He is my Shepherd and Light

Yesterday, I was having a rough day at work. We weren't very busy, so my sales weren't very high and I got hit with some pretty big returns, so my net sales were pretty dismal. At one point I figured that I would probably spend about as much on gas getting to and from work as I had made that day. It was frustrating, kinda confusing, and I could feel my heart getting frustrated and agitated. Instead of wallowing in anger and self pity, I decided to get proactive and focus my mind on the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord. He's the only one who can pay all my bills and provide for all my needs anyway, so why try to handle all that pressure myself in an unhealthy way?

I began meditating on Psalm 23, the Lord as my shepherd, and it helped my heart immensely! I didn't even really get beyond the second verse, I just kept repeating the same lines over and over (but here is the whole thing.)

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters. ..."

I hadn't even thought this far into the psalm earlier, but for the first time in my mind I saw a connection between the good shepherd who can lead me through the valley of the shadow, and the light that the darkness cannot overcome. I don't really have a whole lot more to say about about this, but it seems so obvious, I don't know why I never saw it before. How else could He lead me through the valley of the shadow of death unless He was light, and if His light I find life, even when I'm surrounded by death.

After work I went to a friends house for a hang out which turned into a time of worshiping the Lord with music and singing. Since I had been spending a good amount of time meditating on Psalm 23 earlier, it continued into my time of sitting during the worship and "mixed" in my mind with another passage I've been thinking a lot about recently for a commissioned painting I'm working on, John 1:4-5

"In Him was life,and the life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

So I see the paraphrasing kinda like this:

' The Lord is my guardian, I will not lack anything.
He makes me rest, because I couldn't earn it anyway.
He makes me lie down in abundant provision.
And He brings it to me gently so that I can take all I need.
Even when I don't know where we're going, He knows the way.
He knows where to take me, because He knows all of my needs, all of my wants.
Even when I can't see the provision coming, everything looks bleak,
I can look to Him and I see Him.
I see Him. He sees me. I know His voice. He knows my heart.
It's in looking at Him that I can find what it means to be alive.
Nothing else that I was or was not seeing before and beat what I see in Him.
Of whom should I be afraid?"

Home is where your heart is.

I've been missing Virginia recently, and the people I left there. I guess this is what happens when a visual person processes things?


There's not really a whole lot more for me to say on the matter. This may end up on a shirt though if I ever get a printing press built so I can run two colors.

Send Another Wave

This is another piece I was inspired by Holy Spirit to do while in the prayer room. We were asking for God to send another wave of His Spirit to Kansas City and this is the image that popped in my head. What does another wave look like? It might look like the revivals that happened in the past, but I don't honestly know. I do know that He is really really good and really really kind, and that where He is, is where I want to be!


There were a couple things I was thinking about with this one, namely that I want Him to come, but also about how all of creation is wanting God to return to the earth. I've also considered the description John gives when he sees Holy Spirit descend on Jesus at His baptism "like a dove". I have fun wondering exactly how much like a dove was He? The uncreated God, who created everything clearly has a pretty creative mind. Was John describing His form; 'He was a dove.' He looked like a dove; 'He was similar in shape to a dove like bird.' He moved like a dove; 'The movements He made remind me of how a dove moves.' I dunno, I think it's a fun thing to ponder. The scriptures also describes the Lord as an all consuming fire so I played with that a little as well. The Lord is the source of all glory, light and power in all of creation. I could go on, but I'll spare you. I hope you enjoy and that the viewing and pondering blesses you as much as the painting did me.

It looks like I was thrown off track in keeping up with this thing. It happened right around the time that I began working nearly full time while going to school and the prayer room full time as an IHOPU student. But the semester ended well, and I was actually a little bummed when classes were over. Though I am enjoying that I have a little bit more free time now that I'm "only" working full time.

I've wrapped up three paintings, and a design-doodle to keep me busy and in the groove of mediating on what God was teaching me during the semester. I'm a little backlogged on paintings I want to get done, so I need to put these ones to the side so I physically have room to get some more done!

Here is the redo of a piece I did during my internship:

This is only the second time I've tried painting in thin layers with oil paint to allow the wood grain to show through and I'm thrilled with how it turned out. I think the natural wood grain adds good interest and variation in the colors. It's a daunting 2'x4' but I really like the scale and impact of it. there were several close calls when I thought I had ruined it, but I really like it now.

And here is a close up detail of the piece. I was so stoked when my camera recognized his profile as a human face!