Finding My Strength

Started this set last night in physical pain and also just feeling the need to express my emotions associated with PCOS. So I did several sets and found it cathartic. But the whole time, I was questioning, "why am I doing this?" Why focus on all this pain? Am I just allowing emotions and hormones to control me? Isn't this self-indulgent?

 

But then I thought about the troubles so many people went through in the Bible. I especially thought of David. He went to deep, dark places of his soul when he composed his Psalms. His raw emotions were sometimes laid bare, and he honestly expressed anger, resentment, confusion and pain. But in every instance, there's always a grasping for the truth and hope...that the struggles aren't permanent but God is. I find comfort in that.

 

There is sometimes an unspoken rule that a Christian should only paint pretty little pictures and look at the world through rose-colored glasses. But I don't see this at all in the prophetic souls who wrote scripture. Flaws of fallen humanity were not hidden away, and real issues were looked at plainly. Those that wrote endured rejection, imprisonment, and isolation. Yet even in the midst of this, God worked through them to create the most beautiful, heart-wrenching poetry.

 

So I seek this kind of honesty in my artwork, too. I don't want to limit myself by a religious spirit that dictates that I create saccharine Sunday School art and happy smiling Christian faces. Anything less would be disingenuous and untrue to all I hold dear.

 

Full video "Finding My Strength" Natalie Grant www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0rdJZSPWII

Created on Polyvore - www.polyvore.com/finding_my_strength/set?id=29399386

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