“There is a very fine line between altars and idols, but it turns into a wide divide. . . . If you worship yourself by setting up monuments, your world gets smaller and smaller and smaller. Eventually the only thing that fits in your tiny universe is you. If you worship God by building altars, your world gets bigger and bigger and bigger.”- Mark Batterson
“I now consider what I do in the studio to be theological work. I imagine my water-based paint to possess the tears of Christ.”- Makoto Fujimura
As Mark Batterson moves on in Chapter 9 of A Million Little Miracles, he reminds us that whatever we fail to turn into praise turns into pride. For example, when King Saul built a monument to himself at Carmel, he listened to the wrong song. Saul let the lyrics about David slaying his ten thousands injure his ego. Hence, the lyrics got the best of Saul and infiltrated his spirit.
When Makoto Fujimura painted something as a child, he felt an electrical charge pass through him. Thus, in such moments time slows down, your senses heighten, and you fully immerse in whatever it is you’re doing.
However, as Ian Bradley writes in Following the Celtic Way (2018):
“Too many Christians today, brought up on the penny plain prose favored by Rome and even more by the Reformers, have half-formed imaginations. All too often we dismiss the poets and artists in our midst as mere doodlers and dreamers and fail to appreciate that they may be priests who are interceding for us and articulating our deepest thoughts and concerns to God.”
Above all, Mark exhorts, everything you possess — time, talent, or treasure — is a gift from Almighty God. As a result, in the act of worship you give those gifts back to God. By giving it all you’ve got.
In conclusion, Pastor Batterson underscores, every act of art is a miracle. And such art need not rise to the level of Handel’s Messiah or the Mona Lisa. Only image bearers possess the ability to exercise imagination. As a result, we’re walking, talking miracles!
Today’s question: How do you keep the very fine line between altars and idols from becoming a wide divide? Please share.
Coming Monday: the March Short Meditation, “Forty rounds with the devil”
Tomorrow’s blog: “A single grain of sand”