Lose Yourself

People are like works of art, and works of art are like the people that created them. Art has a voice, and it speaks to you, it tells you something, it whispers in your ear and coaxes you to agree or disagree, like or dislike, find yourself or lose yourself.

This is Pablo Picasso's "Friendship", the bodies mix and mingle, in his famous cubist form, these muses are a part of each other. Art has always deeply impacted me, and it is because it is a part of me. Artists have reasons for their work, even if that reason is to have no specific purpose or plan; even the most contemporary or abstract artist has thoughts, desires and dreams put into their work and they want it to say something to you.

Human beings are extremely complex creatures. Each and every one of us is unique, different, beautiful, broken, and who we are, even without any words, speaks volumes to everyone looking. This analogy is full circle, because not only are we works of art because we are alive and breathing, we are specifically created by a Creator. Before even our parents conceived us, our Creator God was the master artist who shaped, formed, created and birthed us. However messy or lost we may see ourselves as now, however misshapen or deformed we have become, we are made to be something much more, something great, something magnificent.

You may walk through an art gallery and see paintings you like, sculptures you hate, and watercolors you are quite indifferent towards (why so many hay stacks?) All of these are complete, even if they don't seem like it. Artists do this purposefully sometimes, a painting may be complete but we perceive something is missing - rightfully so.

Do you ever walk around the world and feel like something is missing? People, all people, have the capacity to be, express, and speak all that they were meant to be. It isn't by a certain job, status, money donated, marriage, volunteer work, home, car or child. It is only by losing ourselves completely in something, Someone else, that we gain everything.

Philippians 3:8 "What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ."

God created us specifically and creatively, to have an intimate and deep relationship with Him. Then, He revealed Himself through His Son, who suffered for us. Jesus lived life to the fullest, absolutely, and was the ultimate human being, the perfect work of art. Our Creator tells us we can share in this relationship, covered by His death and life to be made new.

In order to be completely who we were created to be, we must throw off everything, we must remove every barrier, shake off every cultural expectation, and ask Jesus to reshape us. Like the potter and his clay, like the artist and his brush, like the photographer and his lens, He wants to capture us.

If we let Him, our lives will speak volumes to the people that are looking, because they are seeing a work of art being reshaped, redefined, and perfected by its Maker.