Yeah, but what does it PRODUCE?

I have a wonderful new friend named Lindy who is an artist and a poet. Her work in both mediums is fantastic, but that’s not the thing…The thing is that her art makes ME want to paint and her poetry makes ME want to write poetry…and not just “want to” but to actually DO it. I have written a half dozen poems since being around her and her poetry. It’s like the real purpose of her painting is to inspire others to pick up a brush. And anyone who has played Pictionary with me knows just what an accomplishment it is to get ME painting or drawing anything! But there is something about Lindy’s work that almost becomes participatory in a sense. In hearing one of her poems  - she’s a performance poet  - the listener gets involved, caught up, called to respond.

Typically, when we think of a great artist, we think of someone whose work stops us in our tracks and renders us speechless, except perhaps for the declaration, “Wow! She sure is a great artist!” We’ve almost become used to defining great art as something to be admired, something to bow down before, something to be powerless in the face of.

But I’m done with such a definition. If great art makes me passive or casts me in the role of mere admirer, I want no part of its greatness. If all an artist is after is the admiration and reverence of others, what’s so “great” about that? Greatness in art or in anything else should produce something, result in something, change something. Greatness should bear fruit. Every time I've seen Bruce Springsteen in concert, I have spent the next three days playing my guitar and writing until my fingers stopped working. THAT is why he's "The Boss!"

Many theologians have compared God to an artist, and I buy into the comparison, but only if God’s art produces more than human praise, adoration, or even worship.  In recent years, I’ve stopped believing that God gives a rip about our praise and worship.  (And if you think I’m full of crap on this point, I suggest you check out Amos 5:21 and following.) I just don’t think that the God of the Universe suffers from some divine self-image problem and needs to hear me or anyone else tell Him/Her how great He/She is again and again and again. I'm willing to bet that all the prayers of adoration and hymns of praise in the world don’t move God in the least. Why not?… Because if God is the kind of artist I think She is, then She wants her creation to PRODUCE further creation in and through each of us. God wants His divine creation to result in and spawn human creation.

This is why Jesus spent so much of his three year ministry dwelling on fruit. He wasn’t interested in our words nor our declared beliefs nor even our promises of loyalty. He was and still is interested in fruit. Check out Matthew 7:16-20, the apex of the Sermon on the Mount; it’s all about fruit! “By their fruit you will recognize them.” In Luke 6, Jesus reiterates that, “No good tree bears bad fruit and no bad tree bears good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit.” Think of the parable of the talents. It wasn’t enough for the servant to merely receive and hold onto that which the Master gave him, for the Master was and is interested in fruit. It is by our fruit that we are known. Fruit is a visible sign of production – thus the word “Produce” in that section of our neighborhood grocery store where the fruit is found. When God’s creative work bears fruit in us, that means that we have PRODUCED something with it.

One of the reasons I stopped being a preacher was that I grew weary of all the praise and admiration I received for the quality of my sermons. If all my sermons did was bring honor and admiration to me for being an able preacher, what good is that? I can’t help but think God feels the same way. That’s why he had Amos tell the people of Israel: “I hate, I despise your religious festivals; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them…Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream.”

It’s all about fruit. Lindy’s way of being an artist – a “great” artist - has helped me understand and articulate a paradigmatic shift that has taken place in my understanding of faith and of what I’m here on this earth to do…to get others to PARTICIPATE in the unfolding and unfinished artistry of the Creator…to pick up a brush…to bear fruit.  Thanks, Lindy, for showing me what true greatness is and what true greatness does.

PS – this Saturday night, November 20 from 5-7 pm, Lindy is opening a new show entitled “Vintage” at her gallery - Seed Studio - on Dexter St. in downtown Elk Rapids. I’ve been given a sneak peek and this show will blow you away!

Walking Out of the Darkness

 A good friend and fellow participant in our Living Vision Experiment, Debbie Allen, organized Petoskey’s first ever Walk to support the prevention of suicide. Today was the day, and what a day it was! Gorgeous blue skies, balmy temperatures for November 7, and the walk began at Petoskey’s waterfront park and proceeded west right along the water’s edge for about 4 miles.

About 23 of us gathered for introductions and some opening words from Deb and a few others, including a suicide survivor. Somehow, it seemed, we had all been touched by suicide. In my case, my grandfather took his own life, and I’ve since lost a couple very close friends and a couple of my high school students as well.

Just this week, NPR had a special segment in which the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and his wife spoke of the alarming number of suicides happening each month in our enlisted military personnel. I believe the number was about a hundred and ten a month. I then heard from a veteran at the walk today that over 35% of the total suicides in America are veterans. And perhaps saddest of all, when a soldier takes his own life, he said, the family does NOT receive a letter of condolence from anyone in our military or government. (Ain't THAT America?)

Clearly, our country has a long way to go when it comes to understanding suicide, preventing it, and, when we fail to prevent it, responding to it with compassion and intelligence. For 23 of us, today was one small step in the right direction, and we were all so grateful to Deb for giving us the opportunity to heighten our own awareness and to raise a little bit of money for the cause.

The walk for me was a physical challenge and an exercise in dependence. I’m still in a heavy cast with a surgically repaired ankle and a broken fibula. I desperately need exercise and wanted to fight through my own weakness by walking/crutching as much of this important trail as I could. As my arms began to ache after the first mile or so, I thought of the families I know – and those I don’t – who have lost someone to suicide. I thought about that kind of pain that just won’t go away and crutched on. But soon, I had to succumb to the ache and to my own weakness. And fortunately, as I did, I was able to seek refuge in a wheelchair Deb had provided for me - along with one of her very fit co-workers named Jeff, who pushed me most of the rest of the way.

My physical struggle today struck me as an apt metaphor for how it is that we all manage to walk through our lives. We need some help getting started. We rely on a leader to organize us and call us to action. We do the best we can for as long as we can. But eventually, the best any of us can hope for is someone to be there when our strength runs out, when the road becomes too much for us, when we simply cannot go on. Today, for me, on my walk, Jeff was that someone. Who has it been for you? But even more importantly, can you and I be aware enough, present enough, open enough to be that someone pushing a wheelchair, holding the safety net, or providing a listening ear when some weary soul in our lives is no longer able to go on?

It’s not too late if you’d like to contribute to Deb’s Out of the Darkness Walk for the prevention of suicide. Email Deb at theallens@chartermi.net

Peace