A Call for Christians to Create

Formational book review by Megan

4/5 stars

“… art matters because people matter. Art gives a voice to people who can’t be heard. Art shapes the way we see the world and one another. Art matters because a beautiful painting or sculpture can transform us in a way nothing else can. It’s not just that art can brighten our spirits (which it can.) A good work of art can excite or incite, provoke or soothe, inspire or settle.”

Alastair Gordon is a Christian artist based in the UK. He teaches at the Leith School of Art and has been the artist in residence for the City and Guilds of London Art School.  Why Art Matters starts out with a simple, yet profound declaration that art matters because people matter and people are made in God’s image.

Reading as a Disciple

“Times have changed and most people today think differently from our ancestors, who regarded beauty as inseparable from its parallel qualities of goodness, justice and truth.”

Gordon makes the distinction that only God is able to make something from nothing; we create from what He has already created. The first thing we read in the Bible is God being creative. It’s easy to sort of bypass the creation story without realizing how it shows that God was creative. There was a process to His creating.

“When we read about how God created the universe there is a sense of rhythm, order and intuition, with God making the sky and seas on the second day and then returning to them on day five to enhance them with birds and fish. The same could be said of the night and day he makes on day one, as he returns on day four to make the sun and moon to enrich his earlier creation.”

Gordon references the creation of Middle-earth in the Silmarillion to talk about how art can be redeemed. Tolkien writes that Iluvatar, the creator, sings His world into being and invites his creation to join in the song and create with him. Instead of joining in the harmony, Melkor sings a discordant song and brings disharmony into creation. “We might expect Iluvatar to cancel out Melkor’s disruptive music, to press rewind and start again. Yet he allows the discordant melody to play out and into creation. Even more, he interweaves the discordant melody with the music of creation to allow a tension between harmony and corruption.” The same can be said of art today as it is made by broken-image bearers. As believers we might be tempted to wonder why God allows evil to continue but we miss God’s big picture and the redemption of His image. Art helps us see His beauty and the redemption of that beauty with its parallel qualities.

Reading Communally

“To me, this is one of the greatest mysteries of creation: how God continues to create all things and how he might use us to do so.”

It is such a beautiful thought that we continue to work with God as part of His creation. The creation story is important to show the partnership of God with His creation, Adam. Adam was part of the creation process as he was tasked with naming. Think of an artist creating a beautiful sculpture and then asks you to come up with the title, it’s quite the honor.  The creative partnership with God in the Bible continued in the making of the temple as well. “Simply to make something well is to reflect the character of God.” Since we are each created in the image of God, we reflect some aspect of His character in what we do or say, or in the context, create. It is important to be in community to better catch glimpses of God’s character in His creation. “We are an accumulation of the stories we read and the stories we tell…” and our story, or testimony, matters to the community of believers.

Final Thoughts

Why Art Matters was a simple and well laid out book for all readers. As a linear thinker, I found it incredibly easy to follow and comprehend. Gordon gave great examples and stories that enhanced his points. While he is a painter, he did a good job of not ignoring the other arts, he did reference many painters or his experience painting but it did not downplay other arts. I would recommend this book to anyone but especially to those that are in the arts already.

Other good books on art and faith:

Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith by Russ Ramsey (highly recommend)

The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henry Nouwen (Love this book)

Art and Faith: A Theology of Making by Makoto Fujimura (on my To Be Read pile)

Discovering God Through the Arts: How We Can Grow Closer to God by Appreciating Beauty and Creativity by Terry Glaspey (on my TBR pile)

Early on this trip, while on the Port Townsend to Sea-Tac airport bus, I took this photo. I sent it to a friend in Australia whom it reminded me of. We did photo club together. We lived and worked together in Ternopil. 

Then while on the Kingston-Edmonds ferry I remembered a conversation I had with a friend who lives in Gig Harbor, WA. We had a conversation on that same ferry a few months ago, and I looked at where we sat then. So I sent him a voice message.  We met in Europe and worked together in various places in YWAM. On that trip, we were on our way to see two other friends who were in Edmonds. One now lives in Edmonds, the other… globally. We all used to work together in Europe.

While at the Frankfurt airport, I sent a message to Megan about a “photo memory” that popped up on my phone from six years ago. It was Benaiah in our old apartment in Ternopil. I met Megan in Ukraine, and we worked together in Ternopil, now in Discovery Bay. I also sent a voice message to a friend who lives in Arizona.  We met and worked together in Kyiv.

At my hotel in Krakow, I sent a funny engineering fail video from my room to a friend of mine. I thought he would like that the vent fan for the stove went directly into the cupboard above. Just into the cupboard… He liked it like I thought he would. We work together at YWAM DB… Though he is moving soon. 

I’m currently on a train from Krakow to Przemesl (pronounced Pshemesh) texting an old friend who lives in Rzeszów (pronounced Zheshov), which is a stop along the way. We met and worked together in Ternopil. We are excited about maybe seeing each other at a friend’s wedding later in the year in Sweden. Our mutual dear friend lives in Sweden now. We both (literally) lived and worked with her in Ternopil.

I’m about to go across the border and jump in a car with friends whom I met and worked with in Ternopil. More than friends really. I’m really looking forward to our chat. 

Then I will arrive as a guest in the town I thought I would always call home. And in some ways it is home. But alone, without my family, it isn’t. I will be going to the sauna with friends tomorrow though, so it still is. 

My bags are full of things and food for friends… And even rocks from my hometown, picked by my parents on “Robert’s Hill”, for a friend’s aquarium. He, his wife and their pets live in Kyiv. We met in Ternopil before either of us were married.

Where is home? No longer is our stuff spread over 2 continents and 6 locations. It’s at least all in one state now… Except my bass guitar. It’s still in Ternopil. Should I get it now, or when the war ends? But now, so many of our friends, that were so close, are spread over states, countries and continents. 

Home is where you are rooted. I think sometimes home for Megan and I will be a longing and an ache. Home is learning contentment while rooting on ferries, in staff meetings, in Bible studies, and in the One who seems to be the central figure in all our rooting.  

How Your Brain’s Secret Circuit Affects Your Relationships- And How You Can Activate It

Formational book review by Megan

3/5 Stars

“My hope with The Joy Switch book is 1. You learn to recognize whether your relational circuit is working, 2. If not, you know how to use the Joy Switch to turn it back on, and 3. You learn relational habits to sustain the relational circuit so it works at its optimal range.” 

Author Chris Coursey lays out at the beginning his goal in writing the book. A very simple and direct goal, easy to lay out a plan and give direction for the reader. The book is directed at such an important part of our lives, relationships. We can’t avoid it. We have some kind of relationship with our family, spouses, co-workers and store clerks. Coursey says “The areas in our brain that govern character, emotions, and identity are all relational.” So that should make understanding and building/maintaining right relationships a priority, and as the book goes on to say, its hard to stay relational when joy levels drop.

Reading as a Disciple

“Once our relational brain shifts to enemy mode with God, we lose all ability to joyfully interact with another relational being. […] Approaching God when we are in enemy mode is an excellent way to ensure God feels distant because our brain is in the worst possible position for a relational interaction.”

The author Chris Coursey, is a believer and talks about faith and how it relates to joy and relationships throughout the book. I found it interesting when he said “Thinking about pain and hurts is a great way to remain in nonrelational mode with people and with God.”  It is so easy to do, we can replay events and words that hurt us in our minds and we struggle to find God in a situation. Coursey goes on to talk about how to stay relational with God and find His peace in these moments. Just as God instructed the Israelites to put up monuments to his faithfulness, we should also have times of looking back on when we enjoyed God’s presence and faithfulness and when we experienced His peace. Though our circumstances may not change, we will be in a better position to hear from God and accept His peace. 

Reading Communally

“Isolation makes unsuspecting victims more vulnerable.”

Again, this book was not just about us and our own ability to turn our Joy Switch on but also how to help others come back to a place of joy. Community and our connection to the body of Christ is critical. Experiencing negative emotions is normal and inevitable, what the book covers is how to help us return to joy quickly and this also applies to our relationship with others. If we are able to return to a place of joy, then we can help others. We can often get stuck though and struggle to return to joy. “This ‘stuckness’ leads to the loss of abilities we often take for granted, such as the ability to stay loving, kind, thoughtful, caring, considerate, compassionate, and generous. It means the unwelcome appearance of personality distortions like narcissism… Narcissism, the inability to shift out of enemy mode and process shame, robs joy and keeps people stuck in enemy mode.” Those are all things we easily experience on a bad day. This is also where addictions come into place because we are looking for joy substitutes, artificial, nonrelational replacements for comfort. 

The majority of the book is devoted to the habits that Coursey believes will help us return to joy quickly: connection, appreciation, rest and Shalom. 

Final Thoughts

The book is packed with great thoughts and insight into staying relational with others and God. What I enjoyed was the questions and practices offered at the end of each chapter. It’s a great way to keep the book practical and helpful. 

What I don’t like is that the book bordered on providing a cure or step-by-step approach to be joyful. While Coursey mentions very briefly that is not what this book is for, by using the imagery of a switch, he oversimplifies something to just being joyful or not. He mentions “there is a progression with different ‘relational shades’ like colors on a color wheel.” And later he says “the relational circuit is like a dimmer switch with shades of relational mode.” But it is too hard to not get the idea of on/off out of your mind when it’s in the title of the book and there is a big picture of a switch on the cover. This is misleading for the reader. There is no “cure” to doing away with negative emotions and remain in some euphoric state of joy. What Coursey does not go into is how negative emotions are not necessarily a bad evil thing, (Jesus experienced them,) but they are a normal part of being human. God can provide a way for us to navigate those seasons in our lives when the negative emotions seem to outweigh the joy. This book should be seen as only a small step or tool to navigating those seasons, not the cure. 

Other Chris Coursey books

The 4 Habits of Joy-Filled Marriages- we recommend this book!

The 4 Habits of Joy-Filled People

The 4 Habits of Raising Joy-Filled Kids

The Burden and Gift of Living

Formational Book Review by Megan

4/5 Stars

“… your life is a good gift from a loving God,”

This is the whole premise of the book. Our lives are a gift. Many people suffer from anxiety, depression, grief, or mental illness at some point in their lives or perhaps daily. But despite all the “fixes” the world has to offer, the choice is still ours to get out of bed in the morning. Living out our days by getting out of bed is actually a powerful testimony to our neighbors and friends to the goodness of God. 

Reading as a Disciple

“Suffering… is a normal part of human life.” 

There is a lie in the Christian world that when we become Christians, our lives should become beautiful and easy and that we shouldn’t suffer. 

There is nothing in the Bible to support that thought. Noble goes on to say, “tremendous suffering is the normal experience of being in this world. Beauty and love and joy are normal, too, but so is suffering.” Becoming a Christian does not give you immunity to the normal hardships of life. While this can be disappointing to some, it is also a gift. Noble argues that we give testimony to the goodness of God by simply getting out of bed and continuing with our lives no matter how difficult our circumstances may be. 

“When we act on that goodness by rising out of bed… we honor God and His creation, and we testify to our family, to our neighbors, and to our friends of His goodness. This act is worship.” 

We often look to the glorified testimony but we already have a testimony by continuing in God’s faithfulness. I should not seek out something special to “add” to my testimony but to simply live out my days as a disciple, faithfully honoring God. 

“Your task is not to feel right but to act right.”

In this day and age, there is an emphasis on feelings and validating people’s emotions but sometimes we have to continue on without the feelings. Noble says, “Sometimes that’s what peace is: an action based on faith and not an emotional state.” 

Reading Pastorally 

“You are not your own, and neither is your suffering.”

“This is hard teaching, but we are responsible for one another, even when we are in the midst of great suffering and sorrow.”

One of my favorite things of the book is the emphasis on community and being with others. We need the body of Christ, we are not little islands that make up a body, we are united in Christ and therefore to each other. The world tells us we can overcome our problems with XYZ and all we have to do is decide what is best for us but again, the problem here is that it falls back on us. Our desire to “fix ourselves” falls to us and therefore if we are not changed by whatever we decide to do, it’s our fault. This is island thinking.  

This book challenged me to not only be more open with my own sufferings but also to not shy away from others who are suffering. For many people, it feels awkward and uncomfortable to walk with someone in their pain. We don’t know what to do. “Let me know if you need anything” is the best we can muster. After reading this book, I am looking for ways to not shy away from negative emotions in others but to be that hand or person that will simply make sure you are not alone. 

“Enduring requires you to share your suffering with others.” 

“By knowing together as the body of Christ, we can both exhort and comfort one another when we feel irrational guilt and shame.” 

Final thoughts

“Usefulness is the sole criterion for the World, the Flesh, or the Devil. But you have no use value to God. You can’t. There is nothing He needs. You can’t cease being useful to God because you were never useful to begin with. That’s not why He created you, and its not why He continues to sustain your existence in the world. His creation of you was gratuitous, prodigal. He made you just because He loves you and for his own good pleasure.” 

We were created for God’s own pleasure.  There is nothing we can do to change his love for us, to diminish it or increase it, His love just is. And with that, we can continue to testify to His unconditional, never-ending love for everyone by simply getting out of bed and living out our days, especially when we don’t feel like it. 

Other Alan Noble books:

You Are Not Your Own

Disruptive Witness

We take our Christmas cards seriously. We thought you would like a little glimpse into how and why we put so much effort into these hand-carved and stamped cards that only come once a year.

Hand Carved by Megan

A few years back, I (Lance) got Megan a stamp making kit. I am always looking at ways to let her creativity shine. Sometimes I fail (ie. modeling clay, custom embosser…), but sometimes I get it absolutely right. Stamp making was one of those right things. As I am typing, I just asked Megan why she likes stamp making. This is her answer verbatim, “I don’t know, it is kind of fun. It is a forgiving kind of craft that you don’t have to get perfect. It really fights my perfectionism. Though after being in Ukraine, I can’t call myself a perfectionist anymore.” There you go!

Cards over the years

Her stamp making took a new turn a few years ago with the introduction of stamping our own Christmas cards. Megan and I both had a time where we desired a deeper understanding of Church history, what it means to be human and God’s story in it all coupled with a desire to live out a more intentional faith. One of those outlets took the form of the Christmas card. For us, this process has been a rewarding reflection on the different aspects of the world changing event of Jesus’ birth. From the design and carving, to the mailing, we try to keep it all in the spirit of reflection, joy, and generosity.

Christmas Card 2023, Mary

Megan started researching our Mary card soon after last Christmas (Joseph). But the real production started in September. She actually had the design in mind way earlier, however, life and Solomiya’s introduction to our family put a pause on the process. Previous years, Megan took inspiration for the covers of the cards based on pictures she found on the internet. This year, she could not find a suitable picture of Mary and so necessity became the mother of invention or rather the mother of Jesus stamp. Here at Discovery Bay, they have a lot of props for plays and production. With this in mind she said to me, “Lance, I want to get a robe and you take a picture of me. I will make a carving from that.” I thought she was a bit crazy at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. I had to do some research on how to create something for Megan to use as a template, but eventually we found a suitable solution. I did all the digital work and Megan was able to transfer that to paper then on to the stamp.

The Little Ditty Inside

What is a Christmas card without a little ditty of a message? Last year for our Joseph card we added lyrics from a Porters Gate song called “Wood and Nails.” It is a beautiful song that has deep significance for both of us. I figured this year we would do something similar, but Megan thought because she was doing the stamp… I had to write a poem. I would not call myself a poet and my poems sometime seem more like a Dr. Seuss book than reflective poetry. But, I agreed, it would be an interesting challenge. I find, my ability to deeply think about something is assisted and honed by the constraint of cadence and rhyme. Thus “Questions to Mary” was the result. I wouldn’t call it amazing, but it was an interesting project. The full poem is in another blog post.

We so enjoyed this years card making. Megan has already been cooking up ideas for the next one actually. We hope that this little glimpse into our process and pondering has been a blessing for you. Blessings on your Christmas season!