DO YOU HAVE TIME TO SEE COLOR?

Have you ever painted a picture? Well, even if you haven't you could probably imagine the process that one might go thru to create a piece of art. The long strokes vertically to cover the mass of the canvas followed by small strokes to add detail. The physical labour that would be required as your arms thrash vigorously to express the vision you have only shadows the emotion you have invested into this interpretation you call art. The emotion one would put into a piece of art would be a great personal feat as it would require you to pull from your soul the views and feelings you have locked inside. It would have you plow up any creative or innovative perceptions to flow with ease into your piece. I believe that self evaluation is often necessary in expressing ones self thru art, which would require allowing yourself to be purged of anything that would disrupt the beauty of this masterpiece in the making. It would also mean allowing light to fall on pain that could be expressed thru your vulnerability. In addition to the physical labour and the emotional investment, I could only imagine there would be a great time sacrifice as a true artist would never rest until he felt at ease with his muse. I would bet that an artist steps away from his piece only to come back and find an imperfection that requires changes and modifications to capture the original thought. Think of the time it would consume to create this piece of art that is an expression of your soul.

Do you have the time for the final outcome?

 This revelation came to me by talking to one of my best friend about hair. Yes, hair can actually bring forth deep thoughts. I was sharing with her how in my business it is common for people to have their hair colored and when the final product is revealed, walk away un-happy. It's my job to make sure that a client loves the way they look and feel when they leave my chair. So, if someone leaves feeling disappointed, but doesn't let me know they are un-happy, I am unaware therefore unable to change it. As I was expressing to my friend how frustrating it is that someone would rather leave un-happy, than spend the time allowing me to go back and add or take away whatever necessary for them to love their hair, she said "Do you think that is how God feels about us?" This thought was seriously profound and stopped me dead in my tracks. I started to think about my craft. It is an art to me! When beginning a color service, I have a vision but sometimes as the artist, I step away when I am finished and I realize that the end result does not capture the beauty that was in my original thought. It's rare that someone has the time to sit in my chair for another couple of hours for me to go back and perfect it so that it is a true expression of my vision. And so I let them know if they are at all un-happy, to please come back and let me make a few changes. Most people have little grace for this. They automatically de-validate me as a hair stylist, or an artist. They assume if I don't get it right the first time, then I must not know what I am doing. And they quickly replace me with another hair stylist. This saddens me because they miss the whole point of my craft. I am an artist. If I got it right the first time, every time... would I still be able to call myself one? If only they would come back to me and allow me to elaborate or make a changes to the "painting" they might find that their hair becomes a true masterpiece. It's such a shame that instead of honesty and opportunity to create true art, I am brushed aside for the next stylist, who in fact will eventually fail to impart perfection. Isn't it the PURSUIT for perfection that I should be trying to obtain? Do you think that Di Vinci mastered the Mona lisa on the 1st time? How about Beethoven, do you think he wrote the symphony no 9 in an hour? Absolutely not, because the heart of an artist is the ability to create, and creation is the process of seeing an original thought transform into a work of art. This takes time and willingness to go back to the drawing board to accomplish something the artist can be proud of. It's the pursuit of perfection, not solely perfection, that separates the good from the magnificent.

VINCENT VAN GOGH said "Keep going, keep going come what may. But what is your final goal, you may ask. That goal will become clearer, will emerge slowly but surely, much as the draft turns into the sketch and the sketch into the painting through the serious work done on it, through the elaboration of the original vague idea and through the consolidation of the first fleeting and passing thought."

If I could have it my way, I would take one client a day. So I could take a thought and elaborate on it until it became more than my mind could contain. Because to me, that is art. It is when you allow yourself the freedom to expand, express, create, elaborate, change, erase and start again, add or take away. It is when you allow your thought to transform and come to fruition in a way that even our own minds couldn't have foreseen. If God is the artist of life, the author and creator of the universe.... then more than any Picasso, van Gogh or Krause, wouldn't he deserve the freedom to take his time laboring on the masterpiece he calls our life? "Do you think God feels this way about us"? That's the thought that started in my head. And with time, heart, emotion and many times reaching with my right ring finger to press delete... I was able to take this thought into a true expression of what was inside me. Do we truly trust God to complete the work he has started in us?

 And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. Philippians 1:6

Do we have the time to let him use our lives as a canvas to showcase that he is the artist of all time? Would we be willing to let him make our lives into an art piece that would reveal his glory? Or are we going to leave him unhappy the 1st time we don't like the results? Are we going to jump to another God or Idol that might fulfill our needs on the 1st try? When will we realize that God is the pursuer of our hearts and begin to wait on his timing to complete the work he started?

After the gift of this revelation, I for one have decided that I would be honored to give Jesus the time to complete the work in me. I will stop running every time that I don't understand, or I don't like the outcome of a situation. I will trust in his timing, and that the outcome he has planned is far greater than I could receive from another source. I will give him the room for imagination and elaboration along the way. When something goes astray, I will choose to smile with gratitude that he is making art our of my mess.

I will see color when I don't understand. I will see color when I face change. I will see color when he expands his thoughts and plans for my life. I will see color as he paints the story for my life.

 Do you have time to see Color?