One of my FAVORITE pass times EVER has got to be art. Whether it’s sketching or water coloring or even writing in a font that I think is fancy, art has always been what God has used to bring me peace.
The sad thing is that it took me sooooo so long to realize that.
I’ve always loved drawing for as long as I can remember and when I was younger I wanted so desperately to grow up and become a famous artist (we can see that isn’t exactly where God is taking me at the moment). In middle school, I went through this time period where I only drew cartoon characters. Ya know, bugs bunny, mike wazowski, sonic the hedgehog (oh yes). That was my jam, and I made sure my friends all had at least one piece of my artwork. Middle school was also a time where I wasn’t so on fire for Jesus. He had a place in my heart and I knew I love Him and He loves me, but that was the extent of our relationship. No quiet times, no daily prayer, just chillin with Him on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings (church).
Now once I entered high school and I grew closer and closer to the Lord, I distanced from art. It became something that I just did over the summer or when I felt like I could make time for it. I was far too involved in my clubs, grades, friends, and sports to even think about art, and although I became more intimate with Jesus, I found myself getting stressed out more and more. I assumed it was just because I never took time for myself, so every day when I had a minute, I would ask God to take away my stress or show me how or just anything. After praying about it, I never really thought about solving my stress. I let it carry and build and I didn’t change anything. It became one of my biggest problems spiritually, and boy do I still struggle with it more than ever senior year.
But there was one day in my junior year that I couldn’t take my stress anymore, so I decided to pick up my pencil again. Of course, I wasn’t too interested in my old cartoon character ways, I had matured maybe a little in my art skills and we had an empty room at my house that I had declared my “art room,” so I went for it. I taped pieces of paper in a random shape, got my pencils and charcoals and went to work. It was when I really developed my passion for living a servant-leadership based life, so I drew what came out from my heart.
“Oh, how beautiful are the feet that GO.”
Once I had finished, I had such a newfound sense of peace in my soul. It’s crazy to describe, but in those moments of expressing my love for Jesus with my art and hands, He showed me that all I had to do was have an open heart, let my guard down, and He would bring me peace.
Psalm 29:11 says, “The Lord gives strength to His people; the Lord blesses His people with peace.”
Although it seems like something so minuscule, the truth is, God has blessed everyone with a hobby, whether its singing, playing the guitar, drawing, a sport, writing- whatever you like to do. And sometimes, He uses that very thing that you love to do so much to speak to you. He can bring you peace. He can speak to you. He can spark new ideas in you. The possibilities are endless. All we have to do is be willing to listen with an open heart. I feel so blessed that God has given me the passion for art that I have, and I feel even more blessed that that’s how God wants to speak to me and comfort me. The closer I got to Him, the more I was able to see Him using me and working in the things around me, and that’s just one small cool thing about the Lord. 
