story always made me feel like I was connecting to something spiritual. As a matter of fact, I would argue that many if not most artists feel this way about art, that it IS spiritual. Could it be that the gift of art is a gift of tongues?
Lets look at the three qualifications of tongues that I mentioned before starting with the third and working backwards. 3) That the heavenly language was one for the personal and private prayer time between the speaker and God, not for the public.Tongues is supposed to be a "heavenly language" that one uses to communicate with God when our language isn't enough. Art absolutely does this. I believe that art is a form of "language" and one that can speak far more powerfully and clearly than the English that I speak. Most aestheticians and artists talk of art as language, it is core to their explanation of what art is and what it does. Also, I have experienced a communion with God on the spiritual level while doing every art I do - song writitng, acting, directing, choreographing, painting, etc. So art absolutely fits this category.
2) That the message spoken aloud in public through the medium of tongues would also have an interpreter that would interpret the tongues. Interestingly enough, art fulfills this as well. Almost everyone in the public who perceives an art work will interpret it. Add to that the many heads of churches, museum curators, artistic directors, art teachers, critics and the like that will interpret the artwork for the audience. The art can be interpreted personally by each member of society and publicly by people who have been set aside to critique or review the art form.
Last and the most outrageous and miraculous form of tongues was at the Pentecost. This was the Holy Spirit moving in an amazing way in a way that I haven't ever seen since I have been alive...or had I? 1) That tongues of flames came over the disciples heads and gave them the ability to speak in a tongues that people of different languages could all understand at the same time as in the Pentecost. I must admit that I have never seen tongues of flames over anyone's head to date, but the idea that one would speak a heavenly language that all cultures and societies across the globe could understand at once IS actually possible with art. As a matter of fact in his book Art in Action Nicholas Woltersdorff cites a cross cultural study that was done in the arts. In this study, random people were selected from all over the globe and they were to look at one hundred pieces of art. The study then had them commit to which pieces they liked and which they didn't. All of the participants chose seventy five percent of the same art works as being the pieces they personally enjoyed. The implications of this study go further than the commentary in this blog but it does point out that over seventy five percent of a grouping of artworks spoke personally to a cross cultural group. This is astounding! To me, this is strong evidence that art is a language that all cultures can potentially understand.
So I believe that my wife was right without a doubt, but I find it more amazing that art fulfills all three of the ways the gift of tongues manifests AT THE SAME TIME! I am not discounting anyone's heavenly language. I do believe that tongues works in the way we often see it happen. It is so unusual, God must love it, because our God is a God of mystery and wonder and miracle. But this theory of art as the gift of tongues is certainly one worth pondering.
The major problem I had was that throughout all of that rolling and screaming, not once did I feel God's presence. Occasionally, I sense the presence of God heavily during a charismatic worship service where tongues are being spoken, other times, not. This had always bothered me because I felt that if the spirit of God was going to manifest himself in tongues...it would be pretty powerful and you should sense his presence. You can imagine my confusion/frustration when I felt like God's presence seems to be absent from such a strong manifestation of His gifts.
Also, Many times I would be at services like this and people would be speaking and tongues and there wouldn't be an interpreter. This confused me because I thought that the three ways tongues normally happens in the bible is 1) That tongues of flames came over the disciples heads and gave them the ability to speak in a tongues that people of different languages could all understand at the same time as in the Pentecost, or 2) That the message spoken aloud in public through the medium of tongues would also have an interpreter that would interpret the tongues, or 3) That the heavenly language was one for the personal and private prayer time between the speaker and God, not for the public. Others may have different interpretations of the scripture, but this is how I understand the bible's perspective on it.
Now, I am a much more charismatic Christian in these days than I ever was in the past. The gifts of the spirit don't bother me like they used to, in fact, I am amazed by them. But tongues had always been difficult for me and during this car ride home from the service I was previously mentioning, Jennifer gave me an amazing perspective I had never thought of before.
Jennifer said that dance was her gift of tongues. I looked at her with a mildly confused expression on my face. She went on to explain that she felt closest to God when she was dancing and that she believed dance was her heavenly language that she spoke with God.
To me, this statement was revelatory
It makes perfect sense... to me, at least. I have always felt that when I was writing songs, God had blessed me with connection to him. Something about the flow between chord and lyric, between story and the music that underlies the story always made me feel like I was connecting to something spiritual. As a matter of fact, I would argue that many if not most artists feel this way about art, that it IS spiritual. Could it be that the gift of art is a gift of tongues?
Lets look at the three qualifications of tongues that I mentioned before starting with the third and working backwards. 3) That the heavenly language was one for the personal and private prayer time between the speaker and God, not for the public.Tongues is supposed to be a "heavenly language" that one uses to communicate with God when our language isn't enough. Art absolutely does this. I believe that art is a form of "language" and one that can speak far more powerfully and clearly than the English that I speak. Most aestheticians and artists talk of art as language, it is core to their explanation of what art is and what it does. Also, I have experienced a communion with God on the spiritual level while doing every art I do - song writitng, acting, directing, choreographing, painting, etc. So art absolutely fits this category.
2) That the message spoken aloud in public through the medium of tongues would also have an interpreter that would interpret the tongues. Interestingly enough, art fulfills this as well. Almost everyone in the public who perceives an art work will interpret it. Add to that the many heads of churches, museum curators, artistic directors, art teachers, critics and the like that will interpret the artwork for the audience. The art can be interpreted personally by each member of society and publicly by people who have been set aside to critique or review the art form.
Last and the most outrageous and miraculous form of tongues was at the Pentecost. This was the Holy Spirit moving in an amazing way in a way that I haven't ever seen since I have been alive...or had I? 1) That tongues of flames came over the disciples heads and gave them the ability to speak in a tongues that people of different languages could all understand at the same time as in the Pentecost. I must admit that I have never seen tongues of flames over anyone's head to date, but the idea that one would speak a heavenly language that all cultures and societies across the globe could understand at once IS actually possible with art. As a matter of fact in his book Art in Action Nicholas Woltersdorff cites a cross cultural study that was done in the arts. In this study, random people were selected from all over the globe and they were to look at one hundred pieces of art. The study then had them commit to which pieces they liked and which they didn't. All of the participants chose seventy five percent of the same art works as being the pieces they personally enjoyed. The implications of this study go further than the commentary in this blog but it does point out that over seventy five percent of a grouping of artworks spoke personally to a cross cultural group. This is astounding! To me, this is strong evidence that art is a language that all cultures can potentially understand.
So I believe that my wife was right without a doubt, but I find it more amazing that art fulfills all three of the ways the gift of tongues manifests AT THE SAME TIME! I am not discounting anyone's heavenly language. I do believe that tongues works in the way we often see it happen. It is so unusual, God must love it, because our God is a God of mystery and wonder and miracle. But this theory of art as the gift of tongues is certainly one worth pondering.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
The Fearless Artist
Artists are some of the most fearless people I know. They push on through constant rejection, through financial burdens greater than they can deal with, through the incessant noise of the 21rst century, through millions of other artists who are also trying to make a mark, and through a variety of other difficulties and dangers that the average human couldn't take for a moment, never mind a lifetime.
We are told that "perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18) and so I immediately think that perhaps it is love that drives the artist to cope with the fears that being an artist puts forward. Along with being fearless, artists are often the most empathetic people I know, they are also incredibly emotional, they long to be known by others, they long to see the disenfranchised of humanity get their shot, they are...loving. Artists have hearts as big as the sky and as deep as the ocean and they long to share themselves with others.
I believe what sits in the crux of true love and overcoming fear is a word that Christians are well-familiar with and that is sacrifice. Sacrifice is perhaps the greatest act of love a person can partake in. Sacrifice is what artists do everyday as they overcome their fears in order that they may make sense out of their world NOT just for themselves, in fact NOT mostly for themselves BUT for others. Artists need an audience because without that audience the art may cease to exist. Artists will push beyond the comfortable to get a taste of what true community is like. They will sacrifice their time, skills, resources, egos, hopes, dreams, etc. for the sake of connecting. The act of creating a true and holy work of art is one of pain, rejection, trial and error, endurance, skill, endless hours, and the list keeps going. The artist sacrifices so that they can be known by others and others can be known to them and they try, desperately to help humankind understand who we are and why we are here.
This constant sacrifice is literally and figuratively dying to oneself so that one truly may live. This is the essence of the Christian walk and artists do this daily. The artist becomes the best they can be when an audience has shared a moment with the artists work. Here is a story:
My wife Jennifer was laboring over a production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel. I was choreographing the piece and I can assure you that labor is the correct word to use when describing this production. Many hours and dollars were spent putting this piece together. The actors worked tirelessly to craft a powerful performance and most audience members who saw the show...liked it, or at least were amused by the production. We, as theatre artists, are certainly happy when we entertain people, after all, maybe we can give the audience a break from their everyday life and invite them into a fantasy world in which they might relax and dream for a couple of hours. We love doing that, but with all that work, we certainly hope someone will perceive us as a bit more than a trifle or and entertainment. Well, after one evenings production a man came up to Jennifer with tears streaming from his eyes and he said that he and his wife saw the original production in New York City and it was one of their favorite musicals. He went on to say that she had recently passed away and this evening was such a blessing for him because the play had come to mean so much to their relationship. He thanked her and left the building.
This is an example of hours of sacrifice by multiple artists which coalesced into a shared moment of beauty. A moment of divine communion, a moment of love.
Thank goodness we have artists and may God encourage them all to sacrifice for their calling, to continue to be fearless, to passionately pursue communion, to show us all how to love.
We are told that "perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18) and so I immediately think that perhaps it is love that drives the artist to cope with the fears that being an artist puts forward. Along with being fearless, artists are often the most empathetic people I know, they are also incredibly emotional, they long to be known by others, they long to see the disenfranchised of humanity get their shot, they are...loving. Artists have hearts as big as the sky and as deep as the ocean and they long to share themselves with others.
I believe what sits in the crux of true love and overcoming fear is a word that Christians are well-familiar with and that is sacrifice. Sacrifice is perhaps the greatest act of love a person can partake in. Sacrifice is what artists do everyday as they overcome their fears in order that they may make sense out of their world NOT just for themselves, in fact NOT mostly for themselves BUT for others. Artists need an audience because without that audience the art may cease to exist. Artists will push beyond the comfortable to get a taste of what true community is like. They will sacrifice their time, skills, resources, egos, hopes, dreams, etc. for the sake of connecting. The act of creating a true and holy work of art is one of pain, rejection, trial and error, endurance, skill, endless hours, and the list keeps going. The artist sacrifices so that they can be known by others and others can be known to them and they try, desperately to help humankind understand who we are and why we are here.
This constant sacrifice is literally and figuratively dying to oneself so that one truly may live. This is the essence of the Christian walk and artists do this daily. The artist becomes the best they can be when an audience has shared a moment with the artists work. Here is a story:
My wife Jennifer was laboring over a production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel. I was choreographing the piece and I can assure you that labor is the correct word to use when describing this production. Many hours and dollars were spent putting this piece together. The actors worked tirelessly to craft a powerful performance and most audience members who saw the show...liked it, or at least were amused by the production. We, as theatre artists, are certainly happy when we entertain people, after all, maybe we can give the audience a break from their everyday life and invite them into a fantasy world in which they might relax and dream for a couple of hours. We love doing that, but with all that work, we certainly hope someone will perceive us as a bit more than a trifle or and entertainment. Well, after one evenings production a man came up to Jennifer with tears streaming from his eyes and he said that he and his wife saw the original production in New York City and it was one of their favorite musicals. He went on to say that she had recently passed away and this evening was such a blessing for him because the play had come to mean so much to their relationship. He thanked her and left the building.
This is an example of hours of sacrifice by multiple artists which coalesced into a shared moment of beauty. A moment of divine communion, a moment of love.
Thank goodness we have artists and may God encourage them all to sacrifice for their calling, to continue to be fearless, to passionately pursue communion, to show us all how to love.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Creation - Communion - Renewal
Creation isn't just the process of making something, though this is how many perceive creation. Creation is the process of making something new, it's as much about rebirth as it is about birth. The bible gives us the best examples of creation.
"In the beginning, God created..." (Genesis 1:1) God wasn't just making something that didn't exist before, but he was in fact changing the nature of what already existed. He did make something out of nothing, as in the big bang, but at the same time He already existed in the nothingness and thus He changed the nature of His own existence. He went from one being to the one being over many. He created an isolated existence to a world that was made for relationship. He made more than something out of nothing, He made somethings out of nothing.
This speaks to us about the nature of creation. Creation isn't just making something out of what wasn't there before but it is changing the nature of what already exists and in the change, communion happens...relationship is born.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says - "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" This means that relationship and creation is one and the same, when one happens the other is born as well. When we come into a relationship with Jesus, we are made new, we are both re-created and created at the same time.
This is true of great art as well. When we give birth to a piece we are fostering community. This happens in a couple of ways: 1) Art connects us to our creator. It defines who we are in relationship with the natural AND the supernatural world. Our need to create is also the impulse to find our true identity and purpose. As we search by creating, are we not searching for meaning? Everyone who is alive resonates with this, whether they believe in a higher power or not...the need to create is a cry out into the darkness for understanding, it is a call that demands an answer, it is a scream to try to fill the void with something.
2) Art connects us to each other. When we create we usually don't do it in a vacuum and even if we do...our hope is that someone else may, someday, see our work. Our creative impulse asks the simple question, " does anyone else understand what I have been through?" We HOPE someone will answer..."Yes. I know what you have been through and I have been there too." Why? Why do we need someone to answer us? Because we want to know we aren't alone. At the end of the day most people don't want to be alone. That is why we have fears. We fear because we feel alone. We fear death because we fear we will be ripped from this life, away from those we love, or even just...those, and thrust into a place without anyone too commune with.
3) Art connects us to ourselves. We, in fact, need to commune with ourselves. Part of our search is to "know thyself" We want to know why we are the way we are and why we do what we do. Art helps us see that. A piece of art isn't just for someone else to see it, it isn't just about trying to discover the divine in the humane, but it is also an attempt to find ourselves. This searching for ourselves is so that we may be enlightened, that we may be changed. In fact this search for ourselves is to make us new.
The creation process renews us and changes us. When we create we are connecting to the spirit behind creation, we are calling others to see and know us AND to renew their perspective on life and we are renewing ourselves. The process of creation is one blessed by the divine for renewal of thought, mind and body, it is to foster community between the Children of God and their creator, and it is to bring us into relationship with our God.
"In the beginning, God created..." (Genesis 1:1) God wasn't just making something that didn't exist before, but he was in fact changing the nature of what already existed. He did make something out of nothing, as in the big bang, but at the same time He already existed in the nothingness and thus He changed the nature of His own existence. He went from one being to the one being over many. He created an isolated existence to a world that was made for relationship. He made more than something out of nothing, He made somethings out of nothing.
This speaks to us about the nature of creation. Creation isn't just making something out of what wasn't there before but it is changing the nature of what already exists and in the change, communion happens...relationship is born.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says - "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" This means that relationship and creation is one and the same, when one happens the other is born as well. When we come into a relationship with Jesus, we are made new, we are both re-created and created at the same time.
This is true of great art as well. When we give birth to a piece we are fostering community. This happens in a couple of ways: 1) Art connects us to our creator. It defines who we are in relationship with the natural AND the supernatural world. Our need to create is also the impulse to find our true identity and purpose. As we search by creating, are we not searching for meaning? Everyone who is alive resonates with this, whether they believe in a higher power or not...the need to create is a cry out into the darkness for understanding, it is a call that demands an answer, it is a scream to try to fill the void with something.
2) Art connects us to each other. When we create we usually don't do it in a vacuum and even if we do...our hope is that someone else may, someday, see our work. Our creative impulse asks the simple question, " does anyone else understand what I have been through?" We HOPE someone will answer..."Yes. I know what you have been through and I have been there too." Why? Why do we need someone to answer us? Because we want to know we aren't alone. At the end of the day most people don't want to be alone. That is why we have fears. We fear because we feel alone. We fear death because we fear we will be ripped from this life, away from those we love, or even just...those, and thrust into a place without anyone too commune with.
3) Art connects us to ourselves. We, in fact, need to commune with ourselves. Part of our search is to "know thyself" We want to know why we are the way we are and why we do what we do. Art helps us see that. A piece of art isn't just for someone else to see it, it isn't just about trying to discover the divine in the humane, but it is also an attempt to find ourselves. This searching for ourselves is so that we may be enlightened, that we may be changed. In fact this search for ourselves is to make us new.
The creation process renews us and changes us. When we create we are connecting to the spirit behind creation, we are calling others to see and know us AND to renew their perspective on life and we are renewing ourselves. The process of creation is one blessed by the divine for renewal of thought, mind and body, it is to foster community between the Children of God and their creator, and it is to bring us into relationship with our God.
Friday, November 25, 2011
Our Twofold Purpose
With an almost tangible sensation that every person in the Western World is on a "search" for purpose in their lives, I can't help but ruminate on purpose.
Before the search for our specific purpose begins we must understand what God's objectives for our lives are. These are twofold: 1) The Great Commandment, and 2) The Great Commission.
1) The Great Commandment:
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
2) The Great Commission:
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
When we look at these two very powerful pieces of scripture we must realize a couple of things. 1) The Commandment happened before the Commission. Sure, we don't have to follow the whole Bible chronologically but these passages happen in the same book of the bible and are chronological in the way Jesus instructed the disciples. 2) The commandment is very much that...a command! We aren't commanded to do the commission but we are commanded to love.
God seems to be telling us that before you can speak into the masses you must get love down pat. does this mean we won't be affective when trying to be open to let God work through us, of course not...besides, it is God who is working through us, not us on our own. God can do many things through us, whether we are equipped or not, if we just simply let him. One of the best ways to let him work is to get the love thing down down pat.
Once we have love, an honest love for Jesus, ourselves and our neighbor, we must go and make disciples...he commissions us to do just that.
Now what does this have to do with our purpose? We have to realize that everything God calls us to do in life is measured against these two verses. If we feel called to something and it lacks either a sense of love or a sense of connecting with people...it might not be his highest call for our lives. Look at this, when we do measure our actions and our call against the great commandment and great commission, we will find that we are empowered for this call. When our purposes, desires, and wants are aligned with His purposes, desires and wants for our lives, we will not only succeed, but we will also be fulfilled!
How exciting to think that our purpose is going to be fulfilling, exciting and replenishing to our soul. and spirit.
Let me give you an example from my own life. God gave me a vision about 5 years ago that he is revealing and defining little by little and piece by piece. He said to me, "I want you to do two things, Derek, my loving, emotional, occasionally disobedient but passionate son!" "One, I want you to educate Christians on the possibilities of art...I want you to tell them about the nature and purpose of the arts and how I want the church to reclaim them in my name!" "Two, I want you to then show them what this art, MY art, really looks like. Show them by example!!! Create the best art there is using all that I have given and taught you." God wants me to be influential on having the church be the major cultural force in the world once again and he wants me to do this through arts education and production. This purpose...directly aligned with the Great Commandment and Great Commission nearly knocked me to the floor. "How am I going to do this, God? It's so...big." I asked. He said, "I will tell you...but not all at once...I need to work some junk out of your life before you are ready to hear the full vision. I need to get rid of pride and self-sufficiency and you need to work on love...not just loving others, but accepting me as a loving God who you can trust."
This was my and is my vision and ongoing conversation involving my distinct purpose. I wish I could tell you the "how," but I'm not sure what it is yet...I believe the best is yet to come.
This is an example of the large plans God has for you if you let him. Get connected to His purposes for your life first, He will then reveal the rest. It will be bigger than you can possibly imagine and too big for you to do by yourself but remember Philippians 4:13, "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength."
Embrace the fullness of your twofold purposes!
Before the search for our specific purpose begins we must understand what God's objectives for our lives are. These are twofold: 1) The Great Commandment, and 2) The Great Commission.
1) The Great Commandment:
Matthew 22:36-40
New International Version (NIV)
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
2) The Great Commission:
Matthew 28:16-20
New International Version (NIV)
When we look at these two very powerful pieces of scripture we must realize a couple of things. 1) The Commandment happened before the Commission. Sure, we don't have to follow the whole Bible chronologically but these passages happen in the same book of the bible and are chronological in the way Jesus instructed the disciples. 2) The commandment is very much that...a command! We aren't commanded to do the commission but we are commanded to love.
God seems to be telling us that before you can speak into the masses you must get love down pat. does this mean we won't be affective when trying to be open to let God work through us, of course not...besides, it is God who is working through us, not us on our own. God can do many things through us, whether we are equipped or not, if we just simply let him. One of the best ways to let him work is to get the love thing down down pat.
Once we have love, an honest love for Jesus, ourselves and our neighbor, we must go and make disciples...he commissions us to do just that.
Now what does this have to do with our purpose? We have to realize that everything God calls us to do in life is measured against these two verses. If we feel called to something and it lacks either a sense of love or a sense of connecting with people...it might not be his highest call for our lives. Look at this, when we do measure our actions and our call against the great commandment and great commission, we will find that we are empowered for this call. When our purposes, desires, and wants are aligned with His purposes, desires and wants for our lives, we will not only succeed, but we will also be fulfilled!
How exciting to think that our purpose is going to be fulfilling, exciting and replenishing to our soul. and spirit.
Let me give you an example from my own life. God gave me a vision about 5 years ago that he is revealing and defining little by little and piece by piece. He said to me, "I want you to do two things, Derek, my loving, emotional, occasionally disobedient but passionate son!" "One, I want you to educate Christians on the possibilities of art...I want you to tell them about the nature and purpose of the arts and how I want the church to reclaim them in my name!" "Two, I want you to then show them what this art, MY art, really looks like. Show them by example!!! Create the best art there is using all that I have given and taught you." God wants me to be influential on having the church be the major cultural force in the world once again and he wants me to do this through arts education and production. This purpose...directly aligned with the Great Commandment and Great Commission nearly knocked me to the floor. "How am I going to do this, God? It's so...big." I asked. He said, "I will tell you...but not all at once...I need to work some junk out of your life before you are ready to hear the full vision. I need to get rid of pride and self-sufficiency and you need to work on love...not just loving others, but accepting me as a loving God who you can trust."
This was my and is my vision and ongoing conversation involving my distinct purpose. I wish I could tell you the "how," but I'm not sure what it is yet...I believe the best is yet to come.
This is an example of the large plans God has for you if you let him. Get connected to His purposes for your life first, He will then reveal the rest. It will be bigger than you can possibly imagine and too big for you to do by yourself but remember Philippians 4:13, "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength."
Embrace the fullness of your twofold purposes!
Monday, September 5, 2011
Story
Story. It is in essence who we are. We are characters in a greater story, Shakespeare made this thought famous in one of his most well-known speeches, "All the world's a stage..." We know, as Christians, we are part of a greater story and we each have a special part to play. Jesus used story to communicate through metaphor to the world. John Eldredge at the beginning of his book EPIC, reminds us that every day is a story and the hours and even minutes unfold as in scenes.
Why is story so fundamental and so important? It seems as if we were hard-wired for story. God is a God of relationship and story is at the heart of relationship. We understand each other through story. We love to hear about each others lives through stories. These help us feel a) Not alone and b) connected to and actively participating in the world. We read comic books and other fantastical stories to give us a look at the possibilities available in our own lives. Christians know by reading the bible, we will get closer to God and understand God and this world better because we understand God's story which is ultimately our story.
Story has other amazing attributes. In Madeleine L'Engle's book WALKING ON WATER, she tells of a lecturer named Helen Mullen. She says "One day she told us about visiting the pediactric wards of hospitals and telling stories to the children, many of whom were in severe pain. But while the children were listening to stories, they did not feel the pain." HOW???? What is it about story that can heal or refocus the way the body behaves?
When Jesus asks us to believe in him, he is asking us to trust him. Trust is having faith that someone else knows your story better than you. Instead of a "choose your own adventure" you are submitting your life to the mystery. You are laying your control down and saying "I am not sure what the next page will bring but I know it will be far more interesting than what I was going to write." It is courageous and worthwhile because God is the master storyteller and we are his pen. He will write his greatest story with us. Trust the story.
I think that the reason story is like medicine is because it is so connected to the being of God. The first action God made was creation through the act of speaking. He spoke the world into existence. God is the Master Artist and the greatest storyteller. When we connect with God through story, we are one step closer to him. When we allow God to write our stories with us, we are allowing him to work fully and thus we will receive his benefits; forgiveness, healing, redemption, goodness, satisfaction and renewal as it says in Psalm 103. Let us be storytellers by getting out of the way. Let us let God write our masterpiece. Creation is hard work but through God all things are possible because we aren't doing it all, he is. Let's let go and let God and see what mysterious creation will happen. Who knows, maybe our story will help to heal the world.
Why is story so fundamental and so important? It seems as if we were hard-wired for story. God is a God of relationship and story is at the heart of relationship. We understand each other through story. We love to hear about each others lives through stories. These help us feel a) Not alone and b) connected to and actively participating in the world. We read comic books and other fantastical stories to give us a look at the possibilities available in our own lives. Christians know by reading the bible, we will get closer to God and understand God and this world better because we understand God's story which is ultimately our story.
Story has other amazing attributes. In Madeleine L'Engle's book WALKING ON WATER, she tells of a lecturer named Helen Mullen. She says "One day she told us about visiting the pediactric wards of hospitals and telling stories to the children, many of whom were in severe pain. But while the children were listening to stories, they did not feel the pain." HOW???? What is it about story that can heal or refocus the way the body behaves?
When Jesus asks us to believe in him, he is asking us to trust him. Trust is having faith that someone else knows your story better than you. Instead of a "choose your own adventure" you are submitting your life to the mystery. You are laying your control down and saying "I am not sure what the next page will bring but I know it will be far more interesting than what I was going to write." It is courageous and worthwhile because God is the master storyteller and we are his pen. He will write his greatest story with us. Trust the story.
I think that the reason story is like medicine is because it is so connected to the being of God. The first action God made was creation through the act of speaking. He spoke the world into existence. God is the Master Artist and the greatest storyteller. When we connect with God through story, we are one step closer to him. When we allow God to write our stories with us, we are allowing him to work fully and thus we will receive his benefits; forgiveness, healing, redemption, goodness, satisfaction and renewal as it says in Psalm 103. Let us be storytellers by getting out of the way. Let us let God write our masterpiece. Creation is hard work but through God all things are possible because we aren't doing it all, he is. Let's let go and let God and see what mysterious creation will happen. Who knows, maybe our story will help to heal the world.
Friday, September 2, 2011
Measurement Systems and the Decline of Higher Ed
For those of you who are academics or work in higher ed, the title might make you gasp, I know. For those of you who aren't you might see a rather boring title to a blog article. Either way I think the future of higher education is getting to a tipping point and it needs to be addressed. I think that we need to look at how higher education is using measurement systems because how they perceive these metrics could potentially affect the growth or decline of a college or university in the future.
First, let me say I am not against measures being used in higher education. Measurement systems offer the faculty and the institution a way to get a pulse on the classroom, teaching methods, student's learning, teacher's relative effectiveness and a host of other great things to aid the institution in offering quality and consistency in its classes. It also benefits the student teacher relationship. The rubric becomes a more effective way of grading and thus, if a grade is disputed it provides both teacher and student a more clarified perspective on how the grade given came about. Peer review, student evaluations, and outside reviews offer unique perspectives that a rubric cannot always offer. With measurements, you get more of a complete picture of what is happening in the training and how the development of programs will continue to move forward with consistency and quality.
The problem some institutions are facing right now is how they apply these standards of measures and there are varying philosophies on this. Some institutions and even accreditation bodies use metrics and measures as the main way one can determine teaching effectiveness, learning, and consistency. Other institutions hardly use metrics at all, and resort to an apprentice/rabbinical model. In this model, the teacher is considered master and the student's grades and quality of teaching is assessed only by the master teacher without any system of measurement besides life experience. On a personal note, I prefer the apprentice model simply because I work in the arts and at the end of the day, even if a student has shown excellence in all their rubric based criteria, they still might not be an effective artist. The arts are subjective and often take other artists to comment on quality of student work. This is my bias...but there is a bigger concept that the former institutions should take into account when it comes to measures.
Institutions that are wrapped up in systems of measures are often more concerned with how they are measuring the quality of the programs than they are with the quality of the programs. This means that teachers and instructors are spending less time teaching and instructing and more time measuring the way in which they are teaching. It also means that the institution has a greater control over the way a teacher teaches, because they can look at the measures and make determinations or suggestions for changes in curricula or approach. This can potentially begin to infringe on a professor's academic freedom.
I do not believe there is a single institution out there that would ever purposefully invade a professors academic freedom and I believe that most if not all institutions who are strict when it comes to metrics think that they are creating the highest level of education possible. But it is true that metrics only tell a part of the story. They can not assess, rapport, creativity, connection to material, teaching style, learning style, artistry, thought structure, and the list goes on and on.
Let me also be clear that although I prefer the apprenticeship/rabbinical model, it has been used for literally thousands of years with great success, I don't believe that we should abandon all measurement for that model. I believe there needs to be a balance between methods. Institutions need to higher good teachers and then trust them to teach good students. The teachers should be interested in keeping their teaching and the students learning accountable to some level of measurement. We need to know how one comes to an A or a B- and at the same time we need to know if somebody is ready to move on from the Fundamental classes to the higher level classes. Only an apprentice style can truly show the latter, especially if the material is subjective. However, now in most institutions it is the grade, anything above a C- in most places that should get a student passed on to the next level. No one ever really asks the professor "Even though Billy got a B- in class, is he really ready for section 2 of this course?". That never happens. I wonder why? what are we really trying to do in Higher ed? Teach or just push bodies through the system?
In our current economy (and with a potential of the economy not returning to what it was but perhaps changing to something altogether different), people start scrutinizing higher education because it costs a lot of money to become a student and, in many professions, the payback for the degree is not that substantial. Incoming students are going to want to be able to get their degree in as little time as it takes...more bang for the buck.
Students are more interested in being employable than in having a well-rounded education. I promise that most students and parents would agree this is true and in fact I will go a step further and say that most students and parents think employable and well-rounded education go hand in hand. Unfortunately, many institutions do not think this. Academics value academia and education for education's sake. I am not saying this is bad. Being well-educated does help with many facets of life. But in our current climate the student wants to be employable and our aim as teachers should be to make them highly employable by teaching them to be excellent in their skill or craft. Measures can bog this down and create an academic process out of something that should be as simple as training someone well. Students will stop putting up with this in time...if time is money and they feel like a professor or an institution is wasting their time then they will go somewhere else.
What does all this mean and how does it relate to the decline of higher ed? I am not proposing higher ed will go away completely, but it might have to have serious reform. Let's take theatre. I could see students demanding an education that is practical and makes them good actors who are capable and proficient at getting hired. There might be non-accredited schools or conglomerates of teaching studios that just train the students and if they do it well, they might get a really great reputation. This reputation could, in the future, be worth more than a standard education from an accredited college or institution. In fact we have a history in theatre of seeing studios and master teachers working at non-accredited bodies pumping out some of our nation's greatest actors. Sometimes we have seen far more success in this style than could ever be contributed to a single University or College. What is to stop this from happening to all studies and majors across all of higher-education.
We who are the keepers of higher ed have to get with the times. We need a wake-up call and we have to realize the needs of the students and meet those needs with excellence...and some panache. Then we will really be doing our jobs! I believe that a teacher or professor's first job should be just that, to teach. Measures should be put in place in order to aid the teaching and that is all. We need to balance our teaching methods so that we put the students first and THAT will make higher education very attractive. Truly it was why us teachers got into teaching in the first place...so we would have most of our time spent doing the thing we love...teaching.
First, let me say I am not against measures being used in higher education. Measurement systems offer the faculty and the institution a way to get a pulse on the classroom, teaching methods, student's learning, teacher's relative effectiveness and a host of other great things to aid the institution in offering quality and consistency in its classes. It also benefits the student teacher relationship. The rubric becomes a more effective way of grading and thus, if a grade is disputed it provides both teacher and student a more clarified perspective on how the grade given came about. Peer review, student evaluations, and outside reviews offer unique perspectives that a rubric cannot always offer. With measurements, you get more of a complete picture of what is happening in the training and how the development of programs will continue to move forward with consistency and quality.
The problem some institutions are facing right now is how they apply these standards of measures and there are varying philosophies on this. Some institutions and even accreditation bodies use metrics and measures as the main way one can determine teaching effectiveness, learning, and consistency. Other institutions hardly use metrics at all, and resort to an apprentice/rabbinical model. In this model, the teacher is considered master and the student's grades and quality of teaching is assessed only by the master teacher without any system of measurement besides life experience. On a personal note, I prefer the apprentice model simply because I work in the arts and at the end of the day, even if a student has shown excellence in all their rubric based criteria, they still might not be an effective artist. The arts are subjective and often take other artists to comment on quality of student work. This is my bias...but there is a bigger concept that the former institutions should take into account when it comes to measures.
Institutions that are wrapped up in systems of measures are often more concerned with how they are measuring the quality of the programs than they are with the quality of the programs. This means that teachers and instructors are spending less time teaching and instructing and more time measuring the way in which they are teaching. It also means that the institution has a greater control over the way a teacher teaches, because they can look at the measures and make determinations or suggestions for changes in curricula or approach. This can potentially begin to infringe on a professor's academic freedom.
I do not believe there is a single institution out there that would ever purposefully invade a professors academic freedom and I believe that most if not all institutions who are strict when it comes to metrics think that they are creating the highest level of education possible. But it is true that metrics only tell a part of the story. They can not assess, rapport, creativity, connection to material, teaching style, learning style, artistry, thought structure, and the list goes on and on.
Let me also be clear that although I prefer the apprenticeship/rabbinical model, it has been used for literally thousands of years with great success, I don't believe that we should abandon all measurement for that model. I believe there needs to be a balance between methods. Institutions need to higher good teachers and then trust them to teach good students. The teachers should be interested in keeping their teaching and the students learning accountable to some level of measurement. We need to know how one comes to an A or a B- and at the same time we need to know if somebody is ready to move on from the Fundamental classes to the higher level classes. Only an apprentice style can truly show the latter, especially if the material is subjective. However, now in most institutions it is the grade, anything above a C- in most places that should get a student passed on to the next level. No one ever really asks the professor "Even though Billy got a B- in class, is he really ready for section 2 of this course?". That never happens. I wonder why? what are we really trying to do in Higher ed? Teach or just push bodies through the system?
In our current economy (and with a potential of the economy not returning to what it was but perhaps changing to something altogether different), people start scrutinizing higher education because it costs a lot of money to become a student and, in many professions, the payback for the degree is not that substantial. Incoming students are going to want to be able to get their degree in as little time as it takes...more bang for the buck.
Students are more interested in being employable than in having a well-rounded education. I promise that most students and parents would agree this is true and in fact I will go a step further and say that most students and parents think employable and well-rounded education go hand in hand. Unfortunately, many institutions do not think this. Academics value academia and education for education's sake. I am not saying this is bad. Being well-educated does help with many facets of life. But in our current climate the student wants to be employable and our aim as teachers should be to make them highly employable by teaching them to be excellent in their skill or craft. Measures can bog this down and create an academic process out of something that should be as simple as training someone well. Students will stop putting up with this in time...if time is money and they feel like a professor or an institution is wasting their time then they will go somewhere else.
What does all this mean and how does it relate to the decline of higher ed? I am not proposing higher ed will go away completely, but it might have to have serious reform. Let's take theatre. I could see students demanding an education that is practical and makes them good actors who are capable and proficient at getting hired. There might be non-accredited schools or conglomerates of teaching studios that just train the students and if they do it well, they might get a really great reputation. This reputation could, in the future, be worth more than a standard education from an accredited college or institution. In fact we have a history in theatre of seeing studios and master teachers working at non-accredited bodies pumping out some of our nation's greatest actors. Sometimes we have seen far more success in this style than could ever be contributed to a single University or College. What is to stop this from happening to all studies and majors across all of higher-education.
We who are the keepers of higher ed have to get with the times. We need a wake-up call and we have to realize the needs of the students and meet those needs with excellence...and some panache. Then we will really be doing our jobs! I believe that a teacher or professor's first job should be just that, to teach. Measures should be put in place in order to aid the teaching and that is all. We need to balance our teaching methods so that we put the students first and THAT will make higher education very attractive. Truly it was why us teachers got into teaching in the first place...so we would have most of our time spent doing the thing we love...teaching.
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