I absolutely love Vincent Van Gogh. There are so many paintings of his that blow my mind. I have to admit that I'm a bit cliche in the fact that Starry Night is my favorite. But I do so enjoy Irises and Sunflowers and so many others, but Starry Night is my favorite. I love the colors and the feel. I can almost feel the texture coming off of canvas at me, even through a photograph of the painting. And, as a Don McClean fan I have listened to his song Starry Night over and over again. This painting has been burned into my soul I feel like sometimes. But, I learned something new the other day. The painting that I know of as Starry night is not the only painting that Van Gogh painted that is referred to as Starry Night. The other painting is known as Starry Night over the Rhone. It's beautiful. There's so much I didn't know about my favorite artist. So, I did some research. The main question I was looking for was how long it took him to paint Starry Night (my Starry Night, not that the other one isn't great, but it's just not mine.) The answer I found surprised me. The physical act of painting Starry Night probably only took Van Gogh a night or two to paint. However, the journey to him getting good enough to paint Starry Night was a bit longer.
Starry Night
Starry Night Over the Rhone
Van Gogh only painted for about 10 years. In those 10 years he painted about 2,000 paintings, if not more. That means that Van Gogh didn't spend a lot of time on any one painting, but he spent a LOT of time painting.
As much as I love art in so many different forms I recently picked up water colors. It was a fun at home date night that has turned into a new found hobby of mine. I like it because I can paint them quickly, but also because I can pick it up and put it down pretty easily too. That's a must with little kids.
I'm painting with the help of tutorials online. And the women that I'm watching have been painting for like 15-20 years from what I can gather. But, my perfectionist self thinks that I'm supposed to be painting at the same level as these women even though I've only been painting for like 3 weeks maybe a month. How arrogant can you get. Now, I'm not coming right out and saying that I think I should be as good as these women are. What I'm saying sounds like, "My flowers don't look like hers." "I wish I could paint this as well as she did." "I need a lot of work huh?"
What am I really asking?
I'm asking someone else to validate me and say I'm good enough for one thing. That kind of validation will never last. I need to look to my father in Heaven to get the validation that say I have worth (one of our identities that I'll discuss in coming weeks) I'm also asking to be perfect (or what my brain thinks of as perfect in this case) without any effort. I expect the progress without the practice.
I have always struggled with patience. I have always wanted to skip the hard work and get right to the results. But, like in art, things don't work that way in life. I want to skip the hard work because, well, it's hard. Duh...
I don't know about ya'll but I live a life of instant gratification. My microwave works overtime, I have a ton of apps to make things easier, I have movies and TV on demand, and a drive thru that promises food satisfaction in 5 minutes or less. I even use 90 second rice. I have trained myself to have very little ability to wait at all much less patiently. And I certainly don't' want to work too hard to get whatever my newest desire is.
But, there can be joy in the waiting time. There can be joy in the working time. James says in 1:2-4 "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James is saying we have to put in the work of persevering (progressing) to be mature. That final maturity can be a part of the joy we find as we persevere.
I have spent some more time painting watercolors now. I enjoy it. There doesn't even have to be a finished product for me. This is new to me. I'm used to, if you are doing something, it's purpose is to make a final product that you will share with others and hope that they find value in it. What I'm learning is that God finds value in my process and progress, not just my final product.
We are living in a time in history where many first world Christians are guessing at the coming of Christ. I say first world because we are talking about disease and disaster like it's new, when in fact it's been the reality for much of the world all along. But, with that being said, I will concede that we are currently living closer to the return of Christ than we ever have before. Human history is always moving toward His coming. And, like Van Gogh was the only person who could determine when his paintings were complete, God is the only one who can say when this here on Earth is all finished. God has given us a glimpse at the final product. We know in the end God wins over sin and death and the devil. So, in our waiting we must work. We must continue the process of allowing God to change us into what he wants us to be. We need to also invite as many of those around us as we can to give God the paint brush of their lives so to speak and allow him to paint their story.
Of Van Gogh's more than 2,000 paintings, the majority of his notable paintings that we would label as "successes" were almost exclusively painted during the last year or so of his life. A lot of his early work wasn't what critiques would call great. Does that then mean that they have no value? Definitely not. The process and progress of painting those less than stellar works allowed him to paint Starry Night, and Sunflowers, and Irises. I'm so glad that he did the work.
Galatians 6:7 says, " Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." If we aren't putting in the work there will be nothing to harvest. I pray that we are willing to do the work. The work of allowing ourselves to be changed by Jesus. The work of sharing our own change with others so that they might be changed. The work of allowing others to see our progress (even the messy parts) so that we can all move toward God together.
I pray that you have been blessed today that you might be a blessing to someone else. Love you so much and I'll talk to you again soon.
For all of us that struggle with remembering to keep on keeping on, I have created a set of fridge signs for us. When you subscribe to the blog or the Youtube Channel you will receive your copy. God bless.
Comments
Post a Comment