Questions?-Session #3-"What are you seeking?"
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| photo by John Waites |
Session #3—What are you seeking?
Supplies- Clay, wooden skewers or pointed tools to cut away the clay
Any type of clay will do, that you can find, even play dough will work. for this exercise. It is the touching and kneading of the clay that has the healing mechanisms.
Welcome to The Maker’s Space! This is a safe place where we can slow down and use art to listen to God. You have chosen to come and take some time away from the busyness of the world, to spend time with yourself. We try to provide an environment away from the chaos outside, to a quiet place where you can listen and hear from God. This is the place your spiritual side can be transformed and grow if you allow to give it time and space. Only God can transform us into who He intended us to be.
"Creation is always an act of faith, and faith is a spiritual issue, so is creativity. As we strive for our highest selves, our spiritual selves, we cannot help but be more aware, more proactive, and more creative." --Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way
We’ve viewed 2 of our 5 recalibrating questions, to help us on our journey of intimacy and dialogue with God. These questions can also help you get unstuck or restarted again. The first 2 are asked by God in Scripture, the last 3 are asked by Jesus in Scripture, and can be directed to ourselves as we pursue honesty with God.
The #1 Session centered on the question “Where are you?” and can be found on www.themakersspace.us
The #2 Session centered on the question “Who told you that?” and can be found on www.themakersspace.us
This #3 Session will focus on the question “What are you seeking?” John 1:35-39
Let's get started...
To help get into the medium of clay, watch this 6 minute video on one artist's perspective of his calling to create.
If you are in a group setting, say your name, for each other’s benefit, tell each other also, what is the first thing that pops into you head when you hear the question, “What are you seeking?”
Now in light of the video of the artist who is doing what He feels he was created to do, imagine Jesus asking you “What do you want?” and then again, “What do you really want?’
Read John 1:35-39 from the Bible
“The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?””
John 1:35-38 NIV
We don’t know why Andrew and the other person answered with a question, “Where are you staying” but maybe to deflect from answering.
Close your eyes and imagine Jesus asking you, “What are you seeking? or “What do you really want?’ Try to be honest and notice the answer that comes into you head. It might take a minute to get to the root of a pursuit that could be making you anxious or tied up in knots.
Take some deep breaths, and relax and see if you can come up with an honest answer. After a few minutes, read this Jesus Calling devotion and imagine Jesus speaking to you.
“There is immense hidden treasure to be found through listening to Me. Though I pour out blessings upon you always, some of My richest blessings have to be actively sought. I love to reveal Myself to you, and your seeking heart opens you up to receive more of My disclosure. Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
--Jesus Calling 3/15 Devotional
“Is there anything too hard for Jehovah?” Genesis 18:14
Here is God’s loving challenge to you and to me today. He wants us to think of the deepest, highest, worthiest desire and longing of our hearts, something which perhaps was our desire for ourselves or for someone dear to us, yet which has been so long unfulfilled that we have looked upon it as only a lost desire, that which might have been but now cannot be, and so have given up hope of seeing it fulfilled in this life.
That thing, if it is in line with what we know to be His expressed will (as a son to Abraham and Sarah was), God intends to do for us, even if we know that it is of such utter impossibility that we only laugh at the absurdity of anyone’s supposing it could ever now come to pass, that thing God intends to do for us, if we will let Him.
“Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Not when we believe in Him enough to go forward and do His will, and let Him do the impossible for us. Even Abraham and Sarah could have blocked God’s plan if they had continued to disbelieve.
The only thing too hard for Jehovah is deliberate, continued disbelief in His love and power, and our final rejection of His plans for us. Nothing is too hard for Jehovah to do for them that trust Him.
--Streams in the Desert devotional
“We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.” 2 Corinthians 4:7
Dear Jesus, we invite you into our art today, to slow us down to hear what you have to say to us, to help us grow and to be everything you have created us to be.” Amen.
Explain clay exercise……
After you have asked yourself the question, close your eyes and notice an image that comes into your mind. If you don't get an immediate image, just start working the clay and see what happens. Whatever is on your mind will come out in the clay. The purpose if to get engrossed in the process, not necessarily in the final product. For in the process of losing track of time and creating and the making of something, we get out of our default mode of "taking" and into a new mode of "making" which is a creative process that feeds the soul. Let your conscious, critical, mind go and "play" with the clay and see what happens. Try and make a type of puzzle. Perhaps, a puzzle in your life you are trying to solve. Perhaps, it could be something you desire that is a puzzle to you. Or it could just be a puzzle.
"So very much in this life is an unsolvable puzzle. We are complex beings with diverse personaitities, a stockpile of past experiences, unique family histories, cultural conditionings, and patters of thinking and interacting that collectively affect the choices we make. We stumble. Sometimes it seems impossible to understand why things are the way they are. Yet there are bottom lines--questions we can ask ourselves that clear the thick layers of fog that surround us."
Barry Krammes, Professor Art Dept. Biola University, ccca.biola.edu 3/7/22
"What are you seeking?"
After you are happy with your puzzle that you have been working on, take a look at it and ask yourself, were you surprised by anything in this experience? And…after asking yourself the question, “What are you seeking, or what do you want?…..ask yourself, “What did you find?” Did it surprise you?
This week, continue to be open to the question, “What do you want or what are you seeking” because your art will continue to speak to you, and if you ignore it and get distracted, you will miss what it is saying to you. Art that says only one thing is called a sign. True art should say multiple things you the viewer or the artist.
For further reading, I have included two portions of scripture to think about, of two people who did some seeking. The first is the Queen of Sheba who was a real person and had many riches but was seeking something more.
Read 1 KIngs 10:1-13
How do we know it was God’s wisdom?
Now read 1Kings 4:29-34 and 1Kings 3:7-15
Every field of knowledge is God’s. There is nothing He doesn’t know.
Jeremiah 33:3 “Come to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”
So, what are you seeking? Even wisdom itself, is an idol. It needs to be God Himself that you seek.
“ Wisdom harboring bitter envy and selfish ambitions is earthly. Wisdom from Heaven is all pure, peace-loving, considerate full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.” James 3:13-18
“I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s great mystery. All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else. And we’ve been shown the mystery.” Colossians 2:2-3
Discussion Questions to go further:
Whether you are a “digital immigrant” or a “digital native,” technology’s flooded our world with information. T.S. Eliot said more than 80 years ago, that we shouldn’t confuse information with knowledge or knowledge with wisdom.
“Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”-T.S.Eliot
- What are you…a digital notice or a digital immigrant?
- What do you think of the T.S.Eliot quote?
- How much are we chasing after information vs. wisdom?
- What is the difference between earthly wisdom and wisdom from Heaven? See James 3:13-18
- Those that reject God, still worship, only at other alters. We were designed to worship and be fascinated by God. If not God, what are we fascinated by and seeking—-Self? State? Sex? Science? Stuff? Give examples of the above idols in today’s world.
- If what we seek is what we value, how do we devalue things that aren’t useful? Give examples, for instance, people with disabilities, or the aged.
- What is your definition of happiness? Is there a difference between joy and happiness?
- None of us seek suffering, but how does suffering impact wisdom?
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