The first thing that jumped out to me was the quote from Irving Stone’s biography of Van Gogh, Lust for Life…
But then, no artist is normal; if he were he wouldn’t be an artist. Normal men don’t create works of art. They eat, sleep, hold down routine jobs, and die. You are hypersensitive to life and nature; that’s why you are able to interpret it for the rest of us…
So insightful. Along those same lines, this quote of Noland from page 17…
Artists look at things differently than nonartists do. We notice detail; we appreciate nuance and beauty.
And this from page 18…
The world doesn’t need more thick-skinned people. It needs more people who are sensitive and tender.
I hope you appreciated these nuggets of encouragement as I did; and not just as proof texts which justify you thinking more highly of yourself than you ought because of your artistic nature, but instead as humble validations of your God-given identity.
As further validation, I hope you appreciated Noland’s citations on pages 20-21 of artists in the Bible. Did you know that Bezalel (mentioned on page 21, and of course in Exodus 35:31-32) is the first person in all of Scripture described as having the Holy Spirit?
…He has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs…
Wow. Could I be so bold as to pray that God would fill us in the same way?
Notice the context of that passage. Bezalel was called to use all of this skill and intelligence for Kingdom purposes. Noland is right in saying (on page 23) that, “[s]erving God in the local church is a high and noble calling.”
What do you think?
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