Sunsets and Canvas Messages

I was doing a bit of reading on the artistic movement  Expressionism recently and came across the quote below by the artist Edvard Munch. 


"I was walking along the road with two friends. The sun set. I felt a tinge of melancholy. Suddenly the sky became a bloody red. I stopped, leaned against the railing, dead tired. And I looked at the flaming clouds that hung like blood and a sword over the blue-black fjord and city. My friends walked on. I stood there, trembling with fright. And I felt a loud, unending scream piercing nature."

The experience above inspired the painting you see to your left (It is titled the scream). I found the quote fascinating  for a number of reasons but especially because of the parallels with Paul's thoughts in Romans 8:19-22

"For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope  that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.  For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now"

GOD Speaks in many ways, it is only a matter of who is listening. The sadness expressed in the work by Munch, the contorted individual in the foreground and the somber almost foreboding mood of the surrounds is a fitting picture of the state of mind of many people. It could easily be a poem by Sylvia Plath about her struggles with depression. 

Our separation from GOD has dire consequences for us as humans. We need a bridge to reconnect to purpose and meaning in life. We need a bridge, a better bridge than the one depicted in Munch's painting. A bridge we can't construct, but God can and he did when he sent Jesus. Jesus is the bridge we need to  reconnect with GOD and satisfy our deepest longings. 

Philosophy helped us to formulate the right questions, Psychology provides a framework for understanding our emotions and thoughts. Math, Physics and Engineering help us to build concepts, constructs and buildings to fence out the marauding thoughts of emptiness but in the end, like Munch we are still hearing the scream.

The prince of peace in a gentle voice says, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest".

I have Confidence in GOD,GOD has confidence in Me

I am overwhelmed by the thought that God has confidence in me. God believes in me! He permits me, even positions me to influence (lead) others. Reflecting on who I am, all my imperfections and frailties, I can do nothing else but pray for strength and humbly thank God for even thinking about me.

I am a leader in my home first and foremost, which means he has entrusted me with the privilege & responsibility of leading my wife. He has done this, knowing all He knows about me. If I complain about a kink in my armour, He asks, who makes all things? If I say I am weak, His strength is made perfect in my weakness.

How can I respond to such treatment, I respond by giving thanks. Gratefulness is often a lost art in our day of ultra-speed-living-eating, we don't stop to reflect enough and so we often don't express enough thanks to all the people who matter to us.

At the end of it all, I may never understand a number of the things GOD DOES, but I can confidently  trust WHO GOD IS (even if I am a figure-out-er at heart). This attitude is often the difference between: faith and frustration, confusion and clarity, growth and stagnation and between fruitfulness and busyness.

So today, I pause to say thanks to the LORD for trusting me to be and to do what counts. Thank you Jesus!