Thanks to BillMcCarroll for submitting this great image of St John of Damascus Orthodox Church to the Flickr group. You can browse Bill’s entire photostream here.

If you photoshare on Flickr, join our group.

Why is it that all of the Christians that I know seem to struggle through life? With rare exceptions, we all have some area of fear or weakness or wounding… And I have my doubts about the exceptions…

A Christian teen who is a contact on my social-grid made an interesting statement about sexual abstinence this week… He said it “doesn’t work.” It wasn’t completely clear whether he was talking about “abstinence education” or individual, moral abstinence… But here are a few little factoids to chew on:

The Bible clearly teaches that 1.) the Spirit of God dwells in the heart of everyone who submits to the Lordship of Jesus (Romans 8:9). 2.) This Spirit is characterized by power, love and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7). 3.) Self-control is evident in the life of a person who is filled with this Spirit, in the same way that you can tell that a tree is an apple tree because it has apples on it (Galatians 5:22-23).

In the life of a believer, something like abstinence certainly does work… At the very least, it can work… it should work… A Christ-follower who believes that it can’t work or doesn’t work doesn’t understand the power of God’s Spirit at work in a person…

(At this point, I cannot emphasize enough the power of God’s grace at work in us when we fail to walk in self-control… but that’s a different discussion.)

I’m talking about the potential power that lives in your heart… Potential for power over our weakness… Potential for love to heal our wounds… Potential for self-discipline and stability…

The trick is tapping into that potential.

Our culture has conditioned us to follow our urges… emotional urges… financial urges… sexual urges… But God has called us to a life of potential and tapping that potential requires that we control those urges. So, God expresses the expectation that we control our urges and then provides us with the means to do it…

Got that? We experience the power of self-control when we practice self-control… The willingness to obey God’s expectation fuels the spirit of self-discipline, which gives us greater power to obey under greater pressure…

Older English translations of 2 Timothy use the expression “sound mind” instead of “self-discipline” but the intended meaning is the same… A person who has a “sound mind” is consistent, purposeful and not a slave to “urges”… and that’s what self-discipline looks like too.

Jesus promised that we’d have trouble… But the wacky, constant struggle to make it through another day that some Christians experience is the very opposite of what God desires for us. That’s the reason He gave us this Spirit of power and love and self-discipline…

Cultivating discipline is a process with many nuances, but the most important thing to keep in mind is this:

God is for us and has given us what we need to finish well.

Be sure to check out Jason’s photostream on Flickr and his blog…

Every two weeks, the site promotes a new FeaturedArtist… Not just some karaoke singer, but artists with unique and often visionary approach to using their gifts to glorify God… For example:

Jason Tockey is an amateur photographer who’s gorgeous sunsets first caught my eye back in the spring. A few weeks ago, I spoke with Jason about his art and a vision he has to connect artists in an online community…

And coming up:

Mary Freeman is a mixed-medium artist who created striking collage work for visual journaling. She also does seminars to teach her techniques to other artists and hobbyists in her community… September 6.

Troy Rowe is a professional portrait and event photographer who is using his considerable gifts to serve children at a local foster-care home. I’ll be talking with Troy about this unique ministry and other ways he uses his gifts… September 20.

Hannah Krohn is a dancer and dance teacher. I’ve worked with Hannah in some of my own projects at LVC. She has a great gift and heart and we’ll be talking together about unique ministry and missions opportunities that dance has opened up for her… October 4.

Jim Holt is sketching his way through the Bible… I found his pen and ink sketches on Tumbler.com. I’ll be talking with Jim about this project and his insightful visual blog… October 18.

Philip Davis is a graphic artist and photographer. We’ll be talking about an interesting project that he’s working on as he designs through the book of Psalms… November 1.

Every FlickrFriday, the site features an image from a member of our Flickr group… You can join the group here and submit your images too.

I’m currently developing a series on Cultivating Discipline for artists… You can start reading that here.

You can receive regular updates from the site by Liking WOP on Facebook, or by following us on Twitter or Tumblr…

Thanks again…

Check out Travis Silva’s (Forgiven! on Flickr) mission trip images from Gulu, Uganda… Beautiful and poignant images of children living in poverty…

If you photoshare on Flickr, join our group.

I knew I should've packed a map...

Good decisions leading to firm commitments are vital to developing discipline… BUT making good decisions requires discipline… This is the circular reality that always seems to bite me on the tush… So, I’ve given it some thought and reading this week and wanted to share with you guys…

Good decisions grow out of a life lived in conversational relationship with God… I can link almost every bad decision that I’ve made in my life to a lack of consistent prayer and Bible study… I have found that practicing this kind of intimacy with God is both energizing and exhausting, but well worth the effort in the face of any significant choice…

I don’t want to sound too mystical, but the truth is that when we saturate our minds with God’s Word and devote our hearts to intimacy with Him, He speaks… Often in an almost audible way (and I wouldn’t totally throw out the possibility of actual audibility either) to the simplest request for guidance…

Poor decisions grow out of a focus that is off of Jesus. So, make sure that your mind and heart are tuned to Him before you leap…

I recently found myself in the position of having already made a bad decision… I’ll tell you about it because it has a happy ending:

About a year ago, I wrote a post about artists helping missionaries tell their stories… After that, I had the opportunity to do a brand development and web presence project for an orphanage in the Philippines. This led to a similar project for the parent-ministry… Which led to an offer to join the administrative team of a small, but internationally-placed missions organization…

Up to that point, I was just using my gifts to serve these missionaries… Suddenly, faced with the decision of whether or not to join the leadership of this significant ministry, I jumped without really taking enough time to consider the decision…

I almost immediately regretted it… It wasn’t the kind of work that I feel called to do… I didn’t really enjoy it and it played to my administrative weaknesses… And it significantly sucked time away from my areas of deepest calling and vocation…

Fortunately, I was not financially bound to the position and I was able to pull-out of the higher administration role and stay connected to the promotional and marketing aspects that originally drew me into the organization…

There have been times in my life that I could not easily opt-out of a decision… I have several of these looming on the horizon… As I look forward to them, I see very clearly a truth that I’ve missed in the past:

Making a bad decision to a long-term commitment is not the end of the world IF you are positioned in close relationship to God so that He can guide you through the process of making the best of the situation… One bad decision doesn’t mean that you’re life is totally derailed… God is much bigger than that… But you may have to take the long road through the dessert to the Promised Land…

Wave encouragingly at the people you meet on that road, we like that…

NEXT in this series: A Sound Mind…

Forgive me for being a bit obvious, but that’s simply not the case… In fact, it never was. A few weeks ago, I had a long talk with my own pastor about my heart for ministry. I told him that while I would never discount the possibility of serving on a church staff, I am absolutely convinced that my ministry will not be one of a traditional pastor…

I see my own calling as a “pastor” to artists in the sheer numerical response to the content here on WOP… There is a hunger among artists to discover ways that their talents and gifts can translate into something transcendent: calling and vocation.

While I was interviewing Jason Tockey for the FeaturedArtist post, he talked a lot about this idea of calling and vocation. He believes that the main Biblical emphasis “in understanding what it means to be a Christian, stems from our creation as image-bearers of God.” In other words, the big epiphany is that we should and CAN reflect what Jesus is like in everything that we do… We were literally created for that and then REcreated for it when we started following Jesus…

And by everything, I mean by my relationships, my speech, my ethics, my morals, my work, my play… my artistic pursuits… everything.

So, it’s not just the Pastors and the church-staff that surrender their “vocation” to Jesus… It’s the ditch-diggers, the daycare teachers, the bus drivers… Yeah, it’s the painters and dancers and filmmakers and writers…

Which is not to say that a Christian who is a filmmaker should only make “Christian films”… But shouldn’t her films reveal something of the nature and truth of Jesus? Not in a trite or canned way, but in a truly artistic and authentic way…

For Jason, that means that finding his identity in Jesus’ kingdom is centered, at least in some measure, on discovering what it means to be “a photographer who is a Christian.”

What does it mean for you?

Many of Jason's images capture the local beauty of his home in Huntington Beach, CA.

A few months back, Jason Tockey joined our Flickr group and started submitting these really inspiring images of sunsets off of the California coast… Of course, I didn’t know then that this self-taught, amateur photographer would be thoughtful, wise and personally inspiring as well…

Jason has developed a significant talent in photography in just over 2 years… Beginning in August 2008 with the camera on his phone, Jason was quickly hooked and began creating projects for himself… By January 2009, he picked up a Nikon DSLR and never looked back…

Picking up tips from friends on Flickr, other online resources and a few good books, Jason continues to explore different styles and creative artistry. He sometimes shoots 3 or 4 times in a week, taking an average of 150 images in each shoot… Then evaluates his work based on technique and his own artistic criteria…

“After I’m done, I go over the photos and (keep) the ones that capture 4 things that I want to characterize my images…
Beauty, Unity, Transcendence and Iconic-ness.”

Jason talks about his art being central to his Christian walk… What started as a quest for an interesting hobby, quickly transformed into a focus of his identity:

“I started to see photography and being a Christian who is a photographer as a core part of my identity as a Christian.”

Realizing that this was true, his goals changed. While he continues to enjoy shooting images (in fact, I would go so far as to say his images express a deep sense of joy), he has cultivated vision and purpose in finding opportunites to use his gifts and in “improving (his) ability to reflect God’s goodness and faithfulness through His created world.”

“I find that in photography, the hope of God’s goodness, faithfulness, greatness and abundant redemption are the focus of my work.  I feel ministered to and blessed by God as I photograph the beauty of His creation.”

Like many of the artists that I talk to, Jason finds that his gifts “don’t fit the mold” of art in the Church at-large. While his own church-family has been very encouraging, Jason doesn’t envision his photography being used in church primarily…

“I prefer to think of myself as a Christian who is a photographer and the audience for my work being people in general…. I hope the images speak truths about God to everyone who looks at them…. I see my ministry as one of creating excellent images that reveal God to everyone.”

As we spoke, I got curious about what would prompt a guy in his mid-30′s to suddenly start looking for an artistic hobby… He explained that his grandfather had recently died, leaving his reputation for hard work as his legacy…  Seeing the same characteristic in his own life, and wanting to pass along more to his own children, Jason decided that it was time to do something different…

It’s a decision that has changed Jason’s understanding of his place in God’s Kingdom…

Can you start something new today?

You can read and subscribe to Just Images, Jason’s blog, or add jstimages as a contact on Flickr.

It seems like a pretty miserable existence to me… Constantly stressed about every detail of every project… Unable to collaborate, delegate or overlook the tiny flaws…

Don’t get me wrong, I stress about project details and I get focused on correcting issues, and sometimes, I have been known to push a little too hard.

But I learned a long time ago that outcomes are rarely perfect, but most of the time no one notices…

Except the perfectionists.

I hesitate to hate on the perfectionists too much, because I have some perfectionist friends… And I LOVE having a perfectionist on my team. As a leader, it’s a huge weight off my shoulders to have someone else that I can count on to stress about the details…

Truth is, I feel bad for a person who is locked into a destructive pattern of perfectionism… In general, perfectionism is “destructive” when it looks like this:

1. If you are always on edge…. The stress of getting every detail arranged according to your vision is unmanageable.

2. If it limits the scope of your leadership because you (like any micromanager) can only lead as much as you can do yourself…

3. If the fear of failure is paralyzing for you or you would rather not work on a project where the outcome is likely to be imperfect.

The ex-perfectionists that I know all understand a very liberating reality:

They aren’t perfect and (in spite of best efforts) never were.

So, after you suck it up, don’t forget to cut yourself some slack… Your heart will thank you.

Now, I gotta go look at revision 17 of this graphics project I’m working on…

NEXT in this series: Making Good Decisions…