Inspiration

It has been an interesting four months. So interesting in fact, that I haven't blogged about any of it. I mean, don't get me wrong, a lot of good has happened...some not so good... Until Tuesday.

Tuesday, the staff at Lake Cities (Joel, Karen, Stephen and myself) went to visit with Rolando ("Ro") Diaz at his studio at South Side At Lamar here in Dallas. He is a former ACU grad, artist and native Cuban whom escaped during the communist take over in the 60's. He is a trip!
As the staff, with Bible and journal in hand, sat in the seats of his studio, Ro turned on some inspirational classic folk and turned his attention to the blank canvas. In a matter of minutes, he had created two gorgeous paintings. One resembled the face of Christ, the other portrayed a stoic angel.

To be honest, I am not the fine-arts type. I enjoy a musical every now and then and music has always held a place in my heart. When the dramatic music echoes through the cemented studio my initial reaction was "Oh great, here we go..." As I am watching this (keep in mind that I can't draw a stick figure to save my life!) I was astonished at how talented he was. Now it all makes sense.



I was reminded of crowd's reaction to the day of Pentecost and I immediately turned in my bible to the book of Acts 2. "So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, 'Whatever could this mean? ' Others mockingly said, 'They are full of new wine.'"

The reason I am reminded of this is because I claim to be a follower of a man whom did remarkable things. When faced with one of those remarkable moments I sat skeptically sat back and prepared for a show.

The other thing that struck me about our experience was how seriously Ro took every impulse to add to the painting. As a non-artistic person, I always wonder how common it is to second-guess an idea. When I deal with this in blogging, there is something that happens and I think, 'I should write about that. Nah, that would be dumb." I wonder how often an artist carries that internal conversation.

I guess the reason I am writing about this is because I want to encourage you to first decided which camp we are in, the one prepared to be astonished, or the one sitting back making faces, cracking jokes and drinking coffee. Not only start your day by challenging God to astonish you, take note of every moment, every impulse, every influence to paint your day.