“A happy life is … built up of … little clumps of violets noticed by the roadside, hidden away almost so that only those can see them who have God’s peace and love in their hearts.” ~ Edward Wilson

“In difficulties, I can drink freely of God’s power and experience his touch of refreshment and blessing — much like an invigorating early spring rain.” ~ Anabel Gillham

“Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air, and you.” ~ Langston Hughes

“The best things are nearest: breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of God just before you.” ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

“To be grateful is to recognize the love of God in everything he has given us — and he has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of his love, every moment of excistence a gift of grace.” ~ Thomas Merton

“I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.” ~ Philippians 4:12-13

Having trouble getting started or continuing a project? Maybe these quotes will speak to your heart:

“Remember that as a creative person, the important thing is to create. Who sees what you make, where it goes and what it does is a secondary consideration; the first is to exercise the talent God has given you.” ~ Franky Schaeffer

“Each work of art, whether it is a work of great genius or something very small, comes to the artist and says, ‘Here I am. Enflesh me. Give birth to me.’ And the artist either says, ‘My soul doth magnify the Lord,’ and willingly becomes the bearer of the work, or refuses.” ~ Madeleine L’Engle

“Every time we hesitate to begin for fear of failing or seeming frivolous, we must fill that moment of hesitation with prayer. Then we must follow that prayer with action, with doing something, anything that will get us moving forward in the practice of our art.” ~ Janice Elsheimer

“Art is not something separate from life, but something at the heart of life which celebrates the fact that we are creator children of a creator God.” ~ Steve Turner

“Because we are made in the image of God, our creativity and our faith are intertwined. To enjoy a creative life we need to be free to experience more of Christ’s inspiration and less of our own inhibitions, fears and sin patterns. We live a creative life in response to the Lord Jesus as he is revealed in the Scriptures and by the Holy Spirit.” ~ Alice Bass, The Creative Life

According to Alice Bass, when we use our imagination, we’re putting into play our experiences, personality, abilities, and intuition. Relationship with Jesus gives us insight into His purposes; He redeems our imaginations…and we can enjoy the creativity that flows from Him.

Are you struggling with expressing your creative urges? God delights when we use His gifts.

Longing sneaks up on us. The pangs, at times unrelenting, wash over us in boredom, hardship, and angst.

But God sees past these earthly tents, deep into the soul. Often, He is slipping a window open for us, while we’re stuck at the ledge, peering everywhere…but through His window pane. What if His DNA is imbedded in our longing? Is He not drawing us to Himself?

“All happenings, great and small, are parables whereby God speaks. The art of life is to get the message. To see all that is offered us at the windows of the soul and to reach out and receive what is offered, this is the art of living.” ~ Malcolm Muggeridge

“There have been times when I think we do not desire heaven; but more often I find myself wondering whether, in our heart of hearts, we have ever desired anything else.” ~ C. S. Lewis

What are your thoughts? What are your longings?

Some days you feel like a writer; some days you don’t. When discouraged, a good quote can lend perspective and bring back a smile:

“I am a bear of very little brain, and long words bother me.” ~ Winnie the Pooh, character created by author A. A. Milne

“Literature is strewn with the wreckage of those who have minded beyond reason the opinion of others.” ~ Virginia Woolf

“There’s many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.” ~ Flannery O’Connor

“Why don’t you write books people can read?”~ Nora Joyce, to her husband James

“If we compare ourselves with others, we will become either proud or discouraged—and neither is from God.” ~ Kent Crockett

“It always strikes me, and it is very peculiar, that when we see the image of indescribable and unutterable desolation - of loneliness, of poverty and misery, the end of all things, or their extreme - then rises in our mind the thought of God.” ~ Vincent van Gogh

I once laughed at van Gogh’s work. Young, foolish - what did I know? His paintings struck me as unremarkable.

As I grew older, something about his work toyed with me. The vibrant colors maybe? Perhaps it was the sadness behind the brushstroke. His pictures tugged at my heartstrings until finally I read about his life. I cried. Before that point, the artist spoke through swirling emotional colors that life had not taught me. But now I get it.

His paintings seem over-rated to some, but it takes more than a glance to know the man. If we fail to observe, we walk away empty-handed, missing the heart behind the canvas. I invite you to read about the troubled man and learn of his depth. See what you think about his faith. Different authors highlight different aspects of van Gogh’s life, and while he might have pulled away from “organized religion” in latter years, that’s not such a bad thing. Something tells me he never pulled away from Christ.

At Eternity’s Gate
A Living Message

I love Van Gogh. Decades later, I regret my initial impression and sense a sorrow over our tendency to make snap judgments about one another. Beneath all art is story, and we have more in common with Vincent than we realize.

Perhaps we’ll discuss more about his life and faith in another post. For now, the grandpeeps are coming (yay!) so I leave you with some of my favorite van Gogh quotes:

“I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.”

“Christ is more of an artist than the artists; he works in the living spirit and the living flesh; he makes men instead of statues.”

“There may be a great fire in our soul, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke coming through the chimney, and go along their way.”

“If you hear a voice within you saying, ‘You are not a painter,’ then by all means paint . . . and that voice will be silenced.”

“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.”

“I want to do drawings which touch some people…I want to progress so far that people will say of my work, he feels deeply, he feels tenderly.”

“There may be a time in life when one is tired of everything and feels as if all one does is wrong, and there may be some truth in it. Do you think this is a feeling one must try to forget and to banish, or is it ‘the longing for God,’ which one must not fear, but cherish to see if it may bring us some good? Is it ‘the longing for God’ which leads us to make a choice which we never regret? Let us keep courage and try to be patient and gentle. And not mind being eccentric, and make distinction between good and evil.”