Proud Papa

Okay. So I'm one proud papa. The top left picture is Evan a day before he is four weeks old. The two on the right are pretty self explanatory Halloween pictures. The picture in the bottom left is my son's first bath where he is displaying early signs of being able to disappear. I'm sure he'll use that to his advantage later when he's trying to hide from Mommy and Daddy. I love being a Dad.

Following God's Direction

Have you ever heard this song by The Clash? Chapter 12 of Jan Johnson's book Enjoying the Presence of God touches on this very point. There are some people who think of prayer as if it were something out of "I Dream of Genie." Simply ask God for whatever you'd like in prayer, and God will magically provide. Still others want to use God like a traffic light, "Should I take this job? Should I buy this shirt or this car? Should I stay or should I go?" God is not a genie who will fulfill our inner most desires. A burning bush, and a pillar of fire/ploom of smoke are very rare forms of Godly direction. God is not a traffic light for direction in our lives. God has His own plan for salvation, and we need to dream dreams set in God's will for us. To do this means praying some pretty scary prayers. God, please show me the paths You would have me to walk, and I will do my best to walk those paths. Please God, show me your passion for my life that I might be filled with it also. These kinds of prayers are aimed at putting ourselves in the right point of view to hear God's call on our lives, but they require courage. Once these prayers are prayed faithfully, and our hearts become more focused on God's dreams there is no telling where God may lead you.

The Process

Life has been very busy lately so I thought I'd share a little of what's been happening. One of the classes I'm taking this semester is Mentored Ministry. It's one of those where I'm supposed to be working in a church (inside the box) eight hours a week. However, I've been behind on hours so I'm doing some freelance graphic design work for the Children's Ministry to make up the difference. Since I haven't posted anything detailing the process I use I figured this would be a good time to share the way I work.

First I sit down with the people in charge and try to get a good idea of what they're looking for in a logo. Then I do a bunch of sketches of different ideas. That's when we meet again, and they tell me what works and what definitely does not work.

Then I do some more sketches and we talk again. It can be tedious. I usually do not offer more than two passes on a project, but since this for church I'm offering more. These were the second batch of sketches.

And these are the first run through the computer. I know it looks like a lot, but it fully invests the client in the project, and insures they get the logo they want. As much as I like getting paid to do stuff (I'm not getting paid for this one) it is really important to honor the God given vision for their ministry, so it is worth the extra effort.

Enjoying God in the Valley

Chapter ten of Jan Johnson's book Enjoying the Presence of God is titled Enjoying God Between the Moments. I like the analogy of mountain tops and valleys better. Here's why. Have you ever seen the black and white movie Sergeant York? In the movie Alvin York is an east Tennessee boy, living up in the mountains, and trying to scratch out a living as a farmer. It's tough to be a farmer in the mountains. There are rocks and boulders everywhere, and they all have to be dug up to have enough dirt to plant crops. Bottom land is down in the valley. The land there has fewer boulders and is rich and fertile. I like this example because it reminds me of Jesus's journey up on a mountain side with Peter, James and John. There they saw Jesus' appearance was transfigured. Peter, James and John like a lot of Christians wanted to set up tents on the mountain side and stay there in that heavenly presence. However, life doesn't work that way. We are not called to live on mountain tops of spiritual euphoria. Through these close interactions with the Spirit we can be moved to do all kinds of things for the kingdom. However, there is not enough to support us up on the mountain top. When we travel back down into the valley it is harder to remember the mountain top experiences. Jan Johnson encourages us to establish a routine of prayer throughout the day to help us stay the course when we feel spiritually dry. That is important because like the disciples were called to live lives of service down in the valley with the mountain top experience in their hearts. Our goal is to live in as close a relationship to the Father, through Jesus Christ the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit as we can. The Spirit is a wild duck, and may call us up the mountain, or down to the river; it may seem very far from us, but it is never really very far away.  When we enter those places of spiritual thirst it is important to cling to our spiritual routines and to remember the mountain top experience in our hearts.