I was reading Gary Molander’s book, Pursuing Christ. Creating Art.: Exploring Life at the Intersection of Faith and Creativity, and came across the following gem. Truly, there were several gems, but this one was a timely message for my soul, and I think it may be for you as well.

In Matthew 13, Jesus tells a series of parables to his followers. The parables are all about a man (God) who is interacting with soil (mankind). These characters are consistent throughout the parables.

Verse 3 is the parable of the good soil. Francis Chan made the statement in his book, Crazy Love, never assume you’re the good soil. Ouch and thank you, Francis.

Verse 24 is the parable of the weeds. The farmer is God again, and there is an enemy who plants weeds in the soil, which is mankind again.

Verse 31 is the parable of the mustard seed. It’s about what happens when a man who plants (God) and the growth that occurs (our response to the Gospel).

Each parable is consistent, which is why I was shocked that I had never connected the dots that Gary connects.

Verse 44 is the parable of the treasure in the field. I’ve always thought of this parable with the characters inverted. We are the man, and God is the field, or soil. This goes against the pattern set in each preceding parable. It makes sense that we would go sell everything to have the kingdom of God, so I never thought twice. But look what happens when the characters are consistent with the other parables.

The man (God) found a treasure in a field (mankind) and went away and gave everything he had to possess the land (mankind). This is no longer about our efforts to secure the kingdom of Heaven, it’s about God’s efforts to secure us. And God has done so with great joy.

God is in active pursuit. He’s paid the price. He desires our hearts.

For anyone, but especialy the artist who brings to life complex and abstract concepts of the heart, this is a game changer.

I read this passage, and then read it again, and then read it a third time. When it had begun to sink in, I had one of those defining moments of the faith. A rejuvination and joy in my heart that is difficult to describe. I haven’t felt that way from a book since Brennan Manning’s, The Ragamuffin Gospel, which is one of my favorite books.

This message came at the perfect timing in this season of Lent, as we feel the sacrafice God made for us by sending his son to die in our place so that we may be called righteous.

Thank you, Gary. Thank you for being the artist’s pastor. We need your voice in the conversation about faith and creativity. You are a great blessing.

This is a part of a series of daily reflections on the season of Lent.

Also, all product links are affiliate links. That said, I can’t recommend the books mentioned above enough, as each has made a great impact on my life.

I took a few days off of work (my 8-5 job) and away from online work. I didn’t blog, tweet, facebook, etc. I made reference to it here, as this is a daily series and I would be missing a couple of days. Turned out I missed three. And. It. Was. Glorious.

A bit about the psychological impacts…

I have to say, I had no idea how stressful it would be to disconnect from work. There was a part of it that was simply hard to break the habit, and alter my routine. For example, I wanted to kick off my time away with the Unplug Challenge.

I failed that challenge simply because I have formed habits around social media. I got my phone out, fired off a tweet, and then remembered the challenge. Woops. It was eye opening to see just how engrained social media has become in my day-to-day. Eye opening of course here really means horrifying. I have allowed my social networks way too much space in my life, and I’ll be making adjustments in the near future regarding boundaries.

(Side note: if you haven’t already, pick up Justin Wise’s ebook The Top 10 Mistakes I Made in Social Media - I got it this past weekend. It was a timely message. Justin is a brilliant friend.)

On a deeper level, I felt just how important it is to my self esteem and ego to interact with others and add my voice to certain conversations. I went through what felt like a healthy detox. Through the process of disengaging, I was able to gain some perspective on what I value and why I value it. Although I can’t say I was surprised by what I observed about myself, the honest look at how I spend my time and spend my attention truly helped me to gain some fresh perspective. I have a lot of work to do in order to align what I want to do and what I actually do. I’m sure you can relate.

My biggest takeway

Since I wasn’t engaging in social media, and I wasn’t writing a daily post here, I was able to reset my focus and reallocate my attention to other things. My spare time wasn’t spent on adding to the world wide web. And you know what…? The internet didn’t shut down. People didn’t run out of things to read, say, or respond to. Everything simply carried on. You probabaly didn’t even realize I was gone. Who would have thought?

Most importantly, I spent a lot of time with my family. We relaxed, ran errands and spent much more time outside than we normally do in our daily routine. I never knew yardwork could be so relaxing. I was reminded that my family is the most important gift God has given me, and just how little time I make for them in my day.

A little bit of rest went a long way. I’ll be making some major adjustments by making lots of small tweaks in my life. I’m curious, do you have a rhythm of rest in your life? If so, what do you gain from it? If not, I’d challenge you to give it a try.

This is a part of a series of daily reflections on the season of Lent.

• I am becoming more aware of my need for a Sabbath in my life. I’ve always known it in my head, but it’s making its way into my heart.
• Watched a great interview with Eugene Peterson and Gabe Lyons from Q Ideas on practicing the Sabbath, which got the wheels turning.
• Picked up The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel, even though I swore the next book I’d buy was Imagine: How Creativity Works - that’s next now.
• I’m going through Gary Molander’s Pursuing Christ. Creating Art. - some major takeaways I’ll attempt to unpack next week. If you haven’t read it, go get it.
• I failed the Unplug Challenge, out of sheer habit.
• That reinforced my need to build into my life a rhythm of rest.
• I truly hate when people announce their breaks from technology, social media, etc…that said, I’ll be offline until Wednesday. Since I don’t have anything pre-written for my Lent series, there will be a couple days of silence. I’m okay with that. You?
• Shabbat shalom

This is a part of a series of daily reflections on the season of Lent.

Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said. But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. Then he went out to the gateway, where another girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.” He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!” After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them, for your accent gives you away.” Then he began to call down curses on himself and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!”

Immediately a rooster crowed.

This is one of those events leading up to The Passion, where we feel Peter’s emotion, doubt and fear deep within our bones. It’s almost too much to read the next verse that says Peter went outside and wept bitterly.

We know this story, because it’s our story.

Lord, help me to understand the ways in which I deny you. Help me to overcome my fear by clinging to your promise. As we weep bitter tears, we thank you for the act of redemption that you showed on the cross, and we thank you for setting all things new.

This is a part of a series of daily reflections on the season of Lent.

Then Jesus said to them, All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.

Peter answered and said to Him, ‘Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.

Jesus said to him, Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.

Peter said to Him, Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!

I often relate with the Peter we see in moments such as these throughout scripture.

Strong in tongue, weak in faith.

This is a part of a series of daily reflections on the season of Lent.