The Great Fridge In The Sky
My soul craves music these days, and I don't mean the Black Eyed Peas (wait...that's not actually music anyway). We had our season-ending shindig last night for volleyball, which mostly consisted of hanging out in The House living room, eating pizza, and laughing at...with Danielle. Throughout the night various people picked up a guitar, didge, djembe, conga, and played something, good and bad. It didn't matter who had skill and who didn't; it was all about (Matt, earmuffs) exploring the divine creative.
One of the tragedies in our society is that we have relegated the beautiful things of life to the paid professionals, for the most part. I think I ranted about this in a previous post, but I am too lazy to go back and look. And since I know the rest of you are just as lazy I can blather on with impunity. The point is that we all have creative potential, it's part of the image of God...sorry Matt, the Imago Dei. Yeah, some of us sound terrible on the lute and couldn't paint a fresco to save our lives (that would a great sight, a person working away furiously on a wall with a gun pointed at their head..."not enough blue swirls"...BAM!). I think of our efforts like a little kid's, bringing home some horribly misshapen drawing of what appears to be a giraffe puking on a turtle, but is in fact a lovely family portrait. And God looks down with tears in His eyes (genuine ones at that) and says, "Did you do this yourself? It's an amazing likeness of a giraffe-puke covered turtle." And He means it.
Sure some of us can stay in the lines and a select few can actually make us feel the turtle's torment with wild brushstrokes and swaths of umber highlights, but it's all the same to God because actually does care more about the thought and the effort than the end result.
Where was I? Oh yes, as I sat surrounded by people expressing whatever talent they had I realized how much value there is in simply joining together in creative efforts, letting go of inhibitions and uncertainties. Just picture the smile on God's face as He proudly posts each picture on His fridge, the melodious sounds of giraffes and turtles wafting through the air.
posted by Chuck @ 2:02 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
"...it's all the same to God because actually does care more about the thought and the effort than the end result."
Are you sure about that statement? Could such a value system apply to God himself and his creation - "it doesn't matter that there are genetic deformities in humans, God meant well?"
I think it is a false dichotomy, in that, like any argument over free will, thought and action are theoretically separated from and set in extreme opposition to one another. No such disection is possible.
I could go on, but I'll hold up to see if a discussion ensues.
First of all, those deformities are a result sin, not God's original intent for His creation.
Second, I would say that the meaningless finger paintings of a brain-damaged child are just as good as the cieling of the Sistine Chapel. Each person is judged based upon what they have done with what they have been given, like the servants who were given talents. The man who received and made an extra 5 talents was not praised more highly than the one who received and made only 2. They were judged to have done well with what they had, whereas the servant who received 1 talent squandered the opportunity to make use of it.
Now, don't get me wrong, I marvel at the talents of those who achieve the highest levels of creative expression and I'm sure God does as well. But does He not also marvel at the artist who was not born with as much aptitude towards his craft but puts in as much effort and passion...or is He only interested in results.
Chuck, sometimes you amaze me. :-)
I wrote in the earlier comment that such a statement (God cares more about thought and effort than results) sets up a false dichotomy, neither side of which would I want to try defending.
"...deformities are a result [of] sin..." This highly theoretical position is not particularly defensible. It is an extreme reduction of an unfathomable complexity of interrelationships, the logical extensions of which are untenable, theologically or philosophically. I'm sure I don't have to unpack this here.
"...judged based upon what they have done with what they have been given..." With this I agree, and I think your invocation of the parable of the talents is on point. Even here the result and the orginal condition are inseparably mashed together to provide a context for the judgment, "Well done, good servant".
You and Jesus are right, of course. More is not better. But one thing must be qualitatively (not quantitatively) compared or contrasted to another in order for a story to mean anything, as Jesus himself demonstrates with so many of his parables.
The guy who buried his one talent shows that meaning well doesn't cut it in the kingdom of heaven. What one intends to do is irrelevant by itself. What one actually does cannot be excised from what one intends to do. But the end product is the fruit, which we are intended to experience. Actually experience, by savouring, or spitting, or grinning and bearing it. An exercise in taste.
I hold that one "meaningless finger painting" can be seen to be better than another (the Sistine ceiling is not a fingerpainting). Is there a double standard when it comes to art? We don't argue that, of two espressos, one can be better than the other. And we don't really worry about what the barista might think if we say, "This is a good coffee - better even than yesterday's, which was pretty good." One barista may even be said to be better than another barista, and this sort of comparison invites no assumptions that a tall barista is better than a short one or that one of the two is a better person than the other. Well done, good barista.
I find that actual experience trumps intended experience every time, for better or worse.
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