Road Lines

We have all been there at some point...on a two lane road separated by a thin painted line...in a row of traffic...when some guy decides things aren't going fast enough for him. So, despite a solid line (which we all know means no passing) this guy juts out into oncoming traffic in a mad ditch attempt to pass the whole line of traffic, when he realizes what everyone ahead of him has already noticed...the semi-truck heading in the other direction! Someone inevitably has to slam on the brakes and veer in order to create enough space for the impatient guy to squeeze back in at the last minute, narrowly avoiding becoming a hood ornament on the semi! When everyone finally catches their breath they all have the same collective thought (after a few choice words perhaps)...the lines are their for a reason buddy!
I had not realized until recently that road lines were only invented in 1930, by a Canadian engineer and were first used on a small stretch of highway near the Ontario/Quebec border. Can you imagine what traffic would be like today without them? Chaos! I am pretty thankful that they exist. They bring some semblance of organization and order to the mass of traffic on the highways and allow thousands of us to use the roads quickly, and for the most part, safely.
I find myself thinking about Christianity, and the way so many outside the faith see it as only rules and regulations leading to a life that is so limited and stuffy. I think that in response to this misunderstanding I would suggest that rules and regulations are not what following Jesus is primary about. Becoming a follower of Jesus actually begins by recognizing that our sin has separated us from God but that there is no set of rules that we could follow that could somehow make us good enough to bring us back into relationship with God. It means recognizing that we need a Saviour, not rules. I would characterize my faith more as a relationship with Jesus than a religion of rules. There are certainly regulations, standards and principles that come along with faith, but I hope that in my own life they are in response to my relationship. I long to glorify God with my life, and although I get it wrong a lot, I do try to follow the standards I find in scripture to please Him. I also believe that as creator of the universe including the creator of human relationships, that God has a clearer understanding of what is healthy and safe. Here is where the analogy of rode lines comes in. Road lines give us some direction, and following them means limiting our freedom a bit. But what they allow us to do is to enjoy the benefits of the road safely. I see many of the things that God asks of us in a similar way. By giving us direction and standards God has provided a way for us to enjoy the fullness of life without many of the pitfalls, traps, dangers, heartbreaks and tragedies that come from ignoring His safeguards. There is no promise of a life without trouble and hardship and we do live in a fallen world. There is no guarantee that someone else who is ignoring the lines on the road will not affect me in some way. I can, however, try not to add to the problem by doing my best to follow the lines myself. God's principles provide some lines on the road of life to help direct us and keep us safe as we live life the way in which the chief architecht intended it to be lived.

Emily Carr

Well, these past few weeks I have been having a lot of fun helping my kids with their school projects on famous artists (hence these last two posts about artists!). They have not needed a lot of help actually, so maybe it has been more of an excuse to spend time reading about these great artists. I was reading about Emily Carr this week, a very famous and influential Canadian artist. As it turns out, at one point in her career she would meet, and be very influenced by the Group of Seven, and particularly Lawren Harris. She was most influenced by Harris' approach in which he would transform and interpret nature so as to infuse spiritual expression. Although she had rejected the organized religion of her youth, she nevertheless retained a sense of spirituality and a desire to search for deeper meaning. She established a correspondence with Harris to explore the ideas behind his work. Harris was a Theosophist, and shared with her about that belief system. Eventually however, her searching led her back to Christianity. In one of her journals, she wrote - "I want the big God."
I don't know much about her devotional life, her discipleship, the maturity of her walk with the Lord or her understanding of the faith...but that one observation seemed well worth noting.
My God is the Big God and that is an amazingly simple and yet profound statement that I hope to carry with me this week.

Tom Tompson and the Group of Seven

Yesterday my son came home from an art research trip to the library and asked if I wanted to watch a movie. He was holding an old VHS tape on which the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) logo could be scene and a sticker that read "The Group of Seven - Tom Thompson." The documentary traced the early years of the group of seven up until its official formation in 1920, including the influence of Tom Thompson.
There is probably not a more iconic "Canadian" group of artists than the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson (who would die just a few years before the official launch of the group in 1920). Although all individuals and unique and diverse artists, they shared a passion for the rugged and beautiful Canadian landscape and a heartfelt desire to, in a small way, capture and represent a bit of the awe and inspiration they found in the vast wilderness so unique to Canada. I found myself fascinated, and perhaps a bit envious, of Tom Thompson who would venture out into Algonquin Park for weeks at a time in early Spring and into Autumn. He would return to the city only for the winter where he lived in a rented shack, pretty much pretended he wasn't in the city, and painted his larger works based on the small paintings he had done over the summer.
I see the work of others, based on images from Georgian Bay, and think of my cottage and the amazing scenery that is there.
Being a person of faith, I cannot help but see these amazing images of creation, and think of the creator. The Group of Seven help me to pause and consider the amazing creation that is around me, and that makes up this amazing country of Canada. They help me to recognize the wonder of creation, to be awed and moved by the beauty and power, the intimacy and vastness, the delicacy and ruggedness, the gentleness and ferociousness that is the Canadian wilderness. And with that, I pray, comes an awareness of how infinite and mighty, creative and powerful, loving and specific is God who imagined and then fashioned all of this with just the words of His mouth.
O, that this sense of wonder that such art helps me to ponder, would always inform my worship.

Hard Drive Crash

It happened last week, the dreaded click of death, a blank screen, and a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. My hard drive died and along with it everything that I had stored on my computer (and don't ask whether I had it backed up or not...that is just annoying, and I am not going to tell you!). Well, I am no computer expert and so the first thing I had to do was take it to someone to have it looked at, and to have the hard drive replaced. Well, maybe it was having no computer that led to a bit of free time to think but I found myself thinking about the hard drive a lot. Yes, it began as fretting, and then a bit of mourning, but eventually I got over that. I then started thinking about the role of the hard drive and how, in a certain sense, it reminded me of Jesus and the Body of Christ. Again, I am no computer expert and perhaps there is an even better analogy to a brain or the head of the body but the hard drive did get me thinking about this. The hard drive is where all the information and applications are stored. As I discovered, without the applications you can't do very much. I still had many computer components, working parts and hardware, but without the hard drive it was all pretty useless. Without the applications from the hard drive, there seemed little that the computer could do. Again, I admit that my analogy may be flawed due to my limited understanding of computers, (if you have a better one feel free to add it in a comment below, I would love to read your thoughts) but it did get me thinking about the church and the role of Jesus as head.
The church, as Paul said, is like a body. It is a collection of parts (individuals) each with an important role to play, which is informed and directed by the head, who is Jesus. Jesus directs the church, gives it its purpose and mission and leads it to accomplish his plan and purpose in the world. Without Jesus, however, the church would just be a random collection of appendages and parts, and with no common purpose or direction would just be a mess to watch. It would be very difficult for the church to accomplish anything of meaning and purpose. The loss of my hard drive rendered my computer fairly useless to me. I had disks and information as well as some hardware, which held a lot of potential, but without the hard drive, the potential was unable to materialize as productivity. I think the same could be said of the church. Without Jesus to lead it and drive it, there will not be much productivity in the name of Jesus and little accomplished to bring God honour and glory.