Hiking In Grace & Capturing My View

Picking Up The Brush (Peggys Cove Lighthouse, Painting #1)

11.04.15

Earlier this year I finally picked up a brush again.

I painted three small 8 x 10 canvases using acrylic.

My first was Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse in Nova Scotia, Canada.

PeggysCove2009Painting

I painted from a photo that I had taken back in 2009.

The day my dad and I visited Peggy’s Cove in 2009, it had been very overcast. All. Day. Long. The sky was cloudy and the light was low and all day as we wandered and scrambled over rocks I prayed for some blue sky to show through. Every once in a while we were teased with a tiny spot of blue here and there.

We stayed so long we decided to eat dinner at the restaurant right across the parking lot from the lighthouse. As we savored our dinner the sun set and did not disappoint. We finished dinner just in time to snap a few good sunset photos.

My parents have since been back to visit it and the old lighthouse has had a facelift in the form of a new paint job so it no longer has the patches of peeling paint that you see here.

So there you have it, the backstory of this painting.

The Depth of Mercy

11.02.15

CorsonsInletNJ

There is a song that has been on repeat in my head for a few days now.

“Depth of Mercy” as recorded by Selah. (If you want to go listen to it by clicking the link; pause my website music by clicking on the pause button in the top right corner of my header.)

Depth of mercy, can there be
Mercy still reserved for me?
Can my God His wrath forbear me
The chief of sinners, spare?

Heaven find me on my knees
Hear my soul’s impassioned plea
Depth of mercy, can there be
Mercy still reserved for me?

Now incline me to repent
Let me now my sins lament
Deeply my revolt deplore
Weep, believe and sin no more

Heaven find me on my knees
Hear my soul’s impassioned plea
Depth of mercy, can there be
Mercy still reserved for me?

Heaven find me on my knees
Hear my soul’s impassioned plea
Depth of mercy, can there be
Mercy still reserved, mercy still reserved
Mercy still reserved for me?

These words were written by Tony W. Woods and Chad Robert Cates.

As I researched it a bit I have found that much of the lyrics were borrowed from Charles Wesley.

(Which now makes sense why I like the vivid and moving lyrics.)

The word depth makes me think of many things.

It makes me think of the depth of the Grand Canyon.

It makes me think of the depth of the Marianas Trench in the Pacific Ocean.

It makes me think of the depth of space; of the night sky above our heads that goes on forever.

On Sunday morning while I was pondering “depth of mercy,” God brought another facet of depth to my mind. Our worship team sang through their two songs with the worship band and without a bass singer and then they did an “extra” song and my friend Dave joined the group. The third song was sung a cappella and his rich bass voice added depth to the third song that had not been there for the first two songs.

God brought to mind an illustration of this depth of mercy.

Have you ever sat near the crashing waves on the beach and dug a hole in the sand?

As you dig, at some point there appears water at the bottom and no matter how deep you try to dig, there is always water filling the bottom of the hole.

THAT is like God’s mercy.

No matter how deep a hole we dig for ourselves, God’s mercy is always there to meet it. Whether it is a hole we dug or one someone else digs for us and we get stuck in it, God’s mercy is always there filling the bottom of the hole.

Do you need to sink into the depth of God’s mercy today?

Pigment On Paper; Art Journey, Part 7

10.28.15

Plumeria-3

I know.

“Part 7” Seems like overkill.

I was about to publish a post about the paintings I did this past spring and it just didn’t seem right to leave a huge gap in the story.

After the Relevant 2010, hearing Ann equate being creative to worshipping God, I went home and wrote an article about wanting to paint but fearing the mess I would make since I had not done it in eighteen years. It ended up published on (in)courage in July 2011, just as my husband resigned from the pastorate and we hit the road for a much needed vacation. I had no idea the article had been published.

I figured I had better get painting if I am going to publish words like that for all to see!

I began working on a watercolor of plumeria from a photo I had taken at the Crocodile Farm in Davao City, Philippines. It took me several months to finish because I started it during a time when our lives were in flux. Since my husband resigned, we had to find a new home to live in and God needed to give him a new job.

The watercolor was finally finished in our new home and I wrote about it in June of 2012.

While I was painting, Holley was writing.

Holley Gerth read the article on in(courage), and even commented that she was working on writing a book just then and was currently working on a chapter about fear. Holley ended up including my words in her book You’re Made for a God-sized Dream, which was published in March of 2013.

I put way the paint brushes.

While attending Allume in October of 2013, I picked up a copy of Holley’s new book.

I did not read it right away.

I didn’t discover my words in Holley’s book until January 2014.

You can read that whole story here. Reading my words in her book served as a reminder that I had dropped the ball. I had not followed through. I had done ONE PAINTING and stopped.

After reading my words published again for all to see, I started sketching with a pencil again. (I included those pencil drawings in Part 5.)

It wasn’t until spring of 2015, this year, that I actually picked up a brush again.

*This is where I am going to conclude my “Art Journey” series. As promised, I will review a few books that encouraged me along over the course of the last few years. However, I feel like this story only goes forward from here starting with the three paintings I did this spring. Which I will post about soon! So don’t miss out on the next part! If you haven’t already and you don’t already get my posts delivered to you by email, sign up right up there in the box labeled “Keep up with my Hike”.

Thanks to all of you who are following along and faithfully reading.

Is there anything you need to get back to doing? Anything you started that you need to finish or pick back up again? Tell me about it in the comments below, I’d love to hear about it!

If you have missed the beginning of this story you can read it by clicking the links below:

Ann Voskamp and My First Blogging Conference: Art Journey, Part 6

10.26.15

MMichaelsAVoskamp2010

That is me and Melissa Michaels and Ann Voskamp at Relevant in 2010. (Back before either of them had officially released a published book. Melissa has two out now and I’ve lost count of Ann’s, she has several.)

Attending Relevant was an eye opening experience, in a good way. (Back then it was called “Relevant”. It is now owned and run by someone else under the name “Allume”.)

It was there that I heard Ann Voskamp speak for the very first time.

Ann gave the last Keynote on Saturday night and it really got my attention.

(You can listen to it right here.)

She spoke of the first two people that the Scripture specifically notes as being filled with the Holy Spirit. They were Artisans. They were Bezelel and Oholiab in Exodus 35: 29-31.

She spoke of the word Hebrew word “avodah” and how it is used in scripture as work, as worship, as service, and also as Art. She wrote about it more in depth here, where she says,

“When we see our lives as a sacrificial offering unto the Lord—avodah—our work becomes art and our art becomes ministry and our worship becomes serving and our serving becomes work.” ~Ann Voskamp

So when I heard her speak at that first conference, God whispered again, “that art you long to do is actually how you serve me and worship me.” Not only is washing clothes, cooking meals, grading papers and serving my family, worshipping God, but so is doing the creative stuff, the doodling, the watercolor that hangs on our dining room wall, the photographs also, even the one that hangs in our bathroom.

That was the first time I had heard this message outside of a counseling office. It breathed oxygen into the smoldering embers of a fire that were almost snuffed out completely by the careless words of a pastor.

If you have missed the beginning of this story you can read it by clicking the links below:

Girl Meets Change {a book review}

09.30.15

Back in 2010 I attended my first blogging conference. It was called Relevant back then. It was for Christian women bloggers. I went not knowing anyone.

On the very first night of the conference I had the pleasure of meeting Kristen Strong. She sat opposite of me at the dinner table that night. She and a friend were there and at the time they wrote a blog together.

KS2010

Not long after we met, Kristen struck out on her own and began her own little corner of the blogosphere called Chasing Blue Skies. Since that first meeting she has moved on to also become a writer for (in)courage.

We met up again at the next Relevant and then again when the name changed to Allume in the following years.

Her words have appeared on Hiking Toward Home in the past and now her words fill the pages of a brand spankin’ new book.

As a woman who has learned to live the air force wife life, she has been through many changes and moves so far.

As a woman who has been through much upheaval and moving and life changes, I could have benefited from reading this book a long time ago.

Kristen shares wisdom she has garnered through her many life changes and applies biblical wisdom and has filled the pages of this book with encouragement for anyone going through life changes whether it be moving across the country or around the world or just the changes and challenges of life unrelated to moving! She tackles facing changes in God’s path for your life and the twists and turns He often allows in our lives. Through out the book she relates the story of Joseph and his many life changes and challenges.

This is a great book for someone facing a change of any kind whether it is wanted or unwanted change.

(Disclaimer: Revel has sent me this book free of charge in exchange for an honest book review. This review is completely my own words and my opinion.)