Like a Mustard Seed

This little concept sketch about faith was developed for a "make a gift for < $5" exchange. I'm not completely satisfied with it. The woman as "Faith rooted in prayer" needs to be a bit more stylized.

Play Me

You are the sun

I am the moon

You are the word

I am the tune

Play me!

I was invited to the Denver stop of Neil Diamond's world tour tonight. And for the record, NEIL DIAMOND ROCKS!

Yes, my 30 year old sister and I rocked out with a bunch of grey hairs as the 67 year old Neil out did himself with a non stop, no intermission, 2 1/2 hour show. We were teethed on this guy's music. Our father lived and breathed Neil through the 80's.

He's got to be up there among the best song writers to ever live. He has an uncanny ability to reach down into the depths of a situation and make you feel it down to your toes. With that rich raspy voice and gift for melody he exudes Joy, Pain, Loneliness, Love, heartbreak, patriotism...

and Faith.

I noticed something tonight... A red thread in his work. A presence of the Holy. A wrestling with God, a questioning, then a discovery! And in the later work a coming home, a rest and a peace.

This was no Evangelical worship fest, but it was indeed a God honoring christian concert. His body of work speaks for itself. Consider this artist's song of salvation. She is the Holy Spirit.

PLAY ME



She was morning

And I was night time

I one day woke up

To find her lying

Beside my bed

I softly said

"Come take me"

For I've been lonely

In need of someone

As though I'd done

Someone wrong somewhere

I don't know where

Come lately

You are the sun

I am the moon

You are the words

I am the tune

Play me

Song she sang to me

Song she brang to me

Words that rang in me

Rhyme that sprang from me

Warmed the night

And what was right

Became me

You are the sun

I am the moon

You are the words

I am the tune

Play me

And so it was

That I came to travel

Upon a road

That was thorned and narrow

Another place

Another grace

Would save me

You are the sun

I am the moon

You are the word

I am the tune

Play me

The subtlety and beauty of these lyrics astound me. The task of the artist is to tell it slant. We communicate in ways that compel attention, but are not pregnant with clarity of meaning. A little discernment is required. Perhaps a work of the Spirit. Consider Christ's Parables!

No question this song gained popular acceptance as a song of romantic love and a muse. But this song is a beautiful prayer of submission and humility before God. God is the source, he is a mere reflector of God's glory. God is the message, he is colorful presentation - an instrument in His hand. And Neil offers his prayer: Play me!

This is my prayer.

Check out his lyrics from the last few years. They are more blatant in their content. These songs were new to me tonight:

Man of God, Pretty Amazing Grace, Hell Yeah

These songs aren't on his greatest hits albums. In fact his last few albums have barely gone gold, after having had a stream of multi platinum. They are worth another look though. This man is pointing us to God.

Emergence

God, I am in Love with you. I desire nothing but you. I want to die so I can see you right now face to face. You have my all. Where else can I go? You not only have the words of life, you are the lover of my soul. There is no way I can be taken out of your hand. Hardship may come. Doubt and pain likely lie before me. But come what may, I choose to say blessed be your name. I am yours.

You are faithful... when I am faithless. You are strong... when I am weak. You are impassioned... when I am apathetic. You just ARE. period. And I can't get enough of knowing you.

I pursued you and found you where you were to be seen. But there were places I did not look. Places I thought were out of bounds to you. (Imagine that) That is why I was in awe to find you within me, shaping down to the depths, guiding up from the abyss, and emerging victorious! I was shocked to see you in my own reflection. But I am not shocked anymore. I believe what you have told me. I know who I am. I am yours. I see that it is true! Lord, point me where I am to go.

You patch the broken vessels. You breath life into the dust. You restore that which was fallen. I am living proof.

Don't just be in me, Lord Jesus. Live in me.

Trees Walking

He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around."

Did Jesus' power wane on that day he healed the blind man's sight? My theology says no, but that day it took two tries to achieve clarity of sight.

A traditional interpretation tells us Jesus uses different means to the same ends, and His more earthy means do not negate His divinity or omnipotence. In other words, it wasn't a screw up.

A little spit.
A little mud.
Rub it in the eyes.
Two tries

- then the man could finally see clearly.

While true, that interpretation sidesteps something. What is the point of Christ's methods, and the intermediate outcome? As I understand God's workings, He seems to care so much about journey and the means. The journey and the means of getting there are just as important as the destination and the end. And in this healing passage we encounter such a strange mid point on the journey - people like trees walking around.

We could be rational - scientific! Maybe the first try healed his eyes allowing the light to reach his brain, but a second healing was needed to fill his brain with all the necessary neural pathways and signs and symbols to understand what he could now see. Maybe...

But what if the middle step wasn't a deficiency or an accident? What if the man saw something true? What if he saw something real? A deeper alternate discernment that is not of the eyes? What if it was granted temporarily to him so it could be recorded in Scripture for all of us?


What if we, indeed, are the trees walking around?

The type of a tree is used again and again in God's revelation. There's the tree of knowledge of good and evil - the gateway to depravity. There's the burning bush - God making himself visible. There's the hyssop branch used to brush the doorpost with blood - marking God's people to be passed over. Then of course the Cross - God's chosen instrument of salvation. Vines and branches, bearing fruit, mustard seeds, withered figs, on and on. And this blind man sees people like trees walking around.

I don't mean to push a mixed metaphor too far, and I certainly am. But we could do a lot worse than seeing people as trees walking around.

The other night I had a vision. A dark tree was split by a light descending which unfolded into a book with one red page. The tree splayed open, and several lights emerged from the book, encircling it. There was a serene and vacant village in the background.

As I put the vision to paper, the act of working it before the Lord opened some new details: a wash of red, the blood of Christ; the curves of the supine branches touching the red, the use of hyssop at the passover; a hint of green, new life in Him; and then I had a real sense: I am this tree.

This calling to speak God's word exercised through artistic gifts is to make the invisible God visible - to make God accessible. It is His work and I am a vessel - sort of like a burning bush. But understand. It is not just me. I am not in this alone. I am this tree, but we are the trees! (here I mean the church) We, collectively, are God's vessel of visibility. We are the burning bush. We are branches dipped in blood applying grace to the lives of many. And we are the instrument of both Christ's pain and of God's salvation.