WordArt

WordArt: It's a simple command seen on any typical Microsoft program. But have you ever thought about the conjunction of those two pieces of speech or text, "word" and "art?" To an English major who is daily becoming more obsessed with the art world, the conjunction of these words has to be one of the most beautiful contemplations to ever enter this trusty brain of mine. There are many contemporary artists who are now combining visuals and text to create new meanings that go below the surface of immediate observation. The combination of these two elements (words and art) reminds me a few of the chapel talks that were given at Covenant during my freshman year.

That year in chapel, we talked about the book of Mark. We discussed how amazing it is that Jesus almost always uses the gospel combined with a visual of some kind to get his point across to observers. He healed people, gave them a visual. He also gave them a foundation for the interpretation of his healings; there are very few if any instances of his healing folks without getting to the heart of the matter, without sharing the gospel. When Jesus heals the man on the mat in Luke 5, He not only helps him walk but forgives his sins and lets him know that it is He alone that has the power to forgive these sins. He shows the man his power in both physical form and through his speech. He does the same when he teaches in parables. It is phenomenal that we serve a God who meets both our physical and spiritual needs and who gives us words to follow as well as visuals to display those words.

We are called to do the same in our Christian walks, preach the gospel and display it pictorially. It is important to live a life which shows that Jesus is alive and amazing and dwells inside of you. However, today's culture, for the most part, has forgotten the text. We are a culture that indeed, in some respects, has learned to practice what we preach. We participate in Invisible Children, International Justice Mission, and Mission to the World. We send letters to congress, help in Haiti, and join the Peace Corps. We, as a generation, have finally begun to step up to the palette of colors and paint pictures that display the kind of God we serve. However, we often forget that although a canvas can be beautiful, if it points to nothing in particular, meaning is subjective. We need to begin to not only show others what the God inside of us can accomplish but point others to Him through our words, like Jesus did. People need pictures so that they can see the results, but they must know who brought those results about--not us but God. People must be given words so that the beautiful canvases of lives well lived point to the ultimate artist, Alpha and Omega.

As of late, every time I see an art piece that combines both text and picture, I am reminded of what kind of life I am to live. I am reminded that I need to be bold and brave--that I need to show God but also speak of Him. I want my life to mimic Su Blackwell's art work and Thomas Allen's photography. I want to tell an amazing God story and feel that same story so well that it pours out of my veins into visual form. I highly doubt that this story telling art is something that I will ever fully learn to do. Unlike Jesus, I have no brain for parables and my heart is usually not into telling God's story in the first place. (It's into telling my own.)However, I hope and pray that as I live out my life, God will somehow help me become a storyteller who glorifies Him--who tells his "old, old story" well.

Su Blackwell's "Alice: A Mad Tea Party"

Some of Thomas Allen's work.