H,
I remember struggling, in my younger years, with the idea that art meant
anything to God. It was my old Pentecostal soul, the one that always mistook
serving the whims of the movement or person at the head of the movement with living
in the high ideas of God. I thought every expression had to speak about Them in
the most overt sense possible, even if it did not ring true. I still had the
idea in my head that this was a praise hungry and insecure god who looked
through all the pages of life to see how many mentions He got.
Of course, once I rid myself of these stolid ideas, I discovered that all
my mind was in that question of deity. I could not write a paragraph without
exploring what the idea of God meant. It was already in my mind as the path to
meaning. It does and will come out clearly in all my art.
This should come as no surprise. All of truth is accessed in stories. They
present to us as an eternal tale culminating in the merging of story and life
in a forever blend. That He is creator and maker of all things should have
alerted me to where the artistic impulse comes from. The questions we ask and
the answers we find and the creativity we use to get from question to answer
are all parts of our God-side. It is a creator creating creatives. It is God as
creator and what is the most vivid image of where we will be when we see Them:
right hand side, co-creating an eternity that is still being written.
So, now art for me is that reality. It is not propaganda. It is not an advertorial.
God needs no public relations unit. We must tell stories that elevate truth and
speak to the inherent value of every life. Do not waste a word. Do not make
anything glib or light for folly sake or take away from the glory within or
without. Let it always sing. Let it be honest. Let it say what you think and
feel and know and want to think, feel and know. There are no barriers to the
human mind. Let us create as we were once created.