I don't remember him doing this. In fact, I don't even remember now who this man is. I remember watching him on PBS a few times. He's a good artist. I didn't know he did that thing with mistakes and birds. It's a good idea, though.
When we were painting our bedroom, we had the idea that we would use darker shades of blue toward the bottom of the walls, and use lighter shades of blue for the upper walls and ceiling, so it'd look like an underwater scene. While painting a wall near where my bed would be, I used a shade of blue that was probably too dark for how high on the wall it was. Rather than painting over the mistake, I continued with a little bit of dark blue paint, and turned my mistake into a fish, which is now my favorite part of our wall.
We make mistakes, and sometimes we try to fix them by erasing them or painting over them. I wonder now if it wouldn't be a better thing to twist our flaws into things of beauty, to convert our garbage into compost (Man, that's a throwback from ages past!), and to use our stumbling blocks to build a foundation for a better life. Rather than covering up our mistakes or attempting to eliminate them entirely, perhaps we can use our flaws to become more perfect instead seeing them merely as things that make us imperfect.
I'm human, and I have several major problems with that. I hate being human. If there was a way to stop being human (that didn't involve serious moral and emotional repercussions), I'd consider it. I'm often disgusted, frustrated, and discouraged at how grotesquely human I am. Yet, being human is completely out of my hands and it's not something that's in my power to change. What I can change is my attitude toward being human and toward all the mistakes that my imperfection causes me to make. Instead of wishing I could erase my human imperfections or paint over them somehow, perhaps it'd be wiser for me to learn how to turn my flaws into birds.
Weaknesses can become strengths, I believe, if we use them correctly. I have what some would consider an obsessive fascination with fantasy, but there are ways I can use that to my advantage. In addition to the obvious, though unlikely-to-succeed career options in the fields of fantasy literature and the creation of fantasy games, there's an opportunity for me to bring about some good in the lives of people like me. My fellow fantasy freaks could probably benefit from the inspirational words of someone with a spiritual background, a talent for words, an intense understanding of fantasy, and a desire to improve his own life and the lives of others. I can speak their language, and if I can tell them ways they can improve their lives in terms that they can understand, maybe I can help them work their obsessive fascination with fantasy into a well-balanced human existence at the same time as I do the same thing for myself.
As a person who spends the majority of his free time in fictional worlds, I don't expect anyone who's firmly rooted in the real world to fully understand me, just as other people like me don't expect most people to understand them. But if I, being one of them, understand them as well as I think I do, maybe I can help them, and myself, find a place in a world that's more challenging than any world any fantasy author could imagine - the real one. Maybe I can turn my unhealthy obsession into the engine that drives me to change my own and other people's lives for the better. In a way, I've already started that by attempting to see myself as a Paladin.
Anyway, I'm two or three paragraphs deep into a worthless tangent. I'd probably better get myself back on track now. We're all human. And since we're all human, we all have aspects to ourselves that we'd love to change. My message this morning is that sometimes we don't have to remove our flaws entirely in order to remove them effectively. If a man can negotiate for peace successfully, he can eliminate his enemies by turning them into friends. A man who can turn his weaknesses into strengths will soon become the strongest man in the world. You don't need to paint over your flaws in order to eliminate them. You just need to learn how to turn them into birds.
1 comment:
I like the idea of turning weaknesses into strengths. We need to seek the help of the spirit to do so.
You hate being human? You are a human indeed. You should love being human. A son of the most high God. Brother of a God and Prince so great that He has created worlds without number. No fantasy being can touch what He is. On this world alone He displayed mastery over nature, illness, and death. All wise. All powerful. And yet he loves YOU so much that he accepted torture and death to make your return home possible. He thinks you are of infinite worth. And He's all-wise, remember? You going to argue with that? So you fumble and fall and make mistakes. Remember when Esther, and Jared, and Naomi were each babies? Couldn't feed themselves. Couldn't walk. Pretty much all they could do was eat, sleep and make messes. We loved them anyway. And then when they started to learn, no one was disappointed when they fell down. They were babies. They needed time to grow. Jared is a great big boy of 8 now. But he is not a man. He cannot lift heavy objects. He cannot drive. He cannot fix the car or do repairs around the house. He is not earning a paycheck. Is he a failure as a man? No! He is not. He is not a man. He is a fine boy, learning and growing. Some day he will be a strong, fine man. There will mistakes and "failures" along the way. You are a human man, but that's pretty much a kid in the progression towards perfection and god-hood. That's not a failure, that life and progression.
Be careful how much time you spend in the fantasy world. I seriously think it can stunt your growth. What God offers the faithful will far outshine any fantasy. The quest He has sent us on takes courage, dedication, faith, fortitude,love and more. It is a noble quest indeed.
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