redefining beauty

I was taught in school so much about the beauty of composition. I now have a hungry eye, scanning this lovely world for any chance occasion with a object or two sitting ever so perfectly in a space. Jon Hiebert once told me “You can borrow my camera yes…only if you promise to take pictures of people.” It is perhaps better that I did not have a camera this whole time, as many shots would be like my professors’ above, boring a majority of the audience that happens across my blogs. The people that go to modern museum and say “A black paint splatter on Mona Lisa? I could have painted this!” I find the picture above absolutely beautiful, but I know some people probably don’t. Though I hate to be a conformist, I must to some degree to get along with people. We must all give each other grace and try to understand each other, less this world would be full of wars and violence…hmmm…check out my last blog. Back to beauty and composition. I am learning that I cannot survive on composition alone, both in life and in art. I must add depths of love, of human struggle and emotion, of the reality of life. I am on this trip, traveling the world, given the chance to have a taste of so many cultures and peoples this year. I love it, but it has also been one of the driest seasons of my life. I don’t pity it, I can only ask what God is teaching me through it.
Still don’t understand? Here’s an example. In Thembeni, Swaziland, it seemed as if I was in a great place of ministry, it looked perfect from the outside. Me, 30 or so orphans, and three Gogo’s (grandmas) spending a month in a hut in the Swazi bush. No where else on this race would I had thought I would be more alive than in these conditions. No where else on this race was I further from being alive. I and you must be careful in making life decisions based on how it looks, the composition; for true life, the beautiful life is found in so much more. Five oranges arranged perfectly to please the eye on a 4×6 framed foto, will in time still rot or be eaten in real life.

My pursuit is a life that will be beautiful on paper and off.