About Elizabeth

Hello! I'm glad to meet you! My name is Elizabeth. I am a wife and a stay-at-home mommy to three beautiful girls; I am a musician and a writer. I would love for you to visit with me at MadeSacred.com where I write and try to thoughtfully engage life and culture as a way of loving God and loving others. After all, God has made everything to be sacred, things in our daily lives and things in the world around us.

He Has Made Promises

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Elizabeth

I lost a friend this week.

In high school, she was one of my best friends. We played and sang together. We did show choir and musicals together. We volunteered together. We even had secret names for each other. (Yes, we still did that in high school. We were nerds.) I got to be a part of her life when she was baptized. We lost touch over the years, but I still loved her.

I’ve lost three friends over the past year and a half. This weighs heavy on me.

There is nothing that makes this okay. Jesus Himself wept at the death of His friend.

Death and pain, sorrow and grief. These are not how life was created to be.

There is nothing that makes this okay. Only one thing makes this bearable.

Our God.

He has made promises to us that He will make it turn out all right in the end. He has made promises to us that when we see Him face to face, all the horror that came before will seem as insubstantial as a morning mist blown away by the rising sun. He has made promises to us that He will remain with us and in us until that beautiful day arrives.

How do I know He will keep His promises?

I know because God loves us enough to put on skin and come down to live with us, to suffer for us, to die for us. I know because God has enough power to rise from the dead and conquer death for all time.

He loves us enough and He has power enough.

I don’t know why God didn’t put it all right from the beginning. I don’t begin to understand why He places so much importance on human freedom of choice or why our sin and redemption are so closely intertwined with creation itself.

But I know He keeps His promises and I know that His promises are beautiful beyond imagining.

And for that I will trust Him.

This one’s for you, Jenna. Until we meet again.

To hear my blog post read aloud, just click the play button. If you’re reading this in an email, you may have to click here to hear the post on my site.

Not About Me

Posted on March 4, 2016 by Elizabeth

It is not about me.

This is disappointing. I want it to be all about me.

I want all that happens to be for the sole purpose of making me happy, comfortable, and a better person.

But it’s not.

When darkness fills my life, when loneliness weights my soul, when grief deadens my heart,

it’s not about me.

Yes, God loves me and wants the best for me, but what is best for me is not that everything (or anything at all!) revolves around me.

When circumstances occur that I don’t like, when hurtful or even ugly things happen, will I try to make it about me or will I let God use it to glorify Himself? Will I be able to let go of my own self long enough to let God use it to bring others to Him and bring His kingdom closer to fulfillment?

Huh. God glorified, loved ones brought to Him, His kingdom brought close to earth? As I think about it, this all benefits me.

Even though it’s not about me.

Funny how God makes that all work out.

To hear my blog post read aloud, just click the play button. If you’re reading this in an email, you may have to click here to hear the post on my site.

He Is Saying Your Name

Posted on February 26, 2016 by Elizabeth

To hear my blog post read aloud, just click the play button. If you’re reading this in an email, you may have to click here to hear the post on my site.

I have lived deep in pain.

When I wanted a baby and God said not yet.

When my brother called and said of his pregnant wife, it’s cancer.

When my Papa died the day my baby was born.

I have lost friends and family, I have been disappointed and lonely.

As have most of you.

You, too, have received the doctor’s call, heard the rejecting words, felt the crippling fear and doubt.

When you are in the middle of deep, dark pain, you are blinded. Your body curls in on itself, your eyes darken with tears. You look for Jesus, desperately searching for Him, but you cannot see Him.

In the deepest pain, He is closest.

Mary stood at the tomb, searching for Him. In the middle of her deepest pain, she searched for His dead body but was blinded by her grief. Angels spoke to her and she could not see. Jesus, the One she searched for, stood behind her and she thought He was the gardener.

And then.

Mary.

He is right here. As close as your very breath. And He is saying your name.

Look up. Wipe your tears away for just a moment and listen.

He is saying your name.

He has not left you. He is there, speaking to you. Can you hear Him?

He died and is alive and because of that resurrection, there is new closeness with Him.

I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.

There is resurrection and now there is intimacy that was not possible before.

In the middle of your deepest pain, do not wonder anymore where Jesus is.

Turn around. He is right there behind you. Closer than He’s ever been.

And He is saying your name.

Surrounding Ourselves with Quality

Posted on February 19, 2016 by Elizabeth

I have inadvertently begun a small series on faith and the arts. I think that this will be the last essay in the series. Of course, I didn’t think that there was going to be any series at all. So, we’ll see. If you missed the first two, I would love for you to read about how ethics helps us live like a great jazz pianist and about some of the things that music teaches us about God. Today I’m moving away from music and toward the visual arts. Specifically, architecture.

If you would like to hear my blog post read aloud, just click the play button. If you’re reading this in an email, you may have to click here to hear the post on my site.

Are facts and logic the only things that point toward truth, or can beauty and good artistry move you toward the same truth?

Does what you surround yourself with eventually affect your character, moving you closer to or farther from godliness?

Brent Hull, author of Building a Timeless House in an Instant Age, believes so. Hull is a master house builder, trained in the art of historic design and museum quality preservation. He believes that the home you build communicates something about who you are.

The reason we study the pyramids in Egypt is that they tell us about Egyptians, leading us to an understanding of what they believed, what they valued, how they lived…The process of homebuilding has been so commoditized that we don’t recognize the fact that our choices reflect our values…The decisions we make for our homes weave a tale of our character, value, history, and heart. What happens when we examine our homes and lives with the same lens of discovery we place on the Egyptian pyramids? What do our homes say about us?

Regardless of the kind of task that is currently in your focus, is your aim to create beauty or is it on the bottom line? Are you more concerned with creating something timeless or with getting the most for your dollar? Are you dishonest about what impression you present to the world while being content on the inside with cheap imitations?

These are weighty questions, questions that contain ideas that relate to more than just house building.

I don’t plan to build a house any time soon, but even as I furnish and change the inside of my home, what am I teaching my children? Am I teaching them that craftsmanship and quality furnishings that take time to create or to save up for are worthwhile or am I teaching them that it is better to buy cheap things that will soon break just so that I can gather more stuff?

As I create our home, whether I’m building something or just purchasing a sofa, how can I communicate the values of honesty, integrity, strength, and wisdom to my children?

This is something I’ve pondered before in a broader sense, wondering what has happened in the Christian art world to the quality of our art. If God is creator and if beauty points back to Him, then Christians should be leading the world in the quality of our music, our literature, our visual arts, and yes, our homes as well.

Why would you build an ugly home?

Hull writes that many authors from the Renaissance through the early 1900s wrote about character in buildings. The character of buildings and the character of community were thought to be closely tied together. Build honest homes and you will get honest citizens.

Don’t I want my children to chase quality rather than chasing price?

Emphatically yes.

And if the home is the place where we spend the most time, the place we want our children to return to, the place that is meant to be a safe haven from the world, then home is the place where we should put beauty and quality above all else.

To build a timeless house today, we need to desire beauty over cost. We need to wonder if building cheap houses doesn’t cause us to become a cheap culture. Now is the time to examine ourselves, our motives, and our hearts. When we do, the rewards are immense; high quality and meaningful design in our homes are but two of the many benefits. They endure even after we are gone. They enrich our lives for generations. ~ Brent Hull, Building A Timeless House in an Instant Age

May we, in all that we do, seek to enrich lives for generations.

Art credit: all photos of cathedrals by Kirk Sewell of R.K. Sewell Photography; Adoration of the Shepherds painting by Charles LeBrun

God in Music

Posted on February 12, 2016 by Elizabeth

(I’m trying something new this week. If you would like to hear me read my blog post aloud, just click the play button. Let me know in the comments if you’d like me to do more of this!) (If you’re reading this in an email, you may have to click here to hear the post on my site.)

God is a creator.

It is the first thing we learn about Him. In the beginning, God created.

Perhaps it is because I am an artist myself, but I like to think that this is important. That God-as-creator being the first thing He tells us about Himself is a clue to His character, to what He deems is significant.

Creator God placed art in a position of great importance because it reminds us of the glory that once was and the glory that will be again.

I don’t know much about the visual arts or about theater or dance. Music, however, is an art that I know quite intimately, and I love the insights it gives us into the nature and character of God.

For example, music helps us to understand time. It shows us that the present is what is most important. Music only truly exists in the present. Music in the future is just a possibility, just a plan. Music in the past is done, it cannot be heard again. Music in the present? Beauty. Only as it passes that razor edge moment of the present time can it be heard and appreciated.

Music also shows us that taking time to accomplish something can be good. More than good, it can be amazing. We often chafe against the delay between creation and restoration. We want God to come now, for Him to make everything perfect immediately. Yet when we listen to a Beethoven symphony, we are drawn into more than an hour of experiencing the music unfold and are astounded at the way it all fits together to create the final chords. No one would be impatient for that hour to pass just to reach the end. We savor that hour of music and that hour of music makes the ending all the more stunning.

As we experience the music’s dark shadows and turns, we allow ourselves to be led far more profoundly into the story’s sense and power. Music is remarkably instructive here, because more than any other art form, it teaches us how not to rush over tension, how to find joy and fulfillment through a temporal movement that includes struggles, clashes and fractures. ~ Jeremy Begbie in Resounding Truth

One more?

Music give us insight into understanding the trinity. Three-in-one is beyond the grasp of comprehension, yet God gave us music to help. If I play one note on the piano, it fills up all available aural space. There are no gaps. If I play a three-note chord on the piano, all three notes still fill up all the same available aural space, yet all three notes also sound their distinctive pitch. More than that, it is not a particular chord unless all three notes are played together.

The notes interpenetrate, occupy the same heard space, but I can hear them as (three) notes…What could be more apt than to speak of the Trinity as a three-note chord, a resonance of life; Father, Son, and Spirit mutually indwelling, without mutual exclusion, and yet without merger, each occupying the same space, ‘sounding through’ one another, yet irreducibly distinct, reciprocally enhancing, and establishing one another as one another? ~ Jeremy Begbie in Resounding Truth

There are many other ways that God uses music to teach us about Himself, to give us wisdom to understand Him more. What are some that you have thought of?

It leaves me awestruck with gratitude. I am grateful beyond measure that He gives us something so beautiful as a way of revealing Himself.

You artists who practice other genres of art, what theology do you find in your particular art form? What about those of you who are non-practicing art lovers? Do you see God in any particular form of art?

Art credit: Thanks to NASA for sharing such magnificent photographs of the mysteries of space.

Ethics and Jazz

Posted on February 5, 2016 by Elizabeth

My kids live by their own code of ethics.

If a wrong has been done, every member of the family must be made aware.

If a sister gets a new toy, all other sisters immediately claim playing rights. Unless it is their toy, in which case it belongs to them alone.

If one sister is playing with the baby, all other sisters must immediately leave whatever they were doing and try to take over the baby’s attention.

Ethics.

It is one of those seminary words, one of those university words, one of those first-day-in-the-workplace words.

Rather than the list of rules by which we live, it is actually a description of reality.

Perhaps it is better portrayed as a description of what we observe or know about the fabric of reality. It is a link between what we believe and how we live. A link between our mind and our heart.

Learning about ethics is often viewed as unnecessary, as irrelevant to our daily lives. Yet if we don’t understand the ethics of our faith, how can we know how to act in any given situation?

I, for one, am not able to memorize enough rules to cover any condition in which I might find myself. None of us want to live that way, constantly searching our minds for a rule to obey.

I would much rather live like a great jazz pianist.

A jazz pianist, a really good one, knows his art intimately. It is a part of his spirit.

When he plays with a band, he knows what exists in the music. He knows the nature of the musical form, he knows the structure of the harmonics well enough to think quickly and compose something that fits in with the reality of the music.

It is so seamless it appears as though he had spent weeks composing it ahead of time.

This is how I want to live.

I want to know God and how He has created the nature of this life and this world well enough to know how to respond no matter what is happening around me. I want to be able to react so seamlessly that it appears I had spent weeks thinking through my reaction ahead of time.

I want, I suppose, to have the mind of Christ.

For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual…But we have the mind of Christ. ~ I Corinthians 2.11-16

May we know our own ethics and how they describe God’s reality so well as to be able to improvise our lives beautifully.

As beautifully as jazz.

Art credits: Dave Brubeck photograph by user:don’tworry; Diana Krall photograph by Rob Garland

This Waiting Made Sacred

Posted on January 29, 2016 by Elizabeth

We all go through times of waiting.

Perhaps all of our lives are spent waiting.

My waiting usually looks impatient and discontent.

My waiting usually is spent trying to arrive.

If all of our lives are supposed to be made sacred, how can this waiting become sacred? How can this waiting become beautiful?

If all of our lives are meant for God’s glory, how can we lean into this waiting instead of resisting and pulling back?

Henri Nouwen, a Dutch theologian, writes about waiting as an active kind of waiting.

He speaks of those at the beginning of the Gospels (Mary, Elizabeth, Zechariah, Simeon, Anna) as waiting with a sense of promise. A promise that allows them to wait. Nouwen says that the secret of waiting is the faith that something has already begun.

Active waiting means to be present fully to the moment, in the conviction that something is happening where you are and that you want to be present to it. ~ Waiting for God

It is a waiting that knows the waited-for thing has already begun.

Like planting a seed and waiting for it to emerge. Like seeing the plus sign on the pregnancy test and waiting to hold the baby in your arms.

It is a knowing that there are beautiful things happening in the darkness. It is a knowing that even though you cannot see, it is growing.

It is a giving up of control because none of us quite know what we are waiting for when God is involved.

Rather than waiting for a job or a baby or a spouse, we are waiting for whatever God chooses to give. We hold our expectations and dreams lightly, with cupped open hands, knowing that whatever comes is ultimately the best thing of all.

It is a giving up of control but it is a gift of surprise and adventure, of something even better than what you had imagined.

It is a waiting with eyes open and breath held in expectation. Expectation of beauty and excitement.

This is a waiting I can lean in to. A beautiful, sacred waiting that glorifies God.

Art credit: Final photograph of crab apple blossoms by Kirk Sewell

God Revealing Himself

Posted on January 22, 2016 by Elizabeth

God, where are you?

We who live in this dark world are searching for the light.

We want God to show up in a big way.

We want the cancer healed, the baby conceived, the loneliness taken away.

We wonder why He won’t reveal Himself in all of His glory so that all will believe.

Why does He hide and make it so hard to find Him?

Why does He let us suffer when He could heal us all with just a Word?

We wonder why this world remains so dark.

Those at the foot of the cross wondered the same.

The chief priests mockingly wondered why He would not save Himself when He had claimed to save others.

The women weepingly wondered why He would not come down from the cross when He had healed so many others.

I begin to understand, but don’t want to admit it. So much suffering is contained in the answer.

If Jesus had come down from the cross in a blaze of glory, tens of thousands of angels at His side, He would not have gained love but would have become a tyrant.

If God were to reveal Himself in all of His glory, He would not have children who love Him for Himself but would have slaves who serve out of fear or compulsion.

God instead reveals Himself in the small. He shows Himself in the weak. His light shines through the poor, the sick, the hungry, the captive.

If we cannot find Him in the common, everyday miracle of life, we cannot love Him as Himself.

If He always arrived to take away the darkness, we would never learn to love Him. We would, instead, love the comfort of the light.

If He made it impossible to deny Him, He would be our dictator, not our Father. And we would be His cowering slaves.

He must forebear to reveal His power and glory by presenting Himself as Himself, and must be present only in the ordinary miracle of the existence of His creatures. Those who wish to see Him must see Him in the poor, the hungry, the hurt, the wordless creatures, the groaning and travailing beautiful world. ~ Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry

So let us seek Him and find Him in the faces of the weak, and let us love Him as we stoop to serve the small.

Christ in…Politics?!

Posted on January 15, 2016 by Elizabeth

One of the ideas in which I believe strongly, one of the basic premises, in fact, behind the writing of this blog, is that there can be no division between sacred and secular. There can be no segmenting out pieces of life, saying that this is for faith and that is not.

For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. ~ Colossians 1.16-17

If all of life is under the authority of Christ, then the opposite supposition is also true, that there is nothing that is outside of Christ. The point seems inarguable, yet it seems easier to say that all is in Christ than it is to begin to name specific arenas that therefore matter to Him.

If singing hymns in church is in Christ, then scrubbing filthy toilets is also in Him.

If working in the food pantry is in Christ, then creating a PowerPoint presentation for work is also in Him.

If learning about Old Testament Prophets is in Christ, then politics is also in Him.

It seems unreasonable, yet the conclusion is inescapable. If in Christ all things hold together, then there can be nothing that falls outside of His realm of influence.

If politics, too, must fall within the confines of our faith, then we should spend time considering the best way that our land should be governed. Especially when we live in a land that gives us a voice. Especially when we live in a year that is an election year.

And so I have been pondering and wondering. None of my wonderings have produced anything that I could change, yet I still believe that the process of considering our country’s politics in light of the way God created life to work is valuable.

There is much in the Bible about teaching and training, about people being gifted to do specific tasks, about being and doing what you were created to be and do.

All of which makes me wonder if the idea of citizen governance is as good an idea as our founders believed. I understand, I think, that part of the reason behind term limits and bringing in ordinary citizens to do the job for a time is to prevent anyone from taking and keeping too much power.

It is easy to become drunk on the trappings of power.

Or so I’ve heard.

Yet would we want our children to learn under someone who just comes in and teaches for a few years and then is replaced by another community member? Would anyone trust a citizen surgeon?

Then why do we trust a job like governing our country to amateurs?

What if we treated politics like we treat other careers? What if we had a governing body that developed training and schooling requirements? What if people who have the talent for governance could attend a study program and go through an apprenticeship? What if that same governing body helped the governors of our land decide when it was time to retire, like the governing body that decides when it is time for us to give up our driver’s license?

I know that there are probably hundreds of issues that would make this improbable. I understand that none of this is likely to happen.

Yet isn’t it better to think through something as important as how our country is governed rather than just falling in line with how it has always been done?

If part of loving God means loving Him with all of your mind, then shouldn’t we use our mind to consider how all things would be best under His authority?

Even if it never comes to pass?

I believe so.

Photography credits: U.S. Capitol by purplepic; Flag on building by Robert Linder; Flag backlit by Robert Linder

Making Progress

Posted on January 8, 2016 by Elizabeth

I just get so frustrated.

We often speak of deeper things via email so that we can linger long over ideas, drawing them more fully into ourselves before we respond.

I feel that after so many years of following Jesus that I should have made more progress, that I should be more like Him, think more like Him, speak more like Him. Yet I still struggle every moment to obey, to control my temper, to love others.

Me too, Dad. Me too.

My heart feels heavy when I look at any given week and how much I have failed my husband, my daughters, my God.

I want so desperately to be like Jesus, to have love be my first response in any situation, to be grateful for everything that comes my way.

Yet day after day I lose my temper, I choose my own desires over the needs of those around me,

I forget to walk with God.

Have I made any progress at all? It certainly doesn’t feel like it.

Yet God tells us that creating a new heart is not up to us. We are not capable of changing our heart of stone for a heart of flesh, but God promises that He will do this for us, that He will change us to look more like Jesus, to be who He created us to be.

Will I believe Him?

Will I trust what He says more than what my physical eyes can see? Will I trust the Word even when contrary evidence seems to mount up higher?

…. it is certain that the Christian does grow in grace. And though his conflict may be as severe in the last day of his life as in the first moment of conversion, yet he does advance in grace — and all his imperfections and his conflicts within cannot prove that he has not made progress. ~ Charles Spurgeon

As in so much of this walk with God, will I choose to trust His promises or my own imperfect judgement?

May we all push aside the guilt that we pour down on our own heads and say with the 17th century monk, Brother Lawrence,

When he had failed in his duty, he only confessed his fault saying to God, “I shall never do otherwise, if you leave me to myself. It is You who must hinder my failing and mend what is amiss.” Then, after this, he gave himself no further uneasiness about it. ~ Practicing the Presence of God

May we all trust God that much and give ourselves no further uneasiness about it.

About Elizabeth

I lost a friend this week.

I’ve lost three friends over the past year and a half. This weighs heavy on me.

There is nothing that makes this okay. Jesus Himself wept at the death of His friend.

Death and pain, sorrow and grief. These are not how life was created to be.

There is nothing that makes this okay. Only one thing makes this bearable.

Our God.

How do I know He will keep His promises?

I know because God loves us enough to put on skin and come down to live with us, to suffer for us, to die for us. I know because God has enough power to rise from the dead and conquer death for all time.

He loves us enough and He has power enough.

I don’t know why God didn’t put it all right from the beginning. I don’t begin to understand why He places so much importance on human freedom of choice or why our sin and redemption are so closely intertwined with creation itself.

But I know He keeps His promises and I know that His promises are beautiful beyond imagining.

And for that I will trust Him.

This one’s for you, Jenna. Until we meet again.

It is not about me.

This is disappointing. I want it to be all about me.

I want all that happens to be for the sole purpose of making me happy, comfortable, and a better person.

But it’s not.

When darkness fills my life, when loneliness weights my soul, when grief deadens my heart,

it’s not about me.

Yes, God loves me and wants the best for me, but what is best for me is not that everything (or anything at all!) revolves around me.

Huh. God glorified, loved ones brought to Him, His kingdom brought close to earth? As I think about it, this all benefits me.

Even though it’s not about me.

Funny how God makes that all work out.

To hear my blog post read aloud, just click the play button. If you’re reading this in an email, you may have to click here to hear the post on my site.

I have lived deep in pain.

When I wanted a baby and God said not yet.

When my brother called and said of his pregnant wife, it’s cancer.

When my Papa died the day my baby was born.

I have lost friends and family, I have been disappointed and lonely.

As have most of you.

You, too, have received the doctor’s call, heard the rejecting words, felt the crippling fear and doubt.

When you are in the middle of deep, dark pain, you are blinded. Your body curls in on itself, your eyes darken with tears. You look for Jesus, desperately searching for Him, but you cannot see Him.

In the deepest pain, He is closest.

Mary stood at the tomb, searching for Him. In the middle of her deepest pain, she searched for His dead body but was blinded by her grief. Angels spoke to her and she could not see. Jesus, the One she searched for, stood behind her and she thought He was the gardener.

And then.

Mary.

He is right here. As close as your very breath. And He is saying your name.

Look up. Wipe your tears away for just a moment and listen.

He is saying your name.

He has not left you. He is there, speaking to you. Can you hear Him?

He died and is alive and because of that resurrection, there is new closeness with Him.

I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.

There is resurrection and now there is intimacy that was not possible before.

In the middle of your deepest pain, do not wonder anymore where Jesus is.

Turn around. He is right there behind you. Closer than He’s ever been.

And He is saying your name.

If you would like to hear my blog post read aloud, just click the play button. If you’re reading this in an email, you may have to click here to hear the post on my site.

Are facts and logic the only things that point toward truth, or can beauty and good artistry move you toward the same truth?

Does what you surround yourself with eventually affect your character, moving you closer to or farther from godliness?

Brent Hull, author of Building a Timeless House in an Instant Age, believes so. Hull is a master house builder, trained in the art of historic design and museum quality preservation. He believes that the home you build communicates something about who you are.

These are weighty questions, questions that contain ideas that relate to more than just house building.

As I create our home, whether I’m building something or just purchasing a sofa, how can I communicate the values of honesty, integrity, strength, and wisdom to my children?

Why would you build an ugly home?

Hull writes that many authors from the Renaissance through the early 1900s wrote about character in buildings. The character of buildings and the character of community were thought to be closely tied together. Build honest homes and you will get honest citizens.

Don’t I want my children to chase quality rather than chasing price?

Emphatically yes.

And if the home is the place where we spend the most time, the place we want our children to return to, the place that is meant to be a safe haven from the world, then home is the place where we should put beauty and quality above all else.

May we, in all that we do, seek to enrich lives for generations.

(I’m trying something new this week. If you would like to hear me read my blog post aloud, just click the play button. Let me know in the comments if you’d like me to do more of this!) (If you’re reading this in an email, you may have to click here to hear the post on my site.)

God is a creator.

It is the first thing we learn about Him. In the beginning, God created.

Perhaps it is because I am an artist myself, but I like to think that this is important. That God-as-creator being the first thing He tells us about Himself is a clue to His character, to what He deems is significant.

Creator God placed art in a position of great importance because it reminds us of the glory that once was and the glory that will be again.

I don’t know much about the visual arts or about theater or dance. Music, however, is an art that I know quite intimately, and I love the insights it gives us into the nature and character of God.

One more?

There are many other ways that God uses music to teach us about Himself, to give us wisdom to understand Him more. What are some that you have thought of?

It leaves me awestruck with gratitude. I am grateful beyond measure that He gives us something so beautiful as a way of revealing Himself.

You artists who practice other genres of art, what theology do you find in your particular art form? What about those of you who are non-practicing art lovers? Do you see God in any particular form of art?

My kids live by their own code of ethics.

If a wrong has been done, every member of the family must be made aware.

If a sister gets a new toy, all other sisters immediately claim playing rights. Unless it is their toy, in which case it belongs to them alone.

If one sister is playing with the baby, all other sisters must immediately leave whatever they were doing and try to take over the baby’s attention.

Ethics.

It is one of those seminary words, one of those university words, one of those first-day-in-the-workplace words.

Rather than the list of rules by which we live, it is actually a description of reality.

Perhaps it is better portrayed as a description of what we observe or know about the fabric of reality. It is a link between what we believe and how we live. A link between our mind and our heart.

Learning about ethics is often viewed as unnecessary, as irrelevant to our daily lives. Yet if we don’t understand the ethics of our faith, how can we know how to act in any given situation?

I, for one, am not able to memorize enough rules to cover any condition in which I might find myself. None of us want to live that way, constantly searching our minds for a rule to obey.

I would much rather live like a great jazz pianist.