I read a couple of quotes that I found interesting this morning. It seems like such a long time ago and the inspiration that I had at that time before running out the door for a day of music lessons and other activities that fill our day. So It is 10:30 at night and I have about a half an hour before I will need to call it a night so I guess we will see how far I get with this tonight.
"Sigmund Freud realized that the cause of man's depression was guilt, just as any honest seeker of truth will find if searching fo the root of man's confusion. But he could not see past the tree of knowledge and suposed that the remedy was to be found in the very fruit that was the cause of the problem. Instead of teaching that relief from guilt and resulting depression was to be found in doing what was right, he began to attack what he considered un realistic morals and standards. " Rick Joyner page 20-21 There were Two Trees in the Garden.
So I am reading this book in my quest to get a better handle on the Tree of Life mosaic project that I plan to do in the near future. Generally when I get an idea for a big mosaic like the Beloved Project, or the Waiting Angel I have a moment or a time where the inspiration is very clear in my mind. It is during that time that I try to capture some rough sketches of that inspiration. It becomes the frame work from which I will later work. I have currently done two sketches for the Tree of Life Project.
So you see the couple at the base of the tree - again kind of like the Beloved project in that everything flows out of that abiding love relationship with Jesus.
"So I read another quote in the same book this morning. "Neither is man truly free to live in this world without the restrictions that God place upon him. The very thing that confines man is what sets him free to be what he was created to be."
So I think of that quote in relationship to my life as art and the art work that I do. I am most free when I have boundaries that are secure. When I know where those lines are I am able to be fully creative within them. In a sense I am not so much trying to see this project in finite detail but more to understand where the boundaries of truth fall concerning it. I need to get a handle on what is the message or the inspiration of the piece. Here are the opening words from the first chapter of the book There were Two Trees in the garden. "There were two trees in the Garden of Eden which challenged the course of the entire human race - the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. These same two trees continue to challenge us. When one becomes a Christian, challenges do not end - they increase. Many times a day we must choose between the fruit of these trees. Between them lies the focal point of dichotomy between the Kingdom of God and the present evil age.
The Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life are symbolic of two spiritual lineages, or family trees. The Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is the history of two lineages. Understanding these two lineages can help us to understand the most common errors besetting the human race, including the Church"
I've had the book for a month now and just have not had the time to really read it. I am hoping to find some quiet reading time during the next couple of weeks to finish this book and hopefully come to some sense of where I am going with this project.
I guess in one sense I trust that the Lord will bring the inspiration that I need to take the steps of faith to decided on things like the size and shape and to begin to draw it on the supporting structure.
I've been thinking I might want it to be some what transparant. It is a funny sense that I have - when things feel right. While I try not to base a lot of decisions on "feeling" I don't discount them entirely.
I was thinking about the guilt thing in the first quote. I know a lot of people that struggle with mental illness and depression. That whole subject is one that I find hard to draw nice black and white lines. How much is chemical, how much is demonic oppression, how much is the cumulative effect of a life filled with guilt and regrets. I guess I get frustrated by those who feel that a happy pill will solve everything for people. While I can see that can be a tool in the process I think that without looking at the effects of guilt and regrets, and admitting that we do live in the battle ground of a spiritual war I just don't think we really get to the roots of the problem and we just are putting bandaids on things that require surgery to repair. Not sure why I'm going down this path tonight. I certainly don't claim to be be an expert on the subject. I do know that in my own life Jesus often takes me through layers of things before getting down to the deeper roots. I guess I have learned to trust His timing and some of the interesting ways that he brings things to my attention.
I guess my thought are a little tangled tonight like the roots of this tree I am trying to understand.
I know you and I have been part of the old Tree of Knowledge linage and we must get beyond thinking our knowledge and ability to reason is going to turn things around. We must turn to Jesus, we need the Tree of Life. We must abide in Him. If we abide in Him then our lives bear fruit. If we accept what He has done for us in paying the price for the penalty which our sin deserves. Then we can begin to release all that guilt and shame to Him. He is willing to forgive us, He is willing to set us free to a new life in Him. I guess we have to decide which family tree we want to be part of. The Tree of Knowledge has had a long time to saturate life as we know it. We can keep trying to fix things within a broken system or we can accept the new life and the healing and fruit of the Tree of Life found in Jesus.
Prayer
Dear Lord,
Will you take these words that I've written and let what is vital to each reader jump out to them. I pray that little nugget would inspire them and help them like an important missing puzzel piece. That some how this along with other things that you have been speaking to them would some how connect and the bigger picture of your plan would become clearer. I pray that you bless them with your wisdom and your peace as they seek to know you in greater intimacy.
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