Fallen and Flawed

I’m glad you are over your obsession with the obsessed. As for the Whittaker photo, it might not be intended for you. Nothing personal, but mayhap they had another audience in mind. In other words, chicks might dig it. Not me, of course. But other chicks. Who like that kind of thing. And aren’t married.

I think we need an element of rawness, or else what is produced has all the spark of processed cheese food. We can’t always have the creative equivalent of English gardens and carefully clipped lawns. We have to have rugged mountains, deep fjords, stately redwoods with bloody-muzzled wolves resting in their shade.

But just as the man in the English garden is stifled in his bland surroundings, to live in those wild places exclusively is to lose all sense of self-control and civility. This is why the mad creative genius burns out so quickly. For those with a creative bent, it doesn’t take much to tip over from a hike in the woods to Nebuchadnezzar in his 7-year dementia.

Demian,

If I understand your question correctly, you’re asking if artists suffering for their art has a place in Christian culture. Yes?

If so, then let’s look at two things that intermingle, but are separate. First, as Christians, Jesus tells us we will indeed suffer. Suffering is an expected part of our lives as followers of Christ. But we are suffering for Christ’s sake and glory. Partly because we need to reflect Him regardless of what we’re going through, and partly because He is at work helping us flay our flesh (metaphorically speaking) and let’s face it, it’s a painful process. There is an unending paradox in pain—we learn through it (sometimes it’s the only way we learn) and without it we simply don’t grow. This happens to all Christians, artists included.

But the suffering I think you’re referring to with the poets and writers you mentioned (and I can name tons of painters, sculptors, actors, dancers, etc., to toss into the mix) has, I think, more to do with idolatry.

It’s too easy for artists to see themselves as god-like and above all because they are performing a very God-like act in creating things of beauty that can communicate powerfully and profoundly. It’s a very short step to believing you are then justified, if not encouraged, to create your own moral universe. You are a god and your art is your idol. You will serve it and suffer for it because it means everything to you. All else is subject to it; home, family, health, relationships. Anything that is not your art takes a back seat.

It’s also easy for Christian artists to fall into this same idolatrous trap. I admit to having had this happen to me when I got my first job in an ad agency as a writer. It was a heady experience to be paid to create and to see what I had created printed, published, and aired on the radio. I thought I was hot stuff and started acting that way. That is until God humbled me greatly and showed me that I had made my job an idol. It was a lesson that stuck. So that years when I began to have success as a painter and got into a few galleries, had my own solo shows, had my work reviewed by art critics and was interviewed by the Boston Globe, none of it affected me this way.

For artists who are also Christians, there is also another kind of suffering to endure, in addition to that which I stated earlier. And that is the suffering that comes from following your God-ordained path and using the gifts that you have been given in spite of the resistance that you will inevitably encounter. This resistance will come from both inside and outside the church. But if Christian artists are following in Christ’s footsteps and are suffering for it, then this too is reflecting God’s glory. There’s a lot more to say about this, but it may be another topic for another time.

Bottom line is that the suffering you spoke of here in this post is the one that I believe is not healthy for Christian artists. The way to best guard against this is for Christian artists to remain grounded in the Word, to not give in to their tendency to isolate themselves from the church, but instead to be pastored by someone who understands and values God’s gifting to those who are called to be artists.

Artists will suffer. But Christian artists should be suffering for the right reasons.

“Artists will suffer. But Christian artists should be suffering for the right reasons.”

BINGO! and AMEN!

Demian,
Since “We have this treasure in earthen vessels,” then it seems (as all said)cracking is part of the process. Since Christ is in us, we can call attention to ourselves and our scars—and the surpassing greatness of the power within us will be evident.

The impression is strong, Demian, that you really know the answer to your question but seek the support of like-minded believers– never a bad thing in itself. You have weaknesses and you have learned that Christ will show Himself strong in these areas if we are counting on Him to do so. But you also know that sometimes He will let out line so that you can run with the bait if you choose to, to a point. Risky business, that last part.

My big weakness is fiction writers. I have had my favorites who, even with my reading disabilities, I have voraciously devoured in years past. I acquired from them great stores of knowledge about the human psyche, which have served me well both as a secular newspaper reporter, columnist, and news photographer, as well as in later Christian witness and counseling. Some years ago I was the wisest man I knew. Surely not, but so I thought.

Later I became the biggest fool I knew. Presently, thank God, I bear no title. But I have had to rid myself of many shelves of books, music and films that would drag me down just to think about. Last October I disconnected my TV from any reception at all, & now use it only to play wholesome A/V, mostly Christian. Even though my youth is behind me, I must flee youthful lusts.

Usually discussions of the arts in America today leave me cold– I have lost touch & don’t recognize most of the names & styles I hear being discussed. I find that this feels demeaning, but only very slightly, and I’m sure it’s good for me to feel so. It beats having to swim up a waterfall once I’ve been sucked into the current of such interests. Let God deliver me into whatever my present state is meant to be and let me learn, as did Paul, therein to be content.

After musing on it for a day and getting slapped in the face by God last night, I have to apologize for writing the above comment. It was written from the perspective of a baby Christian who is still discovering her need for self-control. It has no Gospel backing its words.

I am embarrassed. Because everything I’ve read in the Bible says that that wild place is where the unrepentant reside.

One can be self-controlled without being stifled. One can be expressive without being unrestrained. The Christian can temper rawness with the Grace of his Loving Shepherd. I have crossed that line several times in the last few days, not just here but at several other blogs. A whole lot of unrestrained flash, and too little of Christ.

I stepped over the line, and lust for attention stepped in. And then that Shepherd’s Crook came smartly down across my back. Ouch.

Please pray for me, y’all. And I’m truly sorry. I’m going to take a week off from the Internet and spend the time in my Bible, scrubbing the pride off of me.

Love you guys!

Denita,

I was just about to thank you for your enthusiastic response. No one has ever said “bingo and amen” to anything I’ve written before, at least not that I heard anyway. But then read your above post.

While I didn’t think you had anything to apologize for, I certainly can’t speak to your heart motive, nor will I ever want to get in the way of the Holy Spirit.

I will now say that I appreciate your vulnerability, honesty and humility. I also love what you add to these discussions, enthusiasm and all.

We love you, too.

The problem with pain and suffering is that we don’t get to choose the cause. If we could, it would hardly be suffering because we can pick it up or put it down whenever we feel like. However, it is in living out our calling, our lot in life, where we find the crosses God has prepared for us. There is plenty of pain in this world and in our lives, especially if we are following Jesus, without having to look for an artificial and self-imposed pain. I think we see people who have been “through the fire” and now share their reflections/experience/changed perpective and in our desire to emulate that, we self-inflict pain, act like martyrs, or take on a nihilistic attitude. All attempts to short cut the path God has for us to deal with the actual pain in our lives. Broken family relationships. Serving an unappreciative spouse or boss. Forgiving the people who have caused us great pain. Mending the relationship gap with our kids. Those pains leave us too vulnerable and some simply seem too mundane.

Denita: “I stepped over the line, and lust for attention stepped in.”

Wow! This is the battle-line for me.

I smugly claim, “I’m doing it for the Lord.” But am I really? Or is the creative stuff I do simply an attempt to get attention? I post something, then frequently check back to see if others have commented – and feel good if they do.

Denita – thanks for your honest humility. If the truth were known, I suspect that, like me, many have cringed at your example.

Don B: Indeed, we all thirst for attention. That pat on the back. Fame. You’ve pegged my blog devotion perfectly. That’s why I sometimes feel like crawling into the proverbial hole of obscurity.

Jason: I think you and Richard said the same thing, “As Christians we are promised suffering.” Your addition, we don’t need to shortcut that process is spot on.

Richard: I love your identification and division of the issue. As I’ve said before in my post on Why You Have to Listen to My Half-Baked Ideas, I want to develop my line of thought. Or correct it. Everyone’s response helps me do that.

Al: I too went through the process of purging some much dark material from my past! I do have to say though–and this is debatable–in order to understand the arguments of the enemy and relate we need to engage the culture. Not become it, because that is a real risk. As Jesus said, “In the world, but not in it.”

Denita: I don’t see an infraction either, but like Richard pointed out, you know your heart better than us. I appreciate your sensitivity to the spirit, sister.

D, because you said the point is debatable, I’ll take you up on it– if not a debate, at least discussion:
Our greater need than to engage the culture is to engage the Lord. It is only through our attentiveness to Him as our Lord, through His Word and in prayer that we learn what we need to know about anything. As John said of Jesus,
But Jesus on His part did not entrust Himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for He Himself knew what was in man. (Jn.2:24-25)
This he then applies to us, saying,
By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment,

because as He is so are we in this world.

(1Jn.4:17 emphasis mine)
What information, knowledge, wisdom, understanding we have picked up along the way, either before or since our conversion, will be useful by virtue of the wondrous promise of Rom.8:28, but now it no longer suits us to depend on the world’s methods of gaining education, having been shown and given a new and more excellent way…

I agree: Our greater need is to engage God. But not exclusively.

My marriage would be in trouble if that’s all I did. It works better when I spend time trying to understand my wife. And one of the reasons I do this because I do believe that God created man to relate to one another, and in that relation he is glorified.

And even though the world’s wisdom is subordinate to God’s, it is not worthless. Indeed, all truth is his. What do you think?

As I think you know, what I think is of no consequence– what God has said is what matters.

This that He has said sums it up for me:

…whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1Cor.10:31b)

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

…so, in essence, we do and must engage God exclusively inasmuch as all we do must be done in Him, i.e. in His name and for His glory, which we are incapable of doing apart from Him because we are incapable of being in any way apart from Him. My relationship with my wife, my brethren in Christ, even the world and the devil, from my end, is conducted and has its being only in Christ.

No argument, D– just clarifying terminology.

I thought we were on the same page, cause I uphold everything you said as coming from someone who always says it better than me.