Cool Daddio- from the OverHeads series

Are we cool enough? Are we under control, suave and debonair? Do we rank with the “in” crowd far above the losers? Man, it is in our style, our dress, our talk, our crowd. This awareness comes in puberty and in many, just takes over everything. Some of us never grow out of it’s domination. We must be cool. And the act of pointing out the low status of another is like counting coo. It stimulates us and we believe we have achieved through these petty comments. The concern about cool is probably the greatest distraction from a spiritual relationship ever conceived. It is elusive, fleeting, and indefinable, making it only achievable by those who truly believe they have it, confirmed by those around them aspiring to be there themselves.

Cool can be a perfect mockery to the condition of righteousness, and a tremendous impediment to the ability to get close to a God who knows better of you and your state. The grand illusion of being cool deceives so many. Just look at the celebrity worship that the entertainment, and fashion industries receive. Yes we can be so cool, but what is in our worship? Can we be cool before God? Fat chance, and if we are focused on cool, then God is not in our consciousness. When we are cool our heart is cool, and warmth of heart is required to come to the presence of God. Ever loose your cool to get before God? But that brings another topic:

What’s in your worship? Dude

"What's in Your Worship?" a new series of sculpture

“OverHeads” speak to our modern American tribal worship rituals. These car interior components (over head consoles) have morphed into tribal mask like objects based on the spiritual conditions that the components may suggest. I use shredded tires that I collect from the highways, and upholstery fabrics from local industries. Meditation on the suggested spiritual states drove decisions for design of these pieces. Each has a message and it’s own story. “What’s in Your Worship?” is the headline for showing these ritual-like objects. Each posting will have the meditations on one of these in the series. Several have animated presentations that go with them. Here is the first:

Golden Calf-

We revert to what we are familiar with under duress, or when we don’t know what else to do. Consider the people who said: Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses, we don't know what has happened to him." (Exodus 32:2)

They had seen the plagues in Egypt, they had experienced the Passover, they had witnessed the red sea part, and passed through. Now after a short wait for the spiritual message they give up and revert to what they knew, demanding that Aaron the priest make them a golden calf to worship.

What do you revel in? What gods go before you in your daily life? Cars, homes, Sports, Movies? We revert so quickly. Our rote response kicks in and we do what is practically a reflex. So often these things are so far from our real spiritual encounters that it is a wonder that the ten commandments survived at all.

In reviews of actual police shoot-outs where officers died, they found pockets full of casings. Precious seconds had been wasted in the heat of battle to pick up the empties, not because it was a good idea but because that is what they had done in training! (This practice was changed.) So what have you conditioned yourself to do? What is on your training table?

When we come to worship, and we seek to worship in spirit and truth, we may be under pressure that we are not used to. It may take longer to get it started than we had thought or planned for. The rest of our life enters in at these points and we revert to what we know. “We don’t know what became of that guy who went up the mountain, let’s do what we always did.”

What’s in your worship?

Thanks,

Tj SculptureByTj.com