Sickness has been being passed back and forth around the Lehman household the last few day. I am thinking the homes affected by the water line break a few days ago may have been a little wider than previously thought. I can’t verify it, but it seems to correlate with the onset of this stomach ailment that we all ended up having at the same time.
I’ve been looking at doing more oil paintings in the near future and getting some more representational artwork out into the open. It is absolutely the opposite of the abstract stuff that I’ve produced over the last four years. In particular, I am being drawn back to landscape painting and classical still life paintings.
I think this has been a revelation that has happened in two parts.
Read More Post a comment (0)Sorry for the lack of good updates to the blog as of late. It isn’t because I haven’t been busy. I’ve been working on a new website for my church and doing some more artistic type graphic work. We have a men’s retreat that will be taking place next month that is entitled “MANdate: 2010″ The little subtitle/tease for the retreat is “Are you ready for battle?” The graphic above is what I helped put together for the event. It is a collaborative effort between Pastor Erick and myself.
I’ve started a new reading regimen for my devotional routine. It entails reading a chapter a day from five books. So this is what I am currently reading.
- Bible: The book of Jeremiah
- Third Dawn by Bodie and Brock Thoene
- Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis
- Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
- The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit By R. A. Torrey
I guess the interesting thing is that several of these are fiction. Christian Fiction and Inspirational Fiction, but nonetheless fiction. One is more Theology. Then the other is the Bible. But I was talking to my friend, Mark, who asked why I was reading fiction as part of my daily devotions.
So, Can Fiction be Devotional?
My answer is obviously yes. Jesus used parables (stories) to illustrate the concepts of the word of God. One of my personal greatest joys in life is reading fiction. So doing something I really enjoy, not just like, is in a sense a part of my devotional life. Donald Miller in Blue Like Jazz actually illustrates this point in my reading today somewhere in chapter three. He relates that story resonates with the Human condition because we are in a story. We have a setting, a place where we live. We have other characters, people we know, work with and play with, dislike and love. There is a conflict, that fact that we are a fallen creation of God and He is working to redeem us. The climax is the ultimate decision that we must make. The resolution is that we can be restored or that God is indeed just.
Fiction also causes us to think outside ourselves. One of my favorite books was written by author Stephen Lawhead, called Byzantium. He relates a story of Aidan, a monk chosen to go on pilgrimage. A journey that he sees in a dream will ultimately lead to his death. He goes and faces all kinds of different situations. The monks are attacked by Sea Wolves (danish pirates) and he is made a slave. He endures slavery, is freed, then is attacked by Arabs and falls in love with a Arabian princess only to lose her when he abandons his faith. He frees his fellow monks from being slaves in the silver mines and ultimately finishes his quest to appear before the emperor of Rome to find that his pilgrimage was in vain and that Rome is full of spies, speculation and Roman turmoil. He eventually returns back to the monastery a broken man, without his faith. But we find out that it was not all in vain. The Danish Sea Wolves who attacked him and his friends have become friends and followers of the faith Aidan once boldly proclaimed while a slave with them. He returns to where he once was a slave to become a priest, and eventually dies in Byzantium as a Bishop of the church fulfilling the dream that he would die there. But he dies a content old man rather than a victim of a red martyrdom, a pilgrimage gone awry.
I think that the greatest benefit of fiction for my spiritual life is that in fiction I can live a life of someone else and learn the thoughts behind decisions that end for the good or the bad. In doing so, I gain a greater understanding of my own motives and begin to see the story that exists underneath the surface of my own life and the greater story that I too am a part of.
It’s interesting how a little cleaning can make you remember old friends. You go through a closet and find a bunch of old pictures and you hit facebook looking for familiar names. Another thing that happens for me though is that I get a little free space and usually my guitar makes it out of the closet.
A little tune up and maybe a light dusting brings it to happy life once more.
As of late, new friends have been encouraging me to get out the ol’ git fiddle again regularly. My friend Mark, especially. Tonight I got another surprise. Another new friend who I’ve played with at church a few times… well, I never really realized how good he actually was. His name is Nathan Hiltner. Check out his video below. The sound and framerate are a little off, but you will get the idea.
When I took the photograph for this digital, I used the flash and their eyes just shone really bright. I thought I’d leave it as in a sense it shows the wilder side of a dog. So when I painted this, I left it a bit loose and free flowing, more wild.
Becca has off today so I think she wants me off the computer. 
He wasn’t really laughing. It was more of a yawn, but after I took the picture, it looked more like a laugh. It fits his personality so I went with it. Now what do dogs laugh about I wonder?
Rogin was trying to get the camera while I was taking this picture. But after messing with the photograph a little, I enjoyed the expression on his face and decided to go with it. I intentionally drew this one a little rough for the play on words with ruff. Not to be confused with buff. ”Rogin in the buff” is pretty much all the time. I mean other than fur, dogs don’t wear clothes unless you have a wife like mine around Halloween or something.
Yesterday, I had my cousin and her family over. I hadn’t seen her in probably 14 years or so. She has three kids now and her husband and has lost over one hundred pounds. It’s quite an accomplishment from the pictures she showed me. Anyway, I wanted to take out my dog Dugal before she got here, but I didn’t get the chance. Well, do you know how you know that you’ve been greeted by a cocker spaniel?
Yep. Pee. All over her pants down her leg. Dugal couldn’t just pee on a shoe, no… he had to jump and squirt at the same time. It takes talent to be a cocker spaniel.
” Hi, I know I haven’t seen you in fourteen years, so here let me let my dog pee on you.” All was good though. We laughed about it. Her kids played some Halo and we got a chance to talk a little while she held Aidan (who happened to have one of those mysterious poops that you can’t see from looking at his diaper and the whole while, I kept thinking “wow, he’s really gassy today!”)
I guess it could have been one of the rawhides he got for Christmas, but more than likely it was the wrapping paper that he traditionally rips into shreds on Christmas morning. I happened to catch him with this silly expression on his face and it was clear that he was enjoying Christmas. I hope you had a great Christmas as well. Maybe someone caught you chewing something on camera too? ;)
Merry Christmas to all! It’s Day three of my 100 days of my dogs. Rogin is going to be enjoying the Christmas tradition that Dugal started a few years ago. Shredding Christmas paper. It can become quite a mess around here on Christmas morning. Aidan will be enjoying his first Christmas too today.
So a very very Merry Christmas to everyone and yay for first Christmases too!
