Do Not Pass the Palette...Do Not Collect $200

I sit at my laptop gazing out the window...not sure how to write what the "committee in my head" has been mulling over the past few days...

I did something this week I rarely do...take PTO (paid time off) in winter...not just one, but TWO days...

Simply because I knew I needed it...the battery of this cordless screwdriver was running on mere fumes (do batteries have fumes?)...  Empty, joyless, trying to run with cement shoes on.  Barren...

And yet, something told me, "Don't waste these days..."  I guess you'll be hearing more about how valuable this time has been over a series of posts.  Who wants a long read, right?

First off, "My name is Denise F. and I'm an introvert..." (a parody of an AA meeting), so how do I recharge? 

Rather than list those ways...I'll have you see some of those ways in my posts over the next few days.

I went into my studio (our third bedroom that has desks and cupboards and supplies...but no bed) not really knowing where my time would take me.

We've been studying the book of Hebrews in church...parallel to that, another congregation is as well whose podcasts I download...Beth Tikkun Messianic Fellowship (which means "place of restoration").  I thought I would listen to the introduction to Hebrews from their pastor, L. Grant Luton.

He was using an analogy of an artist, an artist's palette, and a painting as a way to introduce what Hebrews is all about.  And my mind drifted back to a song/poem I had heard a long time ago as a teenager...called The Brush...the songwriter wrote it about his life:

 

Life started out like a canvas,
And God started painting on me,
But I took the paintbrush from Jesus,
And painted what I wished to see.

The colours I painted kept running,
And the objects were all out of size,
I had made a mess of my painting,
My way now seemed so unwise.

Then I gave my painting to Jesus,
All the colours, all the pieces so wrong.
In the markets of earth it was worthless,
But His blood made my painting belong.

He worked with no condemnation,
Never mentioned the mess I had made.
Then He dipped His brush in the rainbow,
And signed it, the price has been paid.

When I gave the brush back to Jesus,
When I gave the brush back to Him
He started all over life?s canvas to fill,
When I gave to Jesus the brush of my will.

 

Words and Music by Chuck Milhuff

 

And here is that songwriter and the song sung by Ben Speer of the Speer Family:

 



Now...I love today's praise and worship music, but the eloquency in these lyrics, along with its truth, moved me to tears.  And I'm finding that the richness of the words (and the truth they hold) in the older hymns that have survived centuries have a special way of nurturing me, as no modern songs can...like the one I featured in this post.  But I digress...

Have you ever seen a painter's palette?

It is messy, chaotic, seems to have no redeeming value, no meaning, not a place where paint wants to remain...

And yet, we are born into this world as fresh as brand new tubes of oil paint and we want to somehow go from the tube straight onto the canvas..to live a beautifully perfect painting of life.

But, as Pastor Luton illustrated...we cannot take a detour past the pallet...but our journey must go through the pallet.  God wants to squeeze us out and mix light with dark...and to us it looks like random chaos.

C. S. Lewis wrote in a letter dated December 20, 1943 (when England was in the middle of The Blitz, and they had no idea of the outcome):

The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's own or real life. The truth is, of course, what one calls interruptions are precisely one's real life. The life God is sending is one day at a time. What one calls one's real life becomes a phantom of one's imagination. This is what I see in moments of insight, but it's hard to see it all the time.
 

I don't know totally what my phantom "real" life was dreamed to be (but some things I would have gladly left out), but the fact is...my real life is the palette.  I've seen the chaos, the sin, the randomness, the heartache, the dark colors, the bright ones, the failures, the struggle to find meaning of it all at times, and how, when I take the paintbrush, I make things an even bigger mess...and some of the chaos is a necessary sign of the Painter's love.

So, what a blessing when God steps in and corrects you!
Mind you, don’t despise the discipline of Almighty God!
True, he wounds, but he also dresses the wound;
the same hand that hurts you, heals you.
From one disaster after another he delivers you;
no matter what the calamity, the evil can’t touch you— Job 5:17-18 (The Message)

God rescues the afflicted by their affliction;
He instructs them by their torment.  Job 36:15-16 (HCSB) 

But often, if I step back, I can see the hand of the Painter...other times His hand is still hidden...

But I trust the Painter...and how He can turn the mess into a masterpiece...

And the meaning of the palette is it is the history, the story behind it all...what it took for the Painter to make me His masterpiece.

And the theme of Hebrews is to persevere on the palette...the Painter knows what He is doing.

Quality time spent so far...and it might just be me...

...but I'm starting to see a little green...

To Tell the Truth

Well, I'm going to go back to Hebrews, the passage Pastor Craig spoke of this morning at church.



This old, deep, heavy book from the first century holds some amazing insight.  Again, in my march-to-the-beat-of-a-different-drummer style, I love this book.

Do you remember the TV game show, To Tell the Truth?  Three individuals claim to be the person described in an affidavit stating accomplishments, traits, occupations, or other significant detail about the one they are impersonating.  Here's a clip with Orville Redenbacher (it's terrible but I actually remember seeing this one...1972...check out the sideburns on Joe Garagiolo).  It is amazing no one knew who he was in 1972!

 [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSXGDwFD5WE]

As we went through Hebrews 2:14-18 today, I was thinking:  What if some of history's figures worshipped in the world's religions were guests on To Tell the Truth...say, Siddharta Gautama (the Buddha), Muhammed, and Joseph Smith...and add the one and only Jesus Christ...each claiming to be "the way to heaven"...what would that look like?

How would the affidavit read?  What would be the claims?  Some would be from this passage, I'm sure:

• I am God the Son who chose to become human, while God...the only way I could do a search and rescue of the sons of Abraham.


• I am God the Son who chose to become human, while God...the only way I could do a search and destroy the power of sin.


• I am God the Son who became in every way like all of you, so I could be a merciful and faithful high priest, yet maintaining all of my Divinity.


• I am God the Son who left the glory of heaven to go through the suffering and testing that the human race bears, so you would know that "he's been there; done that"...yet remaining as God and without sin.

If these four were convincing that they were the "real thing"...the way to heaven..., and you were a panelist......who would you vote for?

In the end, only One can attest to the claims we went through in Hebrews today...among many others.  First and foremost, the other two were already human...none BUT ONE chose to become human to be authentic in His relationship with us, to destroy the power sin has over our lives, and to die in a most hideous way...and live!

That's who I'm following~~~Jesus Christ.

So, as I ponder His mercies new every day...I'm so thankful He called me to Himself, came after me, and I am forever His.

 

When You Run Out of Fantastic...

We just started a series in the book of Hebrews at church...whoa, heavy duty...and definitely NOT a fast read...kind of like mining for precious treasures...or coal with a three-foot ceiling with a pick axe.  Not easy, but the effort is worth it!

Actually, Hebrews is one of my FAVORITE books...partly because of what I read long ago.  I remember a book I read as a young adult attending Mount Vernon Nazarene University...

When You Run Out of Fantastic...Persevere! by Reuben Welch...the best down-to-earth book on Hebrews I've ever read.   I had no idea Hebrews was so challenging...as this was my first real exposure.  But Reuben is down to earth...having heard him speak multiple times, one of his Reuben-isms he used often was, "I think I think..." and then would go on with his point.  But I digress...

Another way of saying the theme of Hebrews is:   when you run out of FANTASTIC...HANG ON!

 
I need to get that book out as we are going through this series and I'll be writing about it more about my journey on this blog.

About ten years ago, I worked for the vice president of manufacturing for a major printing company (before I changed careers).  When he walked enthusiastically around the plant and the corporate offices, people would say, "Hi Bob...how are you?"  His response was always, "FANTASTIC!"  He wanted to project a good attitude to those he led, whether he felt it or not.

Sometimes you do run out of FANTASTIC...and I'm sure that it's important to continue to show gratitude and praise to God before the world.

My fear is that we lose our authenticity, at least among each other in Christ, if we do not openly share about waning level of FANTASTIC, so we can encourage each other and lift each other up.

Reuben once wrote in his best-selling book, We Really Do Need Each Other,

We Christians can be awfully hard on each other,” said my friend Reuben Welch once. “We are especially hard on each other when it comes to the things that matter the most. And we can be just as hard on each other about the things that matter the least.”

....My friend Reuben once said that “Sure, people need Jesus, but most of the time, what they really need is for someone to be Jesus to them.”

Regardless...I know I have a High Priest with whom I can be authentic...without shame...without hesitancy...because of one of my favorite verses that just happens to be in Hebrews 4:15-16:

¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶ Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

So when I run out of FANTASTIC, I go to the throne...He understands...He's been there...and He's the road underneath my feet.  But sometimes we need to be Jesus with skin on to each other...isn't that what the Body is for?