Monday, April 16, 2012

Control and Creativity

The more I release control by entrusting the Lord with more and more of my life, the more creative and free I can be!  I become less dependent on other people's reactions and the more receptive to acknowledge and express how the Lord has made me and desired me to reflect in the world His glory He has given me.

Confidence comes through faith in God and in His transforming power.

But what, after all, is freedom?  Does freedom have limits?  Currently, it seems many would say that true freedom does not have boundaries.  "Boundaries" and "limitations" are dirty words and are intolerable in many settings.  This led me to search God's Word for what freedom means:

Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.  -Psalm 16:5-6

Such a statement about the beauty of boundaries strikes me because if anyone has the power and freedom to do literally anything, it's a king in a monarchy.

What, after all, is freedom?  Is it doing whatever you want?  Again, insight from king David:

I will always obey your law, for ever and ever.
I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.
I will speak of your statutes before kings and will not be put to shame,
for I delight in your commands because I love them.  -Psalm 119:44-47

From a Christian standpoint at least, living in freedom means having boundaries as well.  These are not boundaries that we make for ourselves to earn God's love, rather through faith in Jesus, God gives us His Spirit to follow His ways, and thus living in true freedom:

I [God] will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;
I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
-Ezekiel 36:26-27

That being said, living in freedom is anything but clean cut, formulaic, and being like a well oiled machine.  It's chaotic, messy, non-linear, and relational.  We take risks, we get paint on the canvas and on the carpet, and we invest in lives that are unpredictable.  Let us not hoard our mina because we fail to realize the true nature of our heavenly Father.

"Let us live and die with God.  Sufferings will be sweet and pleasant to us while we are with Him; and the greatest pleasures will be, without Him, a cruel punishment to us."
-Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God


Speaking of messy freedom and creativity, here are two audio/visual representations that echo and add to what I've shared  above.  Check the first one out here and the second one here!





















Sunday, April 1, 2012

Luther, Pascal, Aquinas

"The love of God does not find, but creates, that which is pleasing to it...Rather than seeking its own good, the love of God flows forth and bestows good." -Martin Luther

"Certainty of knowledge is a long way from security of life...By thinking, by clear and distinct thinking, it is possible - perhaps - to gain conceptual certainty, but never existential security."
-Blaise Pascal

"Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others complicated truths than merely to contemplate." -Thomas Aquinas