At Your Heart?

Humility is one of the great attributes of Christ followers.  It is not a lack of self worth as much it is an understanding of the gift of grace, undeserved goodness.  Humility is also at the heart of every great artist.  They see the absolute beauty that abounds in life and in the physical world and they marvel in awe at its testimony.  The issue is that most will never seek to know to Whom beauty testifies.

Humility is always best in our heart not at our heart. 

Rock Softner

Have you ever been in a situation where there is just no way to win, to find peace, to be restored?  It is a spot between a rock and a hard place and it can go on for extended periods.  Several months ago I began to read the book, “Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff and It’s All Small Stuff”.  My wife gave it to me many years ago and I have read it several times during small and great trials in my life.  We all have choices to make and one of the greatest is whether to be an agitator or a peacemaker.  There are very, very few situations in life that require agitation but almost all of life’s needs are solved by peace.  Apply peace to your situation and if it does not work then accept peace with God as the only solutions to softening your rock and your hard place.  "I am leaving you with a gift--peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don't be troubled or afraid.” Jesus

Maquette for a commission.

Help Us Be Grace Cathedral

Yesterday we visited Grace Cathedral at the top of the highest hill in the center of San Francisco.  Cathedrals give me hope.  They are testaments to our best nature, our greatest longing for meaning and our desire to reach out to The Devine.  It is mans one way in which he still drives a stake in the ground to sincerely declare, “i Believe! only by faith, but i Believe.”

By Devine decree our route out of town lead us through one of the poorest sections of town.  The streets where grimy and long abandoned and humans in all manner of sorrowfulness filled these byways, the hurt and wounded left for dead.  It was a great reminder that the stone building atop the hill was long abandoned as The Temple and replaced by Christ with “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” for the sole purpose of hearing, 'I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!'

Aaron and Allison standing in the Nave.  

We Are A Different Country

We spent the day exploring San Francisco, such a beautiful town.  At one point we found ourselves on a mountain high above the bay, to the east lay the city and The Golden Gate and to our west the great Pacific.  We were in a concrete bunker where during WW II a 1,000,000 gun was stationed that could accurately hurl a 3100-pound shell 27 miles.  The massive hole that held the turret still had rusty nuts attached to bolts as big as your arm that was used to turn the gun.  I couldn’t help but think we were a completely different people at that time. 

We continued to wander around the city seeking out all the natural landscapes and outdoor sculptures that made our visit so good.  However time after time and even again this morning I am struck by the meaning of that gun and the nation that built and placed it.  We are a different people today.   

Rolling the gun into place.

Hope!

  

Who Will Take Care Of The Public Artist?

Who will take care of us?  It is a fundamental question that plaques all humans thereby steering all cultures.  We are in the midst of a public art build and have been hounded by low-level public servants over every conceivable issue.  To give you an example a young city engineer has followed us around taking pictures, measuring and continually meeting with the Arts Director.  Because the plaza where we are building lies above a parking garage nothing can weigh more than 100 lbs./sq./ft. and she has a clipboard and calculator that she continually figures on.  At one point my daughter-in-law made an astute observation, “a large man couldn’t sit on the plaza, they would have to continually shoo him off.”  This continual supervision of your life by the state is likely to become more and more the norm as a culture who has rejected God seeks to still answer the fundamental question, “who will take care of us?”