Gratitude

Ah, Van Gogh.... the fullness of life.  I wanted to write a little about gratitude and I was trying to think of what art work equalled gratitude to me and I think it is all mixed up with "fullness of life."  Van Gogh's paintings definitely inspire me to see the fullness of life--colors, textures, whole compositions, movement, contrasts, all the fullness of life...

So, I've finished the lecturing part of Compassion and feel like one of the take-aways this time around in teaching it is that the right kind of Christian life, service, compassion, etc, is marked by gratitude.  "This is the deepest meaning of compassionate action.  It is the grateful, free and joyful expression of the great encounter with a compassionate God.  And it will be fruitful even when we can see neither how nor why.  In and through such action, we realize that indeed all is grace and that our only possible response is gratitude."  

As one who can be prone to "angst" about my roles/actions in life, I feel this is a timely reminder that Christians should be testifying to a loving, compassionate God with faith that he will bring a new heaven and a new earth and we are grateful participants--receiving his compassion and fullness of life and sharing that same compassion and fullness of life.   

Right now, I'm enjoying the "fullness" of blogging--catching my people up on my life and my thoughts  via a medium that helps me process but also allows me to reflect a little more intentionally.  I'm enjoying some other writing projects on my list (a couple more art articles, a guest blog on "stuff expat aid workers like). I also enjoy teaching USP students, managing our house and all the people therein, thinking of some summer plans and what that means, thinking through some of my artistic possibilities, enjoying our kids as they get older and grow into their own persons, appreciating various cultural/communal aspects of our life, enjoying more time for reading...  Generally speaking I feel grateful for the chance to seek and receive the fullness of life and to share that grace in the areas that best match my talents/contexts/abilities/relationships, etc. 

Someone once told me that instead of wearing WWJD bracelets (What Would Jesus Do), we could wear WWVGD (What would Van Gogh Do) and i found this to hit on something.  Obviously, if we could all become like Jesus that would be fantastic, but due to the various interpretations and legalism that gets wrapped up in these attempts, its refreshing to think outside the box a little.  What would it be like to live into the fullness of this life as depicted by Van Gogh--to celebrate the intensity of our humanity and our environment and the common things of this life.   "Love calls us to the things of this world" (line from Richard Wilbur poem).