You Are No Accident

We came home from church the other day and my daughter, who is about to turn 5, began to jump around singing a song she had just heard at church at the top of her lungs. “Shout for the victory, Shout for the bumble-bees, Shout!” Needless to say, the actual words of the song are a little different, but I liked her version, too.


Sometimes we forget what a wonderful world we live in and how intricately and perfectly designed it all is. So many times we just run out the door, jump in our cars, and hurry off to work, without taking a moment to appreciate the grandeur that surrounds us. At least I know I do that. But if we go by what the Bible says, we have no excuse because “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork (Ps 19:1).” Later on it says that nature speaks all languages, so anyone can know that there is a God… IF you’re willing to listen to what is being shouted all around you.

Do you realize that even if you locked yourself away in the darkest, most remote dungeon in the world, you would still have the most amazing testament of a loving Creator with you, declaring His existence? That’s right, it’s YOU. The crown jewel of all of creation, nothing screams the existence of God like you do. Who can explain the perfection of the human eye, or the complexity of the ear? Who can design a more efficient mechanism than the human heart or build a more cooperative, powerful structure than the skeletal system? And it all works together perfectly, sustaining its self, growing, adapting, and healing its self. What engineering! What intricate planning and flawless execution to make… you!

How can you think that He doesn’t care?

Saint Augustine said, “People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.” Don’t miss out on the best there is, don’t forget to see what a wonder you are. As an artist, I know, you don’t make a masterpiece and fail to become attached. You are God’s masterpiece, and He is VERY attached to you.

So, join in with the choir of Creation and declare the glory of God. Live as His handiwork. SHOUT! Shout how much He loves you! Shout how amazing He is! Shout… even for the little bumble-bees.

You Can't Keep A Good Man Down

We had to get on to our 2-year-old, Lex, the other day, so we stuck him in Time Out. I tried to take advantage of him being in one place for a few minutes to scratch out a very quick sketch. What is it with these kids that won’t sit still? Well, as you can tell from his expression (hopefully), it didn’t really have the impact on him that we were going for. Somehow he got his hands on a book and enjoyed a nice, leisurely browse through the pretty pictures. He seems to be able to be content in just about any situation. And this is quite frustrating for his parents who are trying to discipline him as he appears to be impervious to our efforts to make him uncomfortable and sorry for his actions. Granted, maybe I should have taken away the book if I really wanted him to be miserable in Time Out, but it just wouldn’t have made any difference, really.


“Oh, you took away my book? That’s okay. Wow! Look how fascinating my HAND just became!”

Lex can entertain himself for hours with nothing at all. He plays with his toes, digs in his belly-button, watches his hands move in the light, or sings silly songs to himself (which he finds exceptionally hilarious). According to my mom, he gets all of this honestly. Apparently, I was similarly endowed with the ability to occupy my little brain as a child.

Although this is often a humorous frustration to me as a parent sometime, I think it is something from which we can all learn.

Didn’t Paul say in Philippians 4:11 “…for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.” And again, when writing his first letter to his pupil, Timothy, “Now godliness with contentment is great gain.” (I Tim 6:6)

Just think about how frustrating it must be to those forces that try to defeat us and distract us from our purpose, those enemies who try to shut us down and make us miserable and forget our Faith, when, instead of losing our minds and weeping and wailing while thrashing on the floor, we find a way to be content. How irritating it must be when we are reduced to a situation of having absolutely nothing, yet we continue to console ourselves by clasping our hands together in prayer, take walks in the sunshine, hug our loved ones close, and laugh and sing and praise our generous Savior even when there are no indicators that we will ever be saved.

“Oh, you took away my house? That’s okay. Wow! Look how fascinating my family just became!”
“Oh, you took away my health? That’s okay. Wow! What great insight into the suffering of Christ!”
“Oh, you took away my loved one? That’s okay. Wow! Look what comfort, look what peace in the Holy Ghost! Why, it’s beyond understanding, isn’t it?”

You know what, Lex? That frustrating contentment thing that you do so well, you keep it up. I think it may prove to be a pretty powerful tool after all.

You Gotta Try This

Have you ever been to Sam’s Club or Publix just to grab a snack from the little ladies handing out food samples? I know I have. I’ll grab an empty shopping cart and stick some ambiguous item in the basket just to give me an excuse to circle around them 2 or 3 times. Like I’m going to buy plantains! What? I just love those little white-haired ladies and their tooth-pick skewered, delectable delicacies. After all, do you know a better way to get people to buy your product? I’ll admit that I have been walking directly toward Chick-fil-A and pulled a 180 when the little guy handed me a bite of Bourbon Chicken. When your product is good, you don’t mind sharing a little bit here and there. Let the sample speak for its self. If you really believe in it, you’ll know that a taste will never be enough. It just leaves them wanting more.

We humans love to share our experiences. It’s like the experience just isn’t the same unless you have someone you can share it with. “Here, you’ve gotta try this. It’s the best pie you’ve ever put in your mouth.” Or have you ever done this? “Here taste this, isn’t that disgusting or what?” And we do it! Good or bad, if someone offers us a taste, we’ll try it, most of the time.

Here’s the thing, the sample sells. It's the most honest form of advertisement that there is. You can't hide behind flashy packaging if the sample tastes nasty. And your packaging can be dull and boring, but if the sample is good enough, it will still sell.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve been blessed beyond measure. My life has been jam packed with the goodness, the grace, the forgiveness, the faithfulness, the joy, and the love of God. But am I keeping it all to myself? Every time I come into contact with someone they should walk away with a sample of what I have. I should be passing out bite-sized samples of goodness, grace, forgiveness, joy, and love all the time. But is that what I’m doing?

The fact is, whether you want to admit it or not, this is exactly what happens all the time. No matter what, every time you encounter another human being you pass a sample of yourself over and walk away. Honest. Now, the question is, what are you giving away? Are you giving away rich, flavorful tastes of Heaven, or bland, tasteless, rotten attitude? Face it, you’re going to share yourself with someone and they are definitely going to taste it. Let’s make sure we keep plenty of the good stuff on hand, shall we? And it better be real, too, because you can't fake a sample.

Psalm 34:8
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him.

And if you ever want the best cheeseburger in Nashville, be sure to visit Rotier’s on Elliston Place.

The Great Unknown

 Acts 17:22-23 (NKJV)

22) Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 23) for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you

For living in the Information Age, I’m amazed at how clueless I can feel. Surrounded by all of this data, I think I’m just getting dumber. I mean, I look around and think, “Wow. Look at all the stuff I don’t know.” I think most people don’t know where they really are or where they’re really going. We’re just stumbling around in the dark. And you know where that leaves you? That’s right. Lost.

For generations, men and women have been raised in a world surrounded by awesome displays of a brilliant Creator. Everywhere you look, creation screams the existence of a grand Maker. We have stood for ages before these wonders with eyes wide, jaws dropped, scratching our heads, but to us they just remained monuments to an unknown god. So, we claw at the edges, stretch as wide as we can and gather up what we can reach. We crumple it all down, wad it together, fold it up nice and neatly. We roll it up real tight and try to squeeze it into our tiny, tiny skulls. And then, we give it names like Science, Creativity, Reason, and Love. But we don’t realize is that these are all just parts, pieces, and fragments of a greater Whole, a God that is still… unknown.

Luckily for us, this God is not happy with being the “Great Unknown”. He desires to make Himself KNOWN more than anything else. So, He did what we couldn’t do. He stretched His arms wide and reached across the immeasurable distance of Himself and gathered Himself up at the corners. He crumpled Himself down, wadded Himself up, folded it all up nice and neatly. He rolled all Himself up real tight and squeezed into a tiny, tiny baby. Then, He gave Himself a name and lived a life that fully made known the unknown God. That was Jesus.

And now, you know.

So, no matter what you’re looking for, stumbling around in the dark, try looking there. You might learn something amazing. You just might find out that you’re not as lost as you thought you were. And you know where that leaves you? That’s right. Found.

You're Weird

That’s right. You. Reading this blog. You’re weird. But then again, the weirdest guy I know is writing this blog. And thank God, too! Aren’t you glad that we aren’t all the SAME? I am just amazed at how diverse, how ornate, how random and intricate the people of this world are. My wife was telling me about a couple she overheard at her work arguing about whether there were any truly ugly people in the world. Well, I’ll tell you. There are ugly people in this world. I know. I’ve seen them. But that’s okay. If they weren’t ugly, the rest of us wouldn’t be so dog-gone good looking. Okay, okay, I may be pushing my luck to call myself good looking. But my point is I know some ugly people. And I know some ugly people who use it in a powerful way. That’s right. They put people off guard and break down defenses and refuse to intimidate. They make me laugh until I cry and make my head spin to think that what is so beautiful inside makes me totally forget how ugly they are on the outside. And I know some pretty people that make me want to gag sometimes. Nuff said.

The point is this, we’re different. We’re weird. We all are. But it’s how we handle our differences that make us either great or annoying.

There are some who try to use differences to separate, to alienate, and to segregate. (Can I get an Amen?) They use their uniqueness as a means of leverage in order to get more for themselves, claiming victim status because of how they are made. Can you believe that? As if your peculiarity makes you a victim. Please. That’s a blessing, baby. It’s our different opinions, our different perspectives that give us value. Your uniqueness was given to you as a clue to what you can CONTRIBUTE not what you are entitled to GET. Use your weird self to educate, to elevate, and to liberate! (Ah – hah!) As my friend Scott says, “Don’t hate. Cooperate.”

Here's what another weird guy had to say about it.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Beginning

Hello, Internet World!

Well, I guess I'm starting a blog. I have held firm to my stance against Facebook, Myspace and the Twitter-minded people. I still think they are self-indulgent, colassal wastes of time... usually. However, I have begun to soften somewhat of late, and I feel I can comprimise by starting a blog that may or may not be worth reading. I hope that I am not drifting into the Dark Side with this, but here goes anyways.

I hope to write about the things that I love the most in this life, God, Family, Friends and of course Art. As a Christian, I am commanded to bring glory to my Creator in all that I do. So, I will try to not bore you with meaningless insights into ME, but rather to use the abundant blessings that God has surrounded me with to show how great He is. Mostly I'll be posting some sketches that I have been working on from my sketch book (because I feel like Creativity and God are so closely related. He is the great Creator, after all, right?), snippets of my family life (because being a husband and a dad is probably my favorite blessing), concerns and observations that I have been mulling over in my little skull (because I hope to inspire thought and conversation, NOT because I think I have it all figured out), and quotes from the Bible and/or other great sources to uplift and edify the reader.

This may be a lofty goal, but I hope to have FUN along the way. God bless and enjoy.

This is a sketch from earlier this month of the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in downtown Nashville and here is one of my favorite passages from the Bible.

Isaiah 40:28-31 (NIV)
28) Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. 29) He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30) Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31) But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. they will soar on wings like eagles: they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.