When God gets involved<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n I try to update an old sketch, but the guy in the drawing\u2019s having none of it. It doesn\u2019t matter how much I rub him out and try to rework him, there\u2019s always something that\u2019s not quite right! It\u2019s just that perfection is important to me, that\u2019s all!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/span>Oh Lord help me…<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 I gaze at the drawing in question: it depicts Jesus, full of compassion, lending a hand to a prostitute and an alcoholic down and out (behind his back, a bunch of \u2018religious\u2019 people criticize him… slow handclap, guys!).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The visit<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 I\u2019m lost in my thoughts when the studio\u2019s back door opens and a man walks in unsteadily and comes dangerously close to invading my personal space…<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I recognize him, he\u2019s a local painter who has something of a reputation as being \u2018jinxed\u2019 (in that he struggles to have his talent recognized).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n He sits down at my right hand and looks at my drawing with haggard eyes:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/span>Bah!\u00a0 Your drawing\u2019s far too fussy \u2013 too much going on!\u200a<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n he throws out, before launching doggedly into his \u2018critique\u2019 which I receive in tandem with his beery fumes…both of which really suck<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u200a!<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0I\u2019ve now got two challenges to take on: the drawing itself and an artist!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Oh well… I get him a coffee.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Four pieces of cardboard<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 He takes 4 pieces of cardboard from out of his pockets and puts them on the table. They\u2019re of different sizes and all are the shape of a rectangle:\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/span>This represents my life!\u200a<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n He flourishes the largest piece of cardboard:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/span>I want to give 60% of my life to God!\u200a<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n He then points to the smaller pieces:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/span>This means I need to cut back my painting time to 20%. I\u2019m keeping 10% of my time for doing things around the home (like doing the laundry) and the other 10% is for… (I\u2019m sorry, but I can\u2019t remember what he said here… I know, I know, it\u2019s pretty dumb of me, but that\u2019s what happened).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Silence.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I was touched by this man\u2019s inner being. Contrary to all appearances, he too is longing for the spiritual. I see him in a different light now, and I look warmly at him…<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The 5<\/span><\/span><\/span>th<\/span><\/span><\/sup><\/span>\u00a0element<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 I grabbed a piece of cardboard that was bigger than any of his:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/span>Look, Xyzwhg (not his real name)… let\u2019s say this piece of cardboard is God, ok? I gather up all his little bits of life (the little pieces of cardboard) and place them on God (the large piece of cardboard)… (ok\u200a? Do you get me?)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/span>When you paint, paint for Him (like I try to do), make every painting an act of praise and a shout for joy that you can offer up to Him. And hope that the public would be touched by your paintings when they see them.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n When you do your laundry, do it for Him so that when He visits you, your house smells good and your guests feel welcomed.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Your \u2018whatwasitagain\u2019, do it for Him, that way your empty \u2018\u200adunnos\u200a\u2019 will instead be spaces filled with God… whatever you\u2019ve got left, talk to Him about it…<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Being\u2019 is more important than \u2018doing\u2019 (because without a relationship with God, only death awaits). In short, whatever you do, let it be inspired by love!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Wow! The painter is stunned (suddenly stone cold sober!) as am I. Yikes! Did I really say all of those things?!…<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Xyzwhg left the studio, diving deeply into his thoughts. I was pensive too, as I sat back down before my drawing…<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A revelation\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I called on God to help me and He brought my drawing to life in front of me… (Luckily I hadn\u2019t been drawing a three-headed dragon!) Just like the religious people in my picture, I\u2019d started off by despising my neighbor… In the end, I got the better of my drawing! How?\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n It was really very simple:\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I took the painter\u2019s \u2018critique\u2019 and did every little thing he\u2019d suggested…<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When God gets involved It\u2019s a veritable battle! I parry energetically but the enemy is stubborn and I\u2019m feeling out of my depth. Despite my razor-sharp weapon, I can see no way out…But this is no sword I\u2019m talking … More…<\/a> More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.auderset.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.auderset.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.auderset.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.auderset.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.auderset.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12626"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.auderset.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12637,"href":"https:\/\/www.auderset.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12626\/revisions\/12637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.auderset.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.auderset.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.auderset.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Jesus](\"http:\/\/www.auderset.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Jesus-ami-des-pecheurs-Auderset.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n
\nIt\u2019s a veritable battle! I parry energetically but the enemy is stubborn and I\u2019m feeling out of my depth. Despite my razor-sharp weapon, I can see no way out…But this is no sword I\u2019m talking about, just a simple pencil, you see, I\u2019m actually just a guy who draws for a living.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n