The Artisan Soul
Creating Your Life into a Work of Art
Masterpiece
March 22, 2020 • Mike Weaver
“When a life is a work of art, it is always more than simply an expression of ourselves. Life becomes a work of art when we live it not for ourselves but for others. We live and tell our story, and through it we carry the hope of the world.” Jesus turning water into the best wine is the work of his reflection of his essence. “The greatest art of an intersection of contrasts.” Jesus didn’t have to tell the people a miracle had happened, the quality of the product did it. God turns water into wine time and time again, the “water” being the quality of our ordinary lives.
Canvas
March 15, 2020 • Steve Brown
To experience happiness, craft your life into a work of art within God’s boundaries. Erwin McManus writes, “Every creative endeavor becomes a realization of both how limited and how unlimited we http://are...every medium carries within itself inherent limitations, and every artist comes with limitations. True creativity is not the outflow of a world without boundaries. The creative act is the genius of unleashing untapped potential and unseen beauty within the constraints and boundaries of the medium from which we choose to create” (The Artisan Soul, pp.145-146) The commandments of God are boundaries for our lives. Jesus taught that he did not come to abolish the commandments of God but to fulfill them. Jesus and the apostles fulfilled and deepened God’s Old Testament laws through their teachings and by embodying the law of love. The laws of God are boundaries within which we most flourish in life and experience authentic happiness in our relationships, accomplishments, and well-being. Take Away: Memorize the 10 Commandments and then pick one to understand more deeply, beginning with Luther’s Small Catechism.
Craft
March 8, 2020 • Mike Weaver
Paul was a tentmaker. Peter, James and John were fishermen. Jesus was a carpenter. Remarkably, Jesus became a common laborer and dedicated his life to a craft. What’s the best way I can do the most good? What is your “genius”? What is your unique talent? Where might you be considered, if you worked at it, the best in the world? Craft means strength.
Image
March 1, 2020 • Steve Brown
We transform invisible ideas into visible reality to unleash God’s love to others. Having been created as artisans in the image of God, Erwin McManus teaches that we transform the invisible into the visible. Everything that exists began as an idea in the imagination of someone’s mind, including our personal creation that began as an idea in the mind of God. An artist brings a piece of art into visible reality from the invisible imagination of the artist’s mind and we craft our lives into works of art by bringing what we can see only in our imaginations into the visible reality of how we live. BUT, as followers of Jesus, we do not create art or craft our lives into works of art only for our sake. We are primarily motivated by love for others to transform the images in our minds into visible reality so that others will have real and eternal life. It is therefore necessary that we strive to take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ and his command to love others as he has loved us. Next Step: Identify one idea that you have to serve, invite, or give to meet the hopes or hurts of another person; then transform that idea into visible reality.
Voice
February 16, 2020 • Steve Brown
We find our true voice in God’s voice. Our voice is the internal narrative that drives our thoughts, words, and actions. Our voice shapes our experience of the world. When our voice dwells in the voice of God, we begin to find our true and unique voice – our true story. We will struggle to fully live when we allow other voices to silence our own unique voices. Shame silences us. Grace invites us to boldly tell our unique story. God’s voice in us becomes our story that we offer the world. What story is God speaking through you? Next Step: Identify whether the voice that speaks most loudly in your internal narrative is God’s voice. If it is not God’s voice, work to disregard that voice and discover God’s voice in you. Begin and end each day this week answering this prayer question, Lord, what are you telling me about my story today?
Interpretation
February 23, 2020 • Mike Weaver
All of life is interpretation. It is through interpretation that we discover the truth. The word, theology, broken down is “Theos Logos”, literally “God words.” Theology is the process by which we interpret the work of God to discover the truth about God’s nature and involvement in our lives. “The power of the story of Job is in Job’s struggle through multiple interpretations of his life, to discover and embrace the true meaning of his suffering.” In order for us to create lives that are works of art, we must interpret it to discover the essence of what God is doing through us. “What is your interpretation of life?”
Soul
February 9, 2020 • Mike Weaver
McManus writes, “Art in its purest form is an extension of the soul...“God didn’t have to make everything he created good; everything he created was good because he made it.” Anyone who has a soul is an artist. There is no such thing as “artist/creative-types” and “non-creative types”. When we believe this, we spend our lives “admiring those who have the gift of creativity while seeing our role as simply celebrating their uniqueness.” We are all creative. “We breathe, therefore, we create.” The real question for all of us is, “Do we have the courage to express ourselves and create?” McManus writes, “To make our lives a creative act is to marry ourselves to risk and failure.” Courage is a matter of the heart, of the soul. If we want a different future, we need to create it. If we want to have a more fulfilling life, we need to create. We were born to create because we’ve been made in the image of the creative God.