What can God do for you today?

I'm going quite a bit deeper with today's post. I've been in one of my very introspective modes lately and I've had a lot to think about.

I preface today's post by stating that I am a Christian. Now, many have a rudimentary understanding of the word "Christian" and I'd love to clarify what it means but that is a post for another time.

I'll simply start by asking the question, "How do we treat God?"

Please take a moment to really think about that.

I ask this question because I've come to the conclusion that we tend to use God as just a means to an end. I say this because I myself, have come to realize that I was doing just that in my own relationship with God. I don't believe I'm stating anything new here but I think our culture has taken this concept to new levels of the extreme.

Living in such a media saturated, consumer driven society we've begun to treat God the same way we treat a box of cereal or a new electronic device. What can this thing do for me? How can this iPad or Kindle enrich my life... make it easier? How can God give me what I want? How can He get me to where I want to go. There are doctrines and beliefs that have focused on the packaging and re-packaging of the message of the gospel to make it an "easier sell" to non-believers. Now people only come because of what the church can do for them. The Gospel is no longer about our need to be saved from our own depravity and spiritual bankruptcy. It has been mutated into a product promising health, wealth, and cultural significance. I won't use labels here because no matter what you call it, it's the same unclean, enemy born spirit doing it's work to attempt to make us spiritually impotent. Our testimonies as followers of Christ will drown in a sea of the trivial and meaningless if we don't open our eyes and see this.

How was I expressing this skewed doctrine in my own life? It was all in how God could make my freelance career successful. I made assumptions about why God guided me along this path and I've come to discover that most of my assumptions were wrong. It doesn't necessarily change the path I follow but it does explain why I've struggled with so many failures along the way. It certainly changes my focus. Treating God as a means to an end made my career something trivial and it had the related effect of causing me to treat my clients much the same way. My clients were simply a paycheck to me. I was treating these relationships as something distant, trivial and disposable... only useful to me for a season and therefore I did nothing to cultivate them.

The two greatest commandments... to love God with everything you have and to love your neighbor. I realize now who my neighbors are and that I can't love God and not love them... no matter who they are or why we met.

Self Portrait

I haven't done a self portrait in a very long time. I really wanted to make something I could use as an icon/avatar for all of my social networking stuff and wanted something that reflected changes in my appearance (glasses & pony tail) as well as present a more graphic, comic art look and feel.

Death Of A Snowman...

Apparently a city bus driver in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois resigned after an incident involving the hit and run of a snowman.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40656640/ns/local_news-chicago_il/

Really? I'm just not too sure what to say about this.

Snowman being run over by a city bus - funny.
Bus driver losing a job over it - sad.

'Tis the season to be... (you fill in the rest.)

Does anybody remember...

Micronauts?

I've been going through my mental inventory of subjects I'd like to do for some illustrations and my mind started drifting towards toys I had when I was a kid. I inevitably recalled my collection of Micronauts.

These were amazing little toys made by the Mego Corporation back in the late 70's. Interchangeable, some were motorized, some characters (called Magnos) had these ingenious magnetic joints that gave the figures amazing articulation and interchangeability.

Man in the white hat - Force Commander

Man in the black hat - Baron Karza

It was the perfect set of toys for a geeky, sci-fi crazed, creative minded little kid like me. The permutations boggled the mind. You could play with these things a hundred times and never duplicate the same combination of parts. Of course, some of the things I came up with looked absolutely ridiculous but I didn't care. It was fun!

I miss my Micronauts. Not really sure what happened to them.

I think I shall do a very cool Force Commander vs. Baron Karza illustration sometime.

If you're ever wondering what to get this aging geek for his birthday or Christmas, the answer is simple...
MICRONAUTS!
(My favorite figure besides the two above, was the original Acroyear, just in case.)

Glad Tidings

An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:9-11

I just completed a new illustration and wanted to share it with everyone. It depicts the moment when God announced to the world the arrival of his son. Of course my mortal flesh could never do justice to the real thing but I hope it inspires and blesses nonetheless.

Let's celebrate and remember who we celebrate!

Web Site Update

Ah... finally updated my web site. Too long in coming but I managed to get to it and cut out all of the fat. I have this tendency to keep adding more and more stuff until my site becomes a bloated mess. I never know what to include and what not to include on my site. I want to show off everything. The problem is that I enjoy doing so many different kinds of art and lose sight of the fact that some of it, at least at this point, doesn't have any real capacity to add to my income. Same old problem. I need to stay focused, especially with my attention deficit and lack of multitasking skills.

Have a look

Starting Over...

I have a terrible habit of starting something and then not seeing it through. As was the case with this blog. So I'm starting over. I have nothing else to say... for now.