Spirit of a New Project

Last week I posted from my notes on how we obsess on things.

I’ve been reading Artist in His Studio by Lieberman, which looks at those famous guys from a hundred years ago in France. Almost all had a few antiques around, notably the (then) recently publicized African sculptures and Japanese prints. They were struggling with how to get the raw underlying spirit of nature and people into their expressionistic works. Most were ceaseless fanatics in the studio with intense discipline to paint or sculpt. (Giacometti’s brother took molds from his pieces at night because he never stopped working on them).

I’ve been focused on a full scale version of a complex piece, bouncing from camera to computer to tape measure to projector to calculator and wondering about the efforts.

In our times of commuting, computing, and machine interface, have we lost the ability to search for underlying spiritual condition? In our screen time we may watch the modern art forms of TV or Movies. There’s lots of focus here on the results of underlying spiritual condition (CSI, Criminal minds, vampire, murder, celebrity fixation and reality shows). If we spend a lot of time on the web it seems really removed into a tech blizzard.

It is my hope that I can cap the statements about the car culture fixation with this work. It is a tough undertaking. This week I studied casting and assembly methods and did armature design on the new piece. I am prepping the “Boomer’s Nike” for a rubber mold which will allow me to make the major components. The size and logistics are an intense study. All the while the non technical side of my brain is mulling the spiritual understatement that should emanate from this big composition. Can it truly indicate the speed at which we hurl through our world of cars and screens? Is it worthy of the time and materials I will consume to make it full scale? Should I be doing more human or nature focused pieces that speak more to the spirit? What is the spirit of our day? Is our machine interface and constant analysis making us spiritually cold? Can a car centric form speak to the spiritual condition? Could this be the end of the Car Impact work? It always seems like the last piece I’ll ever make when I get into a big project like this, and it should. How else can one create his best from his utmost?

Passion & Time

Here is a fun clip done from the GR show recently. I had a ball showing this piece, and it prompts me to think about real passion and time utilization. (click the pic after reading)

At a show or event you can obsess with your fellow buffs about authenticity, production statistics, industry lore, current trends, and of course- grouse about, and critique the stuff on either side of your position! Yes, organized events draw out the worship in great depth and magnitude. And these last two statements apply universally to any modern obsession; sports, guns, music, art, clothes, wine, you name it! We get so knowledgeable that we start to be indignant to the novice. Yes we can now compare how we rate on the "Snobometer" for all our passions, "On cars he is a 6, on beer a 7, but the guitar thing he is off the meter at 12!" How many passions can one person actually hold at once? And more importantly, what do all these hours of contemplation supplant in our lives?

In each pursuit we achieve goals, we acquire something new, we crest a hill only to note the mountain we couldn't see just beyond our conquest. On some items we finally realize the "minisculity" of our knowledge and capability and give up the striving. Or we back off burned out. At the end of a life what will remain? What did we find fulfilling? God designed each one of us with certain bents and passions that align with His way for us. Many poor substitutes supplant these perfect walks with Him where there is incredible peace and a pure satisfaction of life lived by the moment in the way we were created to be, with God. If you have never experienced this flow, ask Him to show it to you. At the end of the day the life of true joy is worth so much more than all the striving. For me it is doing a big sculpture for people to experience.

What's it for you?
Thanks-Tj

Ain't over till.......

Well it is true! It ain't over till the paperwork is done, or in this case the documentation. I'm now in the task of trying to get good clean images of this project put together in some fashion that tells the story concisely. But what a job! I'm spending a lot of my time and the time of other great artisans like Rob White on Photo shop, and Steve Goolian on Video to package the visuals from this installation. It's huge. The location was so cluttered that we are having to remove tons of junk from the backgrounds of the photos to let the piece come through. Funny how you never quite envision all the work it takes to do a project of this scale. But I'm slogging through and getting ready to use the documentation for new project applications. Sure will be nice to get back to the studio for some sculpture!

Aftermath

I new this day would come. There are pieces of the Car Chase all over the yard, the pad isn’t prepped for re-installation because I’ve found no cheap source for earth moving equipment and my budget is spent. The hunt is over, I ache from all the loading and moving and I’m not on the stage any more. Worse yet I need to generate basic operational funds so I will have to seek some kind of work, sheesh. I’ve got some big molds to do and the studio needs a remake to get it organized again, and it’s pretty cold outside. Winter is approaching, and I’m doing the Edmond Fitzgerald with an old guitar and a slide to commemorate the season.
Life is not a disaster but quite a bit more stark than last month in the sunshine. A lot of documentation to do to get the “CarChase” story usable for marketing efforts. The dazzle is over, the news teams are gone, the wind blows some debris across the drive and we plod forward into increasingly chilly winds.

The Dark side – Art and Auto Decline

Each night as evening fell I would turn on my lights and prepare for the evening crowd. Flicker has sported some beautiful picts of the flying bugs at dusk and the car splashed in lamplight and back lit with the fantastic projection show going on behind me on the four story building. The white forms loom beautifully from the darkness. One evening I was explaining the Car Chase and the phrase “BugSwarm from off shore” perked the interest of a former Buick builder from Lansing. “You must hate foreign cars as much as I do” he spouted. “Hate for competition doesn’t help you. If they are better, you need to step up.” I responded. “We built great cars at Buick” he blustered. Not noticing his rage building, I blundered into his sore spot. “They’re out dated styling only appeals to old people.”I noted. He took off on a rant about how great General Motors was and how people don’t get it. My tongue was sharpened now and the thrust lunge at the heart was too easy. “Yea, but your bankrupt.” I might as well have called his mother a whore. “F--- You” He threw down his hands and walked a fast circle, and paused eight feet away, lurching back in my direction, “JUST * # F– YOU” and stormed off.

I spent the rest of the evening in remorse for having goaded him and wondering if he would be back with a hammer. I forget that some folks cannot be philosophical about what is happening in Michigan and are very tender about their beloved industrial institutions; the big three. I thought to myself :“This is why many here refer to east Michigan as the Dark side” It Rained about midnight and we shut down.

Running the Good Race

Art-Competition: It is almost an oxymoron. Who does an artist compete against besides himself? Maybe those that are technique driven or a few anal detail chasers view others as competitors, but the endeavor of making art is inherently not about one person pitted against another. Yet, striving for a prize is the driver, and the public vote determines the winners in the ArtPrize.

An interesting dilemma comes. I have been told by some pretty fine artists that I should not speak so much about my work. It should be interpreted by each viewer and the mysteries within it should remain to be discovered. But what about those who haven't a handle on art in general and are desperately seeking clues so they can apply their minds to what is in front of them?
For these masses of folks I talked incessantly until I had it honed to a 15 second elevator speech. The relief and delight espoused continuously from the viewers encouraged me to do more for them.
And I think a decent composition prompted them to ask and the cliff notes helped them vote. I stayed in the top 25 from the beginning of the tally. It is an honor to talk art with the public and, even more so, to be acknowledged by them for a creation.
The Artprize folks will not reveal how close I came to the top 10. Was I #11 by 2 votes? Or #25 removed by hundreds from #24? I guess I’ll never know. But like the apostle Paul I hope I ran the race with integrity, pressing toward the mark with all diligence.
Like Love- better to have tried and lost than never to have tried at all. But also like love- Why not me? Am I bad? Not desirable? Silly? Nah, just an artist pitted against himself. I’ll get em next time.

Car Chase ends in....

Well, It was really unbelievable that I was in the running for thousands in prize money. We went to Cathedral square for the announcement of the top ten. A channel 8 news guy did a short interview with me , we were early to check out the site and they were just setting up. The big money guy stepped to the pedestal and was very brief. No hoopla just the list of ten. “And now, in alphabetical order,--Bang it was over right then for me, before he said a word. The first name posted started with D. My balloon air squealed away ending in the traditional flutter and the rest of the program was irrelevant. We stood up as soon as the names were done and walked off.
Now comes the long week with no prospects other than having to dismantle this monstrous work.

Many condolences came in and “Top 25 from 1262 is still pretty good.” but the fun is gone now. I have to started figuring my way out of the economic hole I’ve dug. And how to capitalize on what I have done. Most of the ten I agree with so at least the public is not so bad at judging art in Grand Rapids.
Great fun while it lasted.
Tj

Video interview

Interview on WZZM13 done on Tuesday, airing tonight, since Tj remained in the top 25 all through the first week of voting on ArtPrize! Announcement of Top 10 is tonight at 6pm!!!
If you missed them, he also did an interview at the beginning of ArtPrize with the Grand Rapids press, seen on mlive.com, and had a spot in the Holland Sentinel when ArtPrize opened.
Great press for great work!

Final Round

Yesterday was a beautiful cool sunny fall day and the traffic at the BOB was steady. Fans came dragging their friends to see my piece. Many were trying to see the whole show before issuing their votes. We had 1000 cards printed initially and then put the number on the back with a sticker, they were gone in the first 2 days. I estimate we had printed another 2000 little slips with the shot of the piece and the number to make it easy for them to vote. People shot pics like paparatzi. Friends in clumps, families, kids with the artist, you name it. This piece is now all over facebook. "Hey, worth a pic it's worth a vote!" I'd quip handing them a slip. On the third day I called home and said "Print more and get them down here, I'll be out by 3". Some were chopped funny and I stuffed these in a different pocket, trying to only issue the best ones. My printer is now blinking error notes and needs a hundred bucks worth of cyan powder. By last night at 9:30 I had handed out every slip of paper I had,(even the funny ones) and was down to left over stickers with only the number on it. They went on peoples jackets, coffee cups, and other artists cards. About 50 voters took them.

My videographer came by and we got some fantastic night time footage. I rolled home at 1AM thrilled with the news that I was in the top 25.


Today it is a press barrage. We set up interviews with radio and news papers and a photo session with the piece. As it happens a news team had come by documenting childrens' reactions to the show while I was fixing the bugs. They did an up close personal interview and it was apparently used on TV. Link

The announcement is tonight in GR and we are all going. What big fun to compete and try to show the public my work.
Thanks for dropping by! Vote Car Chase. "Oh Yea, sure, it's made of foam with my own formula of polymer modified concrete .... bla bla Bla...."
Tj

ArtPrize Respite

It is Raining in Grand Rapids, thank God. I have a day to chill a bit after the 24/7 build, install and tending of the Car Chase for ArtPrize. What a marathon. I’m used to all nighters to hit a deadline making a piece, I had planed for a brutal installation schedule, but it had not occurred to me how much tending the public venue would require. The BOB parking lot is the hottest spot in town. That’s great for the voting. I’m running in the top 25 and people really seem to enjoy the piece. But there is an acrobatic performance next to me and 2500 people pack in and want to use my piece as a set of bleachers. I get up on a lamp pole base4 times a day to monitor and spook nearby people yelling: “PLEASE do not climb on the sculpture.” The parking lot has food and drink booths including beer, so the crowd lasts well after midnight. They kick over my lamps, and set their kids on it for a picture. But I hand out number cards and tell the story over and over, and they vote for me. 5 strait days of this routine is now behind me with just a few days before round one is over.

Had a couple of bugs come down in the wind storm last night but it still looks pretty good. Oh to win a prize and recoup some expenses!

Friends in from out of town so we will enjoy a lunch at the BOB. The owner stops by, he is doing well and I am a major attraction. He quips: “Hey tj, mind if I stand on your sculpture?” Thanks Greg. More next time from ArtPrize in GR.
TJ.

Installed !

I’m sitting on a folding chair in the parking lot next to the Car Chase installation. I’ve been remiss in my writing because I’ve had a solid two weeks of non stop finishing, packing, hauling, unloading, installing and general figuring out how to do this. The results are gratifying though. Lots of thumbs up comments on the work. Old guys remember their dad having a Hudson, kids love the cartoonish car, curious ladies see the figures in the waves and exclaim. And everyone has a question. What year is that? How long did it take? What is it made of? How did you come up with this idea.

I re itterate my thesis on the impact of the auto on our society over and over as they ask. It is a lot of fun to work the crowd.

Will it be worth the effort? Some how it already is. This event has forced me to finish a major composition.

Come on down and Vote 24611!

See you at the BOB,

Tj

www.Sculpturebytj.com

Made the paper!

In the Holland Sentinel over the weekend:
http://www.hollandsentinel.com/lifestyle/x1699586162/ArtPrize-inspires-global-competition
Though, a couple of things to clarify:
the PhotoShop stuff is done by someone else (Rob White), and the Hudson is not being chased by birds, rather Bugs!
Still, good press!

How to vote for for Car Chase

Update on ArtPrize -voting for Tj and Car Chase!
During ArtPrize, there will be two ways to vote for Car Chase: Online or by text message.

• To vote online, you can search for Tj Aitken or "Car Chase" and vote right on Tj's profile.
• To vote by text message, send votes to 878787
• To vote on Tj's piece, send in the message: vote24611 (vote up) vote24610 (vote down)
• Note that your 5 digit code (representing Tj's work) must have the word "vote" in front of it when it is sent in the text message.
• Why the up vote and down vote? During Week 1, you can vote an artist up or down. ArtPrize designed voting this way knowing that an artist with the most votes up may be the most popular, but the artist with the most votes up AND down may be the most talked about, thought about and controversial work in the event. Both the popular and controversial works are important to the conversation around ArtPrize.
• See instructions for all the different ways to vote.
• Come to The B.O.B. to enjoy all the art, food, drink, and fun! (Party starts Sept. 23 8pm)

Making Waves For ArtPrize

It is Saturday and, of course, I feel way behind. I Took a few moments to go to the Cruise with the hot rod Lincoln last weekend, and do a little promotion for the Car Chase. The bug on the roof attracted a lot of attention and I worked the beer tent handing out cards and explaining the voting for ArtPrize. But it rained a lot.
The studio this week was all cement, pigments and broken glass as the waves for around the Hudson got set in stone. Next is the cable suspension system for the bugs. That has to go up next weekend. It is a joy to be sculpting but a project of this magnitude is also nerve racking. My studio assistant Skye Hopper shot some pics for me. See you In Grand Rapids at the BOB!

Getting ready to install pieces of Car Chase

Sites for registering to vote in ArtPrize are now posted and it's all FREE! See the ArtPrize website for info.

Keep up with TJ's progress here, on facebook, or his website: www.SculptureByTj.com

Chasing the Car Chase

Jambing on "Car Chase" in the studio to get the big installation done for ArtPrize and sudenly I'm derailed. A material supplier that I depend on for polymer concrete has gone out of business closing down production on my best formula. (Stress...Stresss) I spent a week on the net and phone and a trip to Chicago to find solutions. New trials, samples purchased, lots of blocks in a row with different materials. Man I 'm now a stucko lab. Tests finally yielded a suitable replacement but sheesh, what tension! Now I 'm back to carving and closing in on the forms.

Thanks a lot you bankers who caused our economic state, you just caused me a weeks work.

But the art continues. How do you stone a Hudson? Very carefully, and with polymer modified concrete! Skye Hopper, my studio assistant comes in occassionally to help. More next week as we get ready to stone all the waves.

All the best.

Tj

SculptureByTj.com

ArtPrize update -voting info

ArtPrize update: Voter registration is FREE!!!
Voting Anyone 16 years of age or older who registers in person at the ArtPrize event can vote. You cannot vote without registering at the event. There will be no charge for voter registration.
How to register
Attendees will be required to present a valid government issued ID in person at a registration station
ID can be drivers license, other state ID or passport
Pre-register on artprize.org (coming Sept 14) and save time activating your voter status at the event
There will be voter registration stations throughout the city September 23-October 7

Car Chase is coming to The B.O.B. for ArtPrize!

Car Chase will be installed at The B.O.B., 20 Monroe Ave., Grand Rapids (across from the Van Andel arena) for the Art Prize Competition. It features
figures, flying VW bugs and a Hudson. Tj's flailing, splashing figures seem to have been
impacted by this huge car's momentum. The swarm of suspended bugs harbors a
second threat. Through this moment in time, frozen in stone, Aitken speaks to our current cultural dilemma with the automobile.
Art Prize brings the Holland artist to Grand Rapids as 10 most voter-favored works win prize money. Simple public voter registration will be at select Grand Rapids locations. Voting is online. The city wide competition runs September 23 to October 10.

Art Openings in West Michigan May28th and May 29th

I stumbled on a couple of regional competitions so I went ahead and entered some pieces recently. I was Juried into both shows, and you can see works any time this summer. First was the Muskegan Art Museum West Mi show. My piece “Impacted Male” is now there along with a lot of great work. The folks in Muskegan have a great “salon” that is an open event to the public on Thursdays each month. This corresponded with the drop off date for show entries , so I went. What a great party, and lots of work of all sorts to look at. My hat is off to this organization they really do a great job in the visual arts.
The festival group in Grand Rapids does a competition at the old museum that the GRAM moved out of, as well as a tent full of booths. I did a booth last year to raise awareness in the region. This year four of my works will be shown in the Museum show. The “Impacted Female” model and “Harbinger” are life sized studies from my “Major Impact” installation. A new piece, which I’m personally pleased with, “Portrait of Sarah”: is in as well. This is a super casting in polymer modified cement that has very nice color, all in the cement and not on it. The 4th piece is the Road Rocket bronze casting. It is nice to have the local representation At this writing I have almost all my pieces on display in 5 shows in 4 cities in 3 states. Just a little hectic! But the big news is the ArtPrize competition in Grand Rapids. More about this whopping opportunity next time.
For all the news check my web site SculpyureByTj.com
Thanks
Tj<

Installing Public Art

The art of installing art in public is a challenge. There are all the potential dangers of abuse, vandalism, injury and of course accompanying law suits. I was recently invited to show works in the City of Troy Ohio. Some truly unabashed American doers in that town with a down to earth, get it done attitude. My trip to Troy, Ohio to put three pieces on their streets was refreshing. I left in the we hours of Saturday morning and arrived before ten. T-The city crew and I labored to mount my works on big concrete blocks and slabs that they had prepared. Then we transported these to the city square where other works were waiting for an evening reception. The Mayor spoke, and recognition was paid and a good time was had by all. But then came the surprise activity that I was amazed at.
Their plan was to distribute the 30 pieces around town on Saturday Night so they would all be ready for viewing Sunday morning for the church goers. The town has a round about at the center with a fountain and lots of traffic going through the intersection. The crew started at dark picking up each sculpture with a HiLow and cruising through the Saturday night traffic to the installation locations! A great big Bug bouncing down the road with headlights flashing all around is a thing to behold! And riding a HiLow to do this is even better!

The guys did a great job and by morning all the works were out there, with the stanchion chains, in front of many businesses.
Hats off to the City of Troy- an Supporters of sculpture and get it done people!

Anger & Embarrassment Tempered with Self Pity

When we screw up:
These three, they slowly float by each other circumspect and leering. Just as our minds migrate from one of these to another in our states of distress.  They come with us often. We bring them separately and we bring them all together when we have done badly.  They can be intertwined because they are the most common of our interactions with others and with our spirit.  They can crowd out real communication.

“Don’t Let the sun set on your anger” - Not easy.
  
“There‘s no condemnation in Christ Jesus” -But we are still embarrassed for our gaffs. 

 “Oh woe is me, I’m such a….. (fill in the blank)” 

Now we introspect hoping God will notice, but then what?  Self pity is, at least, not focused on others but it is still in the way of a communication with God.

         What’s in Your Worship?

Persistence of Memmory

We are the sum total of our memories, so we seem to think. What has happened to us is what our consciousness is built around. But when we come to the task of spiritual interaction there is an eternal soul that is barely scratched by the time we have spent here in this life. Our creation by a perfect Creator to interact with Him in an absolutely unique way is usually not what comes to mind when we think of our past.

Some of us bear the tremendous scars of abuse, rejection, ridicule. Some have had incredible love, and fantastic wealth of friendship, happiness or an endeavor, and lost it. Some times we dwell on the most minuscule happening at some tender age imagining every other person on the planet sees this incident written all over us.

We dwell on these things. The stuff from our past comes floating in to our consciousness like little familiar ghosts at all manner of odd times. Whether good or bad it can consume an inordinate amount of time. Some dwell exclusively here and descend into self medication for relief.

If we come to worship we come to an eternal being, with the power to recreate us in less of an instant than it took Him to consider our original creation. One who has an infinite number of patterns available for our make-over. One who resides in the midst of only purity. If we come to Him at all, bearing scars from our past, he is pleased. If we come and ask for release from these impediments to comprehending the eternal destiny which we can enter into, He hears.

But we look to the past. If we bend backwards looking behind, from an upside down perspective, out of balance, we eventually fall over. We are simply not designed to be in that position.

God can release us from any level of past and allow us to look forward with increasing hope and expectation… if we ask. When these memories slip in to our worship we need to bring them to Him who has reconciled all of it, and count it our strength to have been tested.

What is in Your Worship?

essays and sculpture By Tj Aitken - SculptureByTj.com

Analytic Camouflage

How bright we can be.

Yes in our modern society we have come to understand psychology, to grasp the lessons of history and weigh current events against the past plodding of our forefathers. And our physical science –mercy, we have mastery of so much biology that we can do a heart transplant, and calculate the requirements to send a man to the moon and bring him back again. Yes the modern man is so much more sophisticated than before. We no longer merely cultivate gardens, we have landscape architects for beauty and our mass production agriculture has GPS controlled nutrient application and yield calculation. We can gather knowledge at the touch of a button on the web. And we can find out the wind speed of an approaching storm.

All this capability can make us so full of ourselves. We can come to the master of all that we are learning about and try our mind functions on Him. We can assess the odds of an event taking place and try to figure out where the resources most likely can or will come from. We can apply all we know to the point of missing all that He is. Our capacity to think is the same as those who came before us, but the subjects for us to apply them to are many more, and better organized. What does this do to our relationship to Him? Depends on what you do. You can analyze the position of God for eternity and never discover a thing that was not known by Adam. He experienced Him before the nasty little introduction of our very self-awareness that makes us think we can be like God. All the assessment in the world is merely another form of fig leaf. In the cool of the morning when we go to walk with Him and try to converse with Him we better leave it all behind. Lest He call out: “(your name) Where are you?”

What’s in your Worship?

Thanks,

Tj

See the rest of the series at SculptureByTj.com

Dual Mindedness

One side pokes out at the space with high contrast but has no mouth. The other side is caged in, mouth open but no depth of statement can happen with that mouth. We swivel on our axis and can easily turn from one side to the other.

When we come seeking God, He may speak to us, but our double nature holds us from accepting His word. What is our true response to His prompting? We often are in denial that we even have a problem with what God is trying to tell us. We avoid His truths if they don’t fit our past experience, or if they seem too simple or hurtful. We want it our way, but we hope it’s His way, and faced with the difference we can’t decide, so we vacillate.

How often we just slowly wander away from Him in a moment of his speaking. We may not even realize that we are in denial of His position. Our double mindedness prevents us from going deeper, and we stay at our current level or slide backwards, .......... to reticent to accept his communication.

What’s in Your Worship?

See the rest of the series at SculptureByTj.com

Big Monkey

What do you call an 800 pound gorilla? …. Sir.

That is the old joke. We all carry a certain number of monkeys. They are things that must get done. Some larger than others. Just respect for them, and their magnitude, does not deal with them. Business management texts tell us to beware what monkeys we actually accept on our shoulders and which ones we hand off to others. They seem imperative to success and drive us, consuming our mind. They are dangerous, putting careers and objectives in peril if not satisfied. Watching a big one we note a quick twitch of that head and a focused grunt in our direction bodes a possible lashing out of those powerful limbs.
What if this sucker jumped on me?!

We know the scene of an ape’s tirade, so violent and noisy. So how do you carry your personal monkeys? Is there a particularly big one at the moment? Like all the rest of the creatures in this world these things are predictable and can be subjugated by the man or woman who grasps the difference between them and us. All these were made to populate the world that you and I inhabit. But we were created to cultivate this place. We were first given the task of naming these beasts, then tending them. When we come to our maker we bring with us our tendency to be concerned for our various tasks, but they should not rule us. They should not drive the spiritual relationship. Each of these will pass, along with our concern for them, even the 800 pounders. And yet our time with God will remain.

Do not let the primates of your life run you, or you risk skipping the real power for their tending.

What’s in your Worship?

Green Envy

Envy, just green with it. That is how we find ourselves so often. It will sometimes drive us to spread gossip about others, a bit of sabotage for the competition. Oh, the tainted and spoiled spirit that can manifest from our comparison to others. And oddly enough it goes on in every single strata of society, from the least to the mighty, from the toddler to the old miser. Rock stars not happy with a recording selling three million when another sells ten. Have you ever gone into prayer with a supplication for more, born of a mere desire to compete? What debts have we accumulated simply because we must keep up with the Jones?
 
Pride and envy can produce a wagging tongue that is as green as the bacteria that inhabit a stagnant swamp. And if it is rolling off our tongue imagine just how much must be on the mind, and how deep the furrows in the cortex that these impulses travel.
 
 Proverbs 26:22 The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man's inmost parts.
26:20 Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down.

What’s in your worship?

Spanking Clean

You know the room, it has white carpet, and white furniture possibly even with plastic covers. The walls are immaculate with carefully selected decorations. Yes, everything is perfectly dust free and practically sanitized like an operating room. Oddly enough this space is labeled a living room but so seldom does anyone go there that it bears no evidence of ever being lived in. Yes indeed it is spanking clean, by design and upkeep.

We often believe we must have a place like this to receive guests properly. After all, what would the neighbors say? Have you ever mowed the lawn twice so the criss-cross pattern is perfect? Have you spent time putting the contents of a cupboard into order by size? Have you contributed more money to your hair stylist than to, say, a missionary? What happens when you want to receive the utmost of visitation? How can you prepare to receive the Holy Spirit of God and enter into worship in spirit and truth? The truth of the matter is, you will never scrub it clean enough, never get it straight and orderly enough, never ever produce an orderly organized self to God almighty! There is simply no cleanser no disinfectant that can provide a space appropriate for Him. Those who must chase dirt until the last molecule is purged do so in an endless futility. Prepare yourself for a visit from God? How? We cannot create a bubble of nice, when we live under a smokestack spewing soot all day. So we must just give in, come to the Christ who was provided for just this condition we hate. This state of unclean, that we can neither sponge or vacuum, replace or organize. It is simply tainted by the nature of our being here in this fallen world. Cleanliness is next to sinfulness, because the perfection of a loving God can not be approximated so, why try?
He has offered you a free coupon for a complete make-over, and frankly, you will never achieve it yourself. So take the deal. Give up your personal preparation, it’ll never be ready.
What’s in Your Worship?

The Shielded Heart.

We shield our hearts from everything, we defend our pumping blood and the deepest cores of our very lives from contact with anything that could go too deep and cause us harm. Any extraction is too costly, so don’t risk it, better to keep this defended.

Our Spouses and children certainly belong there. But so do our extended families, and our neighbors too, according to the commandment, if we are to love. But we fill our hearts with the distractions of our world as well. Slowly we come to love our home, our car, our ball team, our careers, our work. Soon our entire heart can be so full of stuff that we want no more.

If we have experienced loss, we know heart break and heart ache. This experience builds calluses. “ Let’s not let that happen again. Man, too painful”. As we have a few bad experiences we begin to shield this heart from anything that might pierce, and only let in what we know to be safe. Then we focus on those nice safe ones. Or worse case, we grow so callous that we harbor evil in there and have no room for compassion or any extension toward another soul who may be presented to us with a need. And most of us can become so mesmerized by our mundane loves that there is no real space for the Holy Spirit of God. We come to our efforts of worship, hearts too filled with the rest to extend it, to open it to our loving father God who knows all about how these other things have affected us. It takes a concerted effort to unchain the shield we construct and let Him in there to heal and strengthen our life’s blood. It is so difficult to remember that He is the source of this very life that courses through at the pumping of the organ.

What’s in Your Worship?