Reflection #86: That divine trumpet you hear calling you toward your true path is not only the horn of God, but may be someone else's call for divine help
I am a portrait painter and photographer. I am also a Bible teacher, and consistently both seek and see the grace and wisdom of God in the arts.
A few years back, I invited a 50-year-old woman into a project of mine. I had photographed each of her two children in the past. She was extremely anxious, but also excited. Afterward, during a celebratory gathering for all the participants of my Artist Project, she said this (excerpt):
“For the past 24 years I have identified as wife, mother and career woman. I knew my purpose and had established goals for myself. My focus was on being successful in my goals and not on myself. I was making it all happen and had the best life ever! Or so I thought.
Almost overnight, I had a significant health scare, my career stagnated, my children began to leave the home and my family was falling apart. Everything I had worked so hard to build over the last 2 decades was being lost! And I was devastated to say the least! I didn't know where to turn, I didn't know what to do, I didn't have a clue.
Then I spoke with William about this project. Through his guidance and his lens I was able to see myself from a different perspective.
For the first time ever in my adult life I was able to see the woman that I was and not the position/title that I held. I was able to see the beauty that was mine, the fierceness with which I love and the strength it takes to overcome the storms which had been sent my way. With his assistance, I gained a new perspective in life to view myself as a person and not a position. I am a success story that continues to be written. My life is not falling apart, it is just being redefined with me at the center, me as the person, not the title!”
I have tried, and failed, to read through this testimony without tears. It is now one of my most precious possessions, as evidence that what I do is indeed the call of God on my life.
Thank you for sharing that story. Learning our art has helped another in a small or a big way is indeed the biggest, most precious "payment" we can ever receive.
Good morning. O dont know have many people I put out from rutine.But people put a smile on their faces when they see me and they are smiling when they go from me. When I changed they were no trumpet. I hear voice I know from the past and he say literaly: You are Home
you dont need to go nowhere
you dont need to learn nothing more( the answers are in you, you need to remember) I was looking church tower I olready say that Im leaded bay heart and not mainf. letter they say to me os church Jezus Chroste heart. Simbolik That have hapend. you dont trast me ? ha before I will tray to prove .Now I dont care any more. I dont need to prove nothing. To argue? whay? And what I gona get from arguing.
calm. peace. love. compassion. gentle . Light Magic that is all in me. I have problems but samhave I fell that everything will be ok. and if its wont whay to boder mayself with samthing I cant change. its 04 30 birds are singing I read very good post thank you.Daylight coming. Magical. bay
Lovely and good thoughts about the freedom we have within when fear and the ego are as Clint says “burnt away”. Very nice thoughts. Thank you for writing. Louanne, 🌺❤️🌺
I am an artist and I also write. I have a Blog on Medium where the Lord writes through me, and I've been told it's impacted people - it's supposed to do that's very good. I had a very successful Federal career so in my retirement, God has given me enough and I have turned back to my art - watercolor, a journey I began when I was 5-6 years old. Last year, I had a significant health impact and am still recovering, but have started to paint and write again. We don't always realize how precious life is until it's almost taken from us. I have one painting in particular that won't be sold - it's a portrait of the Lord in the Garden before the Guards came for Him. I made 5 copies of that painting and they have all gone to those individuals I knew were supposed to receive them. Anyway, your post has helped me cement my beliefs that where I am now and what I'm doing, is where and what I'm supposed to be and doing. There is a "nudge" within me that my art will be growing in more ways than I can comprehend right now, so I'm looking forward to the adventure. Thank you for the beautiful words.
Another piece of masterful writing, resulting, for me, in a paradigm shift for how to look at the call to create art.
Here was how I experienced the divine call for help through one of my paintings: A woman who saw one of my figurative paintings called me later to say that she wished to purchase it. I brought it to her home and she asked me to hang it across from her bed so that it was the first thing she saw as she woke up and the last thing she saw before closing her eyes. And later she wrote this to me about it: "The painting is right there in front of me, with me, and I am with it. It is like a generous different world opening up its arms in a gesture of welcoming invitation for me to step in; and I do step in every time I look at it, I am in it! And it facilitates a passage from my "real world" into "it's charming, vast, soft, reassuring and soothing world". It is becoming my refuge...my spiritual time, my prayer! It feels like a dream, a mirror, an outstanding beauty, a familiar place where feelings, light, color and fragrances are dancing on the rhythm of my heart." I later found out that she had lost her husband several years prior in a motorcycle accident. She was still grieving and this painting was helping her move from grief into a place of peace.
Not too long ago, she was diagnosed with two types of cancer. She asked me to create a floral painting so that when viewing it, the beauty and light would help her heal.
I have no words...am truly dumbfounded. When creating the paintings I was responding to beauty and light. And it was loud and commanding, as a trumpet/horn would be.
I have felt guilty for the privilege of being able to paint when it so many in the workaday world find their lives cumbersome, onerous, difficult. I won't feel that way anymore because maybe "the divine trumpet I hear calling me toward my true path is not only the horn of God, but someone else's call for divine help."
This is such a beautiful story! What's interesting is that in the second Chronicles book about Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the children enter Narnia by staring deeply at a painting of a ship until they are drawn into the painting and find themselves in Narnia. That can happen in real life it seems, art can, as your story illustrates, draw a person into the inner Narnia.
"The saint is an artist who paints virtue into the medium of life itself. His life is his masterpiece."
"Come. Let me breathe on you."
So beautifully powerful - the Joy of the Soul breathes this Call of Love into our Hearts, and into the Wonder and Awe of our Minds. Great Spirit prevails.
Since mid 1990's I've sent my watercolor greeting cards - each an original - to someone that I sense the desire to send. Still to this day, I magically hear from someone who has saved it, and it means even more to them now. I love the mystery of it all.
Giving and receiving become one when done with integrity/compassion.
God is Gracious indeed.
Clintavo, Thank you for your deeply meaningful writings.
Take precious care of your precious self... life is precious.
"The saint is an artist who paints virtue into the medium of life itself. His life is his masterpiece."
"Come. Let me breathe on you."
So beautifully powerful - the Joy of the Soul breathes this Call of Love into our Hearts, and into the Wonder and Awe of our Minds. Great Spirit prevails.
Since mid 1990's I've sent my watercolor greeting cards - each an original - to someone that I sense the desire to send. Still to this day, I magically hear from someone who has saved it, and it means even more to them now. I love the mystery of it all.
Giving and receiving become one when done with integrity/compassion.
God is Gracious indeed.
Clintavo, Thank you for your deeply meaningful writings.
Take precious care of your precious self... life is precious.
"The saint is an artist who paints virtue into the medium of life itself. His life is his masterpiece."
"Come. Let me breathe on you."
So beautifully powerful - the Joy of the Soul breathes this Call of Love into our Hearts, and into the Wonder and Awe of our Minds. Great Spirit prevails.
Since mid 1990's I've sent my watercolor greeting cards - each an original - to someone that I sense the desire to send. Still to this day, I magically hear from someone who has saved it, and it means even more to them now. I love the mystery of it all.
Giving and receiving become one when done with integrity/compassion.
God is Gracious indeed.
Clintavo, Thank you for your deeply meaningful writings.
Take precious care of your precious self... life is precious.
Beautifully written, Clint. I re-read the Chronicles every few years and see a new perspective of life and Aslan (who goes by another name here) and myself.
Thank you. I have re-read Lord of the Rings several times, but this is the first time I've re-read the Chronicles since I was a kid, so it's been interesting to uncover the deeper meanings of these stories as they relate to the Narnia within.
"The saint is an artist who paints virtue into the medium of life itself. His life is his masterpiece."
"Come. Let me breathe on you."
So beautifully powerful - the Joy of the Soul breathes this Call of Love into our Hearts, and into the Wonder and Awe of our Minds. Great Spirit prevails.
Since mid 1990's I've sent my watercolor greeting cards - each an original - to someone that I sense the desire to send. Still to this day, I magically hear from someone who has saved it, and it means even more to them now. I love the mystery of it all.
Giving and receiving become one when done with integrity/compassion.
God is Gracious indeed.
Clintavo, Thank you for your deeply meaningful writings.
Take precious care of your precious self... life is precious.
I am not an Artist - my father painted watercolors, my husband oils, my sister acrylics, my son design, even my 16 year old granddaughter creates 3D - everyone in my family but me. I am so tired of people asking me to try some form of making art - anything - but nothing calls to me. I’ve been told my “gift” is hospitality so your article encourages me to think of creating a welcoming home for family and friends as my “art.” Thank you for this perspective. And I love Chronicles of Narnia, must read again.
Hospitality is a beautiful and generous gift. That is indeed YOUR art! I've had people say so often that I am lucky to be an artist and then they say that they wish they were artists but (sigh), lack creativity. EVERYONE is an artist and a creator because we were made in the image of our Creator. We simply use different mediums. Your medium is your smile, your heart, your welcome. How lucky your family and friends are!
Love this article. Praise God for bold writers like you! Beautifully written and I take it as confirmation. My house is currently decorated for my daughter’s birthday in a snowy Narnia theme, complete with my hand drawn light post on the wall. It’s what she wanted for her party last week. I am planning to begin painting again in August after a long and difficult few years.
Wow! I try to limit the emails I receive and was unsubscribing from many when I ran across this amazing encouragement you wrote that really speaks to me! My “art” is in raising a healthy family and I have been told by many that it is life-saving (videos, classes and speaking) Always keeping you around, thank you!
I am a portrait painter and photographer. I am also a Bible teacher, and consistently both seek and see the grace and wisdom of God in the arts.
A few years back, I invited a 50-year-old woman into a project of mine. I had photographed each of her two children in the past. She was extremely anxious, but also excited. Afterward, during a celebratory gathering for all the participants of my Artist Project, she said this (excerpt):
“For the past 24 years I have identified as wife, mother and career woman. I knew my purpose and had established goals for myself. My focus was on being successful in my goals and not on myself. I was making it all happen and had the best life ever! Or so I thought.
Almost overnight, I had a significant health scare, my career stagnated, my children began to leave the home and my family was falling apart. Everything I had worked so hard to build over the last 2 decades was being lost! And I was devastated to say the least! I didn't know where to turn, I didn't know what to do, I didn't have a clue.
Then I spoke with William about this project. Through his guidance and his lens I was able to see myself from a different perspective.
For the first time ever in my adult life I was able to see the woman that I was and not the position/title that I held. I was able to see the beauty that was mine, the fierceness with which I love and the strength it takes to overcome the storms which had been sent my way. With his assistance, I gained a new perspective in life to view myself as a person and not a position. I am a success story that continues to be written. My life is not falling apart, it is just being redefined with me at the center, me as the person, not the title!”
I have tried, and failed, to read through this testimony without tears. It is now one of my most precious possessions, as evidence that what I do is indeed the call of God on my life.
Thank you for sharing that story. Learning our art has helped another in a small or a big way is indeed the biggest, most precious "payment" we can ever receive.
Good morning. O dont know have many people I put out from rutine.But people put a smile on their faces when they see me and they are smiling when they go from me. When I changed they were no trumpet. I hear voice I know from the past and he say literaly: You are Home
you dont need to go nowhere
you dont need to learn nothing more( the answers are in you, you need to remember) I was looking church tower I olready say that Im leaded bay heart and not mainf. letter they say to me os church Jezus Chroste heart. Simbolik That have hapend. you dont trast me ? ha before I will tray to prove .Now I dont care any more. I dont need to prove nothing. To argue? whay? And what I gona get from arguing.
calm. peace. love. compassion. gentle . Light Magic that is all in me. I have problems but samhave I fell that everything will be ok. and if its wont whay to boder mayself with samthing I cant change. its 04 30 birds are singing I read very good post thank you.Daylight coming. Magical. bay
Lovely and good thoughts about the freedom we have within when fear and the ego are as Clint says “burnt away”. Very nice thoughts. Thank you for writing. Louanne, 🌺❤️🌺
I am an artist and I also write. I have a Blog on Medium where the Lord writes through me, and I've been told it's impacted people - it's supposed to do that's very good. I had a very successful Federal career so in my retirement, God has given me enough and I have turned back to my art - watercolor, a journey I began when I was 5-6 years old. Last year, I had a significant health impact and am still recovering, but have started to paint and write again. We don't always realize how precious life is until it's almost taken from us. I have one painting in particular that won't be sold - it's a portrait of the Lord in the Garden before the Guards came for Him. I made 5 copies of that painting and they have all gone to those individuals I knew were supposed to receive them. Anyway, your post has helped me cement my beliefs that where I am now and what I'm doing, is where and what I'm supposed to be and doing. There is a "nudge" within me that my art will be growing in more ways than I can comprehend right now, so I'm looking forward to the adventure. Thank you for the beautiful words.
Loved reading this!
Thank you.
Another piece of masterful writing, resulting, for me, in a paradigm shift for how to look at the call to create art.
Here was how I experienced the divine call for help through one of my paintings: A woman who saw one of my figurative paintings called me later to say that she wished to purchase it. I brought it to her home and she asked me to hang it across from her bed so that it was the first thing she saw as she woke up and the last thing she saw before closing her eyes. And later she wrote this to me about it: "The painting is right there in front of me, with me, and I am with it. It is like a generous different world opening up its arms in a gesture of welcoming invitation for me to step in; and I do step in every time I look at it, I am in it! And it facilitates a passage from my "real world" into "it's charming, vast, soft, reassuring and soothing world". It is becoming my refuge...my spiritual time, my prayer! It feels like a dream, a mirror, an outstanding beauty, a familiar place where feelings, light, color and fragrances are dancing on the rhythm of my heart." I later found out that she had lost her husband several years prior in a motorcycle accident. She was still grieving and this painting was helping her move from grief into a place of peace.
Not too long ago, she was diagnosed with two types of cancer. She asked me to create a floral painting so that when viewing it, the beauty and light would help her heal.
I have no words...am truly dumbfounded. When creating the paintings I was responding to beauty and light. And it was loud and commanding, as a trumpet/horn would be.
I have felt guilty for the privilege of being able to paint when it so many in the workaday world find their lives cumbersome, onerous, difficult. I won't feel that way anymore because maybe "the divine trumpet I hear calling me toward my true path is not only the horn of God, but someone else's call for divine help."
This is such a beautiful story! What's interesting is that in the second Chronicles book about Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the children enter Narnia by staring deeply at a painting of a ship until they are drawn into the painting and find themselves in Narnia. That can happen in real life it seems, art can, as your story illustrates, draw a person into the inner Narnia.
my apologizes to everyone for my duplicating nonsense of my posts
love, Candace Jean
"The saint is an artist who paints virtue into the medium of life itself. His life is his masterpiece."
"Come. Let me breathe on you."
So beautifully powerful - the Joy of the Soul breathes this Call of Love into our Hearts, and into the Wonder and Awe of our Minds. Great Spirit prevails.
Since mid 1990's I've sent my watercolor greeting cards - each an original - to someone that I sense the desire to send. Still to this day, I magically hear from someone who has saved it, and it means even more to them now. I love the mystery of it all.
Giving and receiving become one when done with integrity/compassion.
God is Gracious indeed.
Clintavo, Thank you for your deeply meaningful writings.
Take precious care of your precious self... life is precious.
Candace Newman
That's such a great idea, I can see how it would be extremely rewarding
"The saint is an artist who paints virtue into the medium of life itself. His life is his masterpiece."
"Come. Let me breathe on you."
So beautifully powerful - the Joy of the Soul breathes this Call of Love into our Hearts, and into the Wonder and Awe of our Minds. Great Spirit prevails.
Since mid 1990's I've sent my watercolor greeting cards - each an original - to someone that I sense the desire to send. Still to this day, I magically hear from someone who has saved it, and it means even more to them now. I love the mystery of it all.
Giving and receiving become one when done with integrity/compassion.
God is Gracious indeed.
Clintavo, Thank you for your deeply meaningful writings.
Take precious care of your precious self... life is precious.
Candace Newman
"The saint is an artist who paints virtue into the medium of life itself. His life is his masterpiece."
"Come. Let me breathe on you."
So beautifully powerful - the Joy of the Soul breathes this Call of Love into our Hearts, and into the Wonder and Awe of our Minds. Great Spirit prevails.
Since mid 1990's I've sent my watercolor greeting cards - each an original - to someone that I sense the desire to send. Still to this day, I magically hear from someone who has saved it, and it means even more to them now. I love the mystery of it all.
Giving and receiving become one when done with integrity/compassion.
God is Gracious indeed.
Clintavo, Thank you for your deeply meaningful writings.
Take precious care of your precious self... life is precious.
Candace Newman
Beautifully written, Clint. I re-read the Chronicles every few years and see a new perspective of life and Aslan (who goes by another name here) and myself.
Thank you. I have re-read Lord of the Rings several times, but this is the first time I've re-read the Chronicles since I was a kid, so it's been interesting to uncover the deeper meanings of these stories as they relate to the Narnia within.
"The saint is an artist who paints virtue into the medium of life itself. His life is his masterpiece."
"Come. Let me breathe on you."
So beautifully powerful - the Joy of the Soul breathes this Call of Love into our Hearts, and into the Wonder and Awe of our Minds. Great Spirit prevails.
Since mid 1990's I've sent my watercolor greeting cards - each an original - to someone that I sense the desire to send. Still to this day, I magically hear from someone who has saved it, and it means even more to them now. I love the mystery of it all.
Giving and receiving become one when done with integrity/compassion.
God is Gracious indeed.
Clintavo, Thank you for your deeply meaningful writings.
Take precious care of your precious self... life is precious.
Candace Newman
I am not an Artist - my father painted watercolors, my husband oils, my sister acrylics, my son design, even my 16 year old granddaughter creates 3D - everyone in my family but me. I am so tired of people asking me to try some form of making art - anything - but nothing calls to me. I’ve been told my “gift” is hospitality so your article encourages me to think of creating a welcoming home for family and friends as my “art.” Thank you for this perspective. And I love Chronicles of Narnia, must read again.
Hospitality is a beautiful and generous gift. That is indeed YOUR art! I've had people say so often that I am lucky to be an artist and then they say that they wish they were artists but (sigh), lack creativity. EVERYONE is an artist and a creator because we were made in the image of our Creator. We simply use different mediums. Your medium is your smile, your heart, your welcome. How lucky your family and friends are!
Great answer. Everyone has an area in which they are artfully gifted.
Love this article. Praise God for bold writers like you! Beautifully written and I take it as confirmation. My house is currently decorated for my daughter’s birthday in a snowy Narnia theme, complete with my hand drawn light post on the wall. It’s what she wanted for her party last week. I am planning to begin painting again in August after a long and difficult few years.
Wow! I try to limit the emails I receive and was unsubscribing from many when I ran across this amazing encouragement you wrote that really speaks to me! My “art” is in raising a healthy family and I have been told by many that it is life-saving (videos, classes and speaking) Always keeping you around, thank you!