Hello and welcome to the Kingdom Art Life Podcast. I'm your host, Marlita Hill, here to help you walk in wholeness, move in freedom, and work in harmony as you build your art career in collaboration with God.

You know, every once in a while, I find myself overcome with feelings of silliness. I have moments where I feel silly, for caring so much about pointing my feet, or getting my dancers to come together on count four, even speaking to artists about having freedom in their faith and art career. Yeah, every once in a while, I feel silly, for being so engaged in these things, when I see the overwhelming suffering, injustice, and chaos happening all over the world. I mean, our planet is literally having a tantrum, trying to get our attention to make some changes. And, of course, there is the normal response that immediately follows — thoughts about whether I should somehow redirect my art to try to tackle some issue, or even put my art down altogether and dedicate my time to tackling some injustice happening in the world.

But then I remember how the Lord has taught me that this creativity, this creative gift, is not for nothing, that it's not impotent to engage in this world that I live in.

That yes, is for me, but it's also producing things in me,

And the Lord is walking with me so that he can work through me as I participate in this world and the things I see.

And I wanted to encourage you in that today, just in case you too feel moments of triteness or silliness in this overwhelming sadness.

I am an avid journaler. I try to capture all my thoughts. And I often go back and look through them. The other day, I was looking through one of my journals and I found an entry from October 14 2015. And 2015 was the year I really started to flesh KAI out.

Anyway, I found this one page where I had sketched out this backward plan for KAI. And at the top, it had the end game for all this work. And that is a community of artists who make a kingdom impact and contribution to society as they create and share their work. Kingdom ambassadors in secular culture who serve as salt light fragrance and love and bring healing and reconciliation in their relationships and environments as they are led by God in their own daily life and career. And under that, I listed these four steps - 4321 - that would lead us to this end game. So from the bottom up, for number one, I wrote we need to understand and embrace who we are as artists in the kingdom.

Number two, we need to understand the liberty we have, and the responsibility we have, as Kingdom artists.

Number three, we need to understand that this liberty is for us, and for something bigger than us. Well, I guess, looking back at that now, it’s the same as number two. This was 2015, y’all. I’ve grown a lot since then. And then number four is, we need to understand how that liberty and responsibility is embodied, and practiced and manifested in our daily life and interactions. How do we live this out?

And this was a really powerful encouragement for me, because it connected me to the bigger reason I'm doing this work, which is not just so that you can feel good about yourself, although that's what I want for you. I want you to feel so free and so loved. Shoot, that's what God wants for you. But the reason I focus on you understanding how loved you are by God as His artist, and how important your creativity, your art career, and creative pursuits are to Him, the reason I focus on that is so that you are full, and you are full to the point that you are able to share and dispense that fullness when you engage with culture in and through your art career.

So I started this episode acknowledging that, as artists, it can sometimes feel like we're not doing anything, or we're not doing enough, or we're not focused on the right things, particularly as artists of faith. You know, we, necessarily can get caught up in the minutiae needed to make our art – like trying to get everyone’s arm extended by count four, or finding the right blue, or tinkering with notes and melodies. But one thing we know as artists is that art is powerful.

The art we create can confront things and question them. It can gather people. It can reveal, uncover, and interrogate things. It can empower people, create spaces for them, and open dialogue. The art we create can give people a moment of reprieve, a place to get rest from their circumstance, and a voice that validates their experience. Our art can force society to consider challenging but necessary questions. It can help people remember what's good about the world. And sometimes, we as the artist, serve different functions. Someone has to alert people there's a problem, somebody has to treat the wounded, someone has to cast vision for a better way, someone has to provide a way for people to be heard. So, yes, the art you create is powerful, and has a role to play in the injustice, chaos, and challenges happening around the world. But today, I I’m here to encourage you (and myself) in the truth about how truly powerful you are. And how powerful your presence is, as you build your career in secular spaces.

Now, again, as I always remind people because some may be listening to this podcast for the first time, I specifically speak to Christian artists, artists of faith, however you want to say it, who are working or building an art career in secular culture, and specifically, do not make art about faith,. And one of the things I talk about is how any art life can honor God, build the Kingdom, and make Christ known, no matter what you talk about, no matter where it exists, no matter who you make your art with.  And that's because there are more ways for your art to honor God and participate in Kingdom purpose than just the message in your art. And one of those ways is through your person, who you are.

See, who you are builds the kingdom and makes Christ known. You are the body of Christ.

You are his body, a witness, a living epistle, the walking manifestation of His power, His concern, his love for his creation,

and anything He's going to do on this planet, He's going to do it through you, His body.

But when we think about God doing something through us, we think that we have to do something drastic, to perform these grand gestures, like sell all our stuff, put our art career down, dramatically shift what we're making art about, start a global movement, or go to some remote place on the planet. And if that's what the Lord is telling you to do, well that's one thing and more power to you. Go do that

But I'm going to challenge you to let God work through you through the Ministry of presence, the ministry of your presence.

And this is one of the big reasons I talk so much about your identity as an artist of the Kingdom—because I want you to understand who you are.

And part of understanding who you are is challenging how you see yourself and addressing how you how you see your responsibility as a Christian, as an artist, and as a kingdom citizen. It’s addressing the expectations you think you have to live up to and what it looks like to fulfill those expectations.

And that's important because it shapes how you show up and engage in the spaces you occupy in your creative life. Either you're going in there thinking you have to be, say, do, or look like something to be honorable to your faith. And that affects how you go into your creative spaces.

Or you may be struggling with feeling divided or disconnected, like your faith and art are working against each other or can’t live in the same space. And that affects how you go into spaces. Or, you’re convinced that being a Christian will cause you to be ostracized. And that affects the way you show up and engage in spaces.

Or you know that you are a person in a single experience and you're free to be who you are. You know there is no expectation of you, but to simply be who you are, and be led by the Spirit of God in that. And that affects how you show up in spaces.

So let me say it plainly: the only expectation you have as an artist in Christ is to be who you are and let the Lord lead you as you are being. But let me tell you a little more about who you be.

The Bible says You are the salt of the earth.

It says you are the light of the world.

You are the fragrance of Christ. Well, technically it says through you, God diffuses the fragrance of Christ, but go with me, you are the fragrance of Christ.

And you are the dispenser of God's love.

That's who you are, before you ever do anything. That's how you step into a room. You don't have to say or do anything.

 As you go out into the world and engage in the day to day living of doing your art, that's who you are.

And the powerful thing is the world needs who you are. The world needs what you carry. And as you busy yourself in the magical mundanity of making art, you are releasing who you are in the relationships and space you occupy and encounter. That salt, that fragrance, that light, that love—

You're releasing that.

You're allowing people to receive from that and live in that and take refuge in that when they're around you, when they work with you, and when they experience your work.

In Mark 4:30, Jesus is teaching and He asks to what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable Shall we picture it? It is like a mustard seed, which when it is sown on the ground is smaller than all the seeds on Earth. But when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs and shoots out large branches so that the birds of the air may nest under it shade.

What a beautiful picture of this entity, this thing doesn't seem very big. It's the smallest of the seeds. It doesn’t seem like it's doing very much. It seems like you need something grander, bigger. But, it becomes greater than everything else. And it shoots out these huge branches birds use to build nests, and homes, and they rest under the branches’ shade. That's a beautiful picture.

But here's the more beautiful thing:  In Luke 17:21, Jesus tells you the kingdom of God is in you. This kingdom, that doesn't seem like a lot, but shoots out these large branches that provide residence and rest and shade and shelter and refuge for other beings—

That capacity is in you.

That kingdom is in you.

You are the carrier of that kingdom. And through your presence, you allow people to experience it.

And I talk to you so much about who you are, how loved you are and how welcome your creative expression is to your Father because I don’t want funky thinking dirtying and dimming and cutting off your light. I don't want your light to be dim or dingy because you're walking around with guilt and feeling disconnected.

I don't want the potency and reach of your fragrance to be compromised because you mix it with weird beliefs that have weird odors that mess with your fragrance.

I don't want your salt to be something it's not supposed to be, because you know, salt can be a fertilizer, but it can also kill things. And I don’t want guilt or a misplaced sense of duty to cause you to go into places crazy and mess up divine relationships.

Who you are is very powerful and you can just be that and let the Lord lead you in it. You know those people who make you say, Man, things are just better when you're here. You know those kinds of people? Well, that's you. You're that person.

But you need to allow yourself to be that person.

without all the gunk and junk clouding up and plugging up your pores and stopping the release of your essence.

You are a double whammy. Not only is your content powerful and has the capacity to speak into this craziness in this world, but you are the body of Christ. And if God is going to do anything in this earth, which He is, it's going to come through you. And I don't want anything to get in the way of His work coming through you because the earth is groaning and travailing for the manifestation of the sons of God,

of those with God's nature and character, his likeness,

those that represent him, his ambassadors.

So I wanted to encourage you in who you are today, just in case you experience small moments of feeling silly as well. Also, I wanted to let you know where you could hear more about some of the ideas I mentioned in this episode. They are in my book, Defying Discord and this podcast.

In Episode 2 of the podcast, and chapter three of the book is where I talk about how any art life can serve God, through the person you are, the way you navigate your art life, and the work you produce.

 In Episode 14, and 15, as well as chapter four of the book, I talk about this idea of just being who you are and of being an ambassador in another culture, as we are Kingdom ambassadors in secular culture.

In chapter five of the book, I talk extensively about this idea of being salt, light, fragrance and love

And in Episode 4 of the podcast, I talk about this idea of how we define ourselves. I hope those are helpful for you.

Alright, Be blessed and I’ll see you in the next episode!

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Do you ever experience those moments of feeling a little silly? How has the Lord ministered to you in those times and/or how did this episode speak to that feeling?

Hello and welcome to the Kingdom Art Life podcast. I’m your host, Marlita Hill, here to help you walk in wholeness, move in freedom, and work in harmony as you build a life in art in collaboration with God. 

As artists trying to do anything with or through our art, there are several questions we encounter on a rather regular basis. Three, in particula,r come to mind.

There's the question of resource, how am I going to pay for this? 

The question of capability, how am I going to accomplish this? 

And the question of confidence, do I have what it takes to pull this off?

And as I reflect on ways friends and I work through these questions, I notice that all of us start off wrestling the belief that there is something we're missing that is preventing, or at least delaying, us from moving forward or taking the next step.

But the other day I was listening to a coaching session I had with an artist and two parts of our conversation jumped out at me. The first was our discussion about 2 kings 4:4 and the second was our discussion about God's interaction with Moses and his rod in Exodus 4. The connection the Lord drew between these encounters was so encouraging for me and I want to share it with you today.

As I mentioned in the beginning, when trying to do anything with or through our art, we can initially wrestle with the belief that we're missing something, that there's something we need that we don't have that's making it difficult to move forward in what God is showing us. But in 2 kings 4, Exodus 4, and 2 kings 6, we're going to see that's never the case.

When I was writing this episode, the Lord illuminated two other passages for me. In the Passion translation of 2nd Peter 1:3, it says "everything we could ever need for life or godliness has already been deposited in us by His divine power."

Everything we could ever need. 

For life—or to live. 

And for godliness—or to do or be anything God is calling us to do or be. 

Everything you could ever need for either of those situations has already been deposited in you by his divine power. That is a selah moment if I've ever encountered one.

In Genesis 1:29, God is explaining to Adam how to feed himself in the garden. In His instructions, God repeats this three word phrase "that yields seed," as if to stress to Adam if you need anything, you'll find it on the inside of what's already here.  2nd Peter and Genesis show us that the first and biggest part of the answer to what we need will always come from inside of us.

With that yumminess, let's look at these 3 encounters.

It starts inside you.

In 2nd kings 4, we find a widow who needs money to pay her creditors. After she explains her situation to the prophet Elisha, he asks her, "What do you have in your house?"

She needs money.

But he doesn't give her money. 

He asks her what she has in her house. And she responds "your maid servant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil."

So she needs resources. She's wondering, how am I going to pay these bills. And I can imagine she calls out to the prophet hoping he might give her something. But he directs her to inventory what's in her house. Again she has said that she has nothing but a jar of oil. 

Then the prophet gives her some instructions and tells her when she follows them, she'll have enough to pay her debts and be able to live on the rest. Now, I'm hugely paraphrasing this story because there is so much that is so amazing in this encounter. And I'm sure I've shared what the Lord taught me from this passage at some point in this podcast. I mean, it's so serious for me that it shapes how I live and support myself. But I digress.

So the prophet gives her instructions on what to do with the oil to get the money she needs.  Now she's always had that oil in her house. The prophet doesn't give her a jar of oil. She's always had it. But she needs to pay her debts and she believes she needs something she doesn't have to be able to pay them. Her problem isn't that she doesn't already have what she needs. Her problem is that she can't see that what she already has in her house is the answer to what she needs. She doesn't know how to employ what she already has in a way that will get her what she needs. 

So the prophet doesn't give her anything but instead tells her what to do with what she already has. Well, I guess if we're being super technical, he does give her something. He gives her a strategy, which is huge. But my point is his strategy simply points out how she can use what she already has to get what she needs. 

The same is true for you and I. Our oil is our gifts, talents, ideas, etc.  As artists, we wonder how we're going to make a living, how we're going to pay bills or get the money to pay for something we need. And the first and biggest part of the solution is inside of us. We just have to recognize that and get a strategy for how to put it to use to help us get what we need.

You’re holding something amazing.

In Exodus 4, the Lord has appeared to Moses and charged him with freeing the children of Israel from Egypt and bringing them into their own land. God tells Moses what to do and in Exodus 4:1, Moses asks God, "But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice. Suppose they say the Lord has not appeared to you."

I can imagine Moses thinking, God, I don't think I have the means to do this. I don't have anything that would convince them that you sent me. I certainly don't have anything that would convince pharaoh to let these people go.

In verse 2, it says so the Lord said to Moses, "What is that in your hand?" And Moses answers "A rod." Then God proceeds to instruct Moses in how to use the rod to do what he's being asked. 

So Moses is about to take on an assignment, a project if you will. And he's convinced that he doesn't have anything capable enough to help him get it done. In response to him, the Lord doesn't give him anything. Instead, he asks Moses what's in his hand and then proceeds to show him how to use it. And throughout Moses' confrontations with Pharaoh, we see God showing Moses yet another thing this rod can do. 

And I picture us. God shows us these visions and we think, Lord, I don't think I have what's needed to do what you're showing me. And the Lord is asking us

I didn't start out knowing all I was going to do or all I was capable of doing. I didn't know that I would be dancing, then teaching, then choreographing and producing and mentoring. I didn't know I would be writing and that that writing would expand from dance to all arts to entrepreneurship. I didn't know I would be building courses and coaching. I didn't know I'd be creating frameworks and systems that other people would use and find solutions in.  

But the Lord just keeps showing me how expansive this gift He gave me is. 

And I just keep following him. 

And He'll do the same for you if you let Him. You're already holding what you need to fulfill what you see. You just need to be shown how amazingly capable you and it really are. 

It’s time for you to see.

And finally, we go to 2 Kings 6. The king of Syria is warring with Israel. Elisha the prophet keeps telling the king of Israel what the king of Syria is going to do next. Obviously this ticks the king of Syria off so he sets out to capture the prophet Elisha so that Elisha can't keep giving the king of Israel the tea or the scoop. The king of Syria finds Elisha and the Israelite army and surrounds them, which understandably causes Elisha's servant to freak out. In 2 Kings 6:15, the servant asks Elijah, "What shall we do?" Now his question is not a question of strategy, as in what steps do we need to take now that we're surrounded?  No. His question is a question of confidence, as in "Are we going to be OK? Are we going to be able to pull this victory off because right about now, I'm not feeling so sure."

And in verse 16, Elisha responds, "Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are against us. Then he prays "Lord, open his eyes that he may see." And it says, the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

So the young servant is afraid. He is not confident that they will be able to pull off a victory. And Elisha simply assures Him and prays that the Lord would open his eyes that he may see.

There have been many times in this walk where I have lacked confidence that things were coming together as the Lord showed me because nothing I could see around me looked like they were. But without fail, the Lord has been faithful to assure me and open my eyes so I could see—

See how he was working

See the parts that were moving into place

See the people who were in place to help me

See that the problem was so much smaller than I thought it was

See what I actually needed to do to get out of a situation or move things forward.

I have learned that many times it's not that we lack what we need. It's that we don't see what we have.

One of the great joys of doing this podcast, writing books, and coaching and teaching artists is that I get to remind you of how good the God you serve is, 

How amazing He is,

and how incredibly thorough He's been in setting you up so that you can victoriously have, be, and do what He's showing you for your life in art in His kingdom. I pray that this encouraged you today!

Until next time, be blessed!

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Which of these encounters most spoke to you?

Hello, and welcome to the Kingdom Art Life podcast. I'm your host Marlita Hill, here to help you walk in wholeness, move and freedom, and work in harmony as you build your art career in collaboration with God.

For several years now, I've had a problem with the phrase, “integrating faith in art,” or any other version of that sentiment.

And here's why.

Well, there are two parts to that why. First is the meaning of integration, and what that meaning implies about the state of the relationship between our faith and art. According to Cambridge Dictionary, to integrate means “to end the separation of.” Dictionary.com defines it as “incorporating, [I'm going to say] separate parts into a whole.”

These definitions imply our faith and art are separate and need to be brought together, that they are so separate and at odds with one another that we have to put in work to bring them together. And therein lies the second part of why I have a problem with this phrase: it implies a relationship between our faith and art that is spiritually inaccurate.

Here's the truth—and if you've been with me for a while, you've heard me say this:

when Christ redeemed us, He redeemed every single thing about us. So there is nothing, not one thing about us that exists outside of that redemption. Every aspect of us is united in His redemption and we have been made whole and complete in Him. Now, there is something we need to address. There is work we have to do, but it has nothing to do with integrating anything because we're already whole and complete in Christ. Nor does the focus of any work we do need to be on our faith and art. They're fine. The thing we need to address is our misalignment.

Our actual work is to align—not integrate—some things, which is defined as bringing something into agreement or correct relationship with something else. We need to align the way we live, think, see, and engage in this kingdom artist experience with the spiritual reality that we are already whole and complete in Christ. Our work is to accept that Christ has made us whole and learn to live, make art, and navigate our career experiences as a whole person. It’s to start thinking like a whole person would think, move around in the world, like a whole person would move around, etc.

How would a whole person navigate this experience as a marketplace-planted, career-engaged Kingdom artist? That's the question we need to be unpacking. Not how do we bring together parts of ourselves and our experience that are already one. I mean, we only have one body, and we only have one experience. I believe our work is to engage ourselves in the Ephesians 4:1 challenge to walk worthy of the calling with which we've been called, or get busy learning how to anyway.

The Passion translation says “walk in a way that is suitable to our high ranking,” which I think is cool. We've been called whole and called to wholeness. And our work is to get to the business of living up to our station. And this makes me think of the Disney movie, “Princess Diaries,” where Mia learns she is the princess and heir apparent of Genovia.

When we meet Mia, she's a nerdy high school girl trying to find her place and way in the world. She's a princess, but she doesn't know she's a princess. When her grandmother informs her that she's, in fact, a princess, the first thing Mia has to do is get over what she believes about herself and accept her royal reality. For the rest of the movie, we watch Mia as she learns how to live in that reality. Now Mia was a princess before she ever knew she was a princess. And her being a princess had nothing to do with anything she did. Further, her work of learning how to conduct herself was not to make herself a princess. Her work was to learn how to be what she already was. Now, it's true that our faith and art are distinct parts of us—yes, I would even use the word separate, as in they're each a part in their own right. But in the spirit of First Corinthians 12, they are individual parts of one body. One experience.

Though I have a problem with the phraseology, I understand the intention and heart behind the idea of integrating our faith and art. We can act like they aren't part of the same single experience. We can isolate, exclude, diminish, and try to silence the expression of these parts of ourselves in the various activities and spaces we occupy.

But that's us exercising our beliefs and fears on these parts of ourselves. It's us acting like they both don't live in the same heart, same life, same spirit, same experience. It's us projecting our stuff on our parts.

But it is not the reality of what is.

And I know it can also sometimes feel like our faith and art aren't part of the same single experience. Some of us think our parts need to be integrated because one part seems to be more front of mind for us, or one is more expressed in a given situation or environment. So we feel like they're separated not simply separate, as in individual and distinct but present in the same single experience.

And I get that.

But here's the cool thing. You and I are like H-2-0. No matter what environment it's in, H-2-0 is always H-2-0. No matter what it's doing, H-2-0 is always H-2-0. But it doesn't express itself the same way in every environment. Different aspects of its nature become apparent or have more expression depending on the nature of the environment it's in. H-2-0 can express itself as either a solid as ice, a liquid as water, or a gas as steam.

But it's always H-2-0.

And you are the same.

You have many, many parts. But you are always you, even though different aspects of your nature may take a greater expression as is suitable for a situation or environment. But that doesn't mean you need to be integrated. And if you discover that you've been consciously or unconsciously suppressing parts of yourself in situations or environments, you still don't need to integrate yourself. You need to address why you suppress and then simply stop suppressing those parts of yourself,

or conclude and accept that the outward expression of said part is not suitable for that particular situation or environment.

Then be at peace about it.

My beef with integrating our faith and art is that it puts the focus on trying to fix what is broken in either our faith or art. But they're fine. I mean, yes, we are always evolving, growing, and maturing in both, but there is nothing about them that needs to be fixed.

On the other hand, aligning the way we live and move with the spiritual reality that we are whole puts the focus rightfully on us. If we take our princess Mia journey, and learn to walk as and in what we are, we will release our faith and art to interact with the freedom they were designed to have.

All that to say, you are already whole. Your faith and art are individual parts of you, but they are one in you as you are whole in Christ. And you are always you even when a part of you may be more expressed or have more of your attention at a given time. So you don't have to spend time or effort trying to integrate your faith and art.

They're fine.
You're fine.

You just need to accept the fact that you're a Princess,
or Prince,

and learn to live like the royalty you already are.

Hello and welcome to the Kingdom Art Life Podcast. I'm your host, Marlita Hill, here to help you walk in wholeness, move in freedom, and work in harmony as you build your art career in collaboration with God.

Years ago, I had a conversation with a hip-hop dancer who told me about his love for dance. He shared how he felt so alive in the pure adrenaline of taking class and working hard on new steps and combinations. But he felt guilty for enjoying it so much because he didn't understand how taking a Hip-Hop class glorified God. And if it didn't glorify God, he didn't know if it was something he should be doing, let alone enjoying.

I was leading a group of dancers through the Kingdom Art Life Course. Throughout our discussion, I noticed this preoccupation with usefulness. As the dancers shared and responded, they repeatedly connected what we were talking about to being used by God. It was happening so much, it began to bother me, which was odd because I wouldn't have even noticed it years ago. I wouldn't have noticed it because I, too, was always focused on being used. 

But God has shown me some things and the fixation on usefulness bothers me now.

As we continued the discussion, I listened for the ways in which the dancers struggled to think about any interaction with God and their art outside of this idea of usefulness. At one point, the Lord gave me a brilliant question to pose to them: What if you were to completely remove usefulness from your relationship with God as artists? Like just take it completely out of the equation. What would be left for the two of you in that relationship? What would be left between you and your art if making it useful wasn't an issue? 

And after thinking for a moment, they began to respond as if asking for permission to imagine a relationship beyond usefulness. Communion? I could just make art? And on and on. And every time they took a risk to envision a richer, more vast interaction with God, I screamed Yes! Yes!

Because here's the thing with our fixation on usefulness: it colors everything a certain way (and not in a good way). Like imagine a guy is trying to court you, but in your mind, he only wants to sleep with you. He's trying to get to know you. He genuinely likes you and brings you small, thoughtful gifts because he likes you a lot and that's one way he expresses his interest and affection. He smiles at you when he sees you, gives you wonderful compliments. But everytime he does something nice, you are convinced he's only doing it because he wants to sleep with you. So your belief about his intentions colors (and really taints) every beautiful act of kindness and affection he offers.

Our fixation on usefulness does the same thing to God's genuine expressions of affection in our relationship with Him. It taints everything and causes us to miss out on (and actually fail to see and be able to receive) genuine acts of kindness, concern, friendship, company, communion and intimacy, genuine expressions of love with no strings attached.

And I wanted to address this first because this episode is actually about your creativity (and all the beautiful things it entails) being an expression of God's love for you with no strings attached. But I had to tackle usefulness first because your art being a gift from God to you for you is a reality we really struggle to embrace. 

So let's get into it.

I have a question for you. Does God ever give us permission to make art for the sake of making art? To create for whatever reason we want to and just enjoy doing it?

Now as I pose that question, I imagine some of you answering with Duh, of course. What a dumb question. But humor me for a second -because though we answer that with all the sense of "ofcourseness" in the world, I'm telling you man, my conversations with artists of faith (including with myself) reveal we struggle to simply engage with our creative life like it is a gift from God to us for us with no strings attached.

But the answer is yes. God permits us to make art just because. He not only permits us to. He wants us to. When we think about our creative gifts, we imagine them as a tool attached to a list of tasks that we need to use our tool to complete. And I can imagine some of you feel like you don't see your art like this, but deeper conversation betrays you. 

Now what if, instead of imagining your creative gift as a tool with a to-do list attached, you envisioned it as a gift, beautifully and ornately wrapped and presented to you by the one who loves you to enjoy as you wish. 

As I prepared for this episode, the Lord led me to Ecclesiastes. In this book, we journey with the writer as he's reasoning through different things about life: what's vanity, what's not vanity, what's really worth it? What do things really come down to. Throughout his reasoning, he comes to several conclusions and realizations. One of those is in Ecclesiastes 5:18-20. I'm reading the Amplified version:  

Behold, here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat and drink, and to find enjoyment in all the labor in which [one] labors under the sun during the few days of his life which God gives him—for this (eating, drinking, and finding enjoyment in the things he does) is his [allotted] reward. 19 Also, every man to whom God has given riches and possessions (which our creativity is a rich treasure), He has also given the power and ability to enjoy them and to receive [this as] his [allotted] portion and to rejoice in his labor—this (the power and ability to enjoy it) is the gift of God [to him]. 20 For he (the man who embraces this gift) will not often consider the [troubled] days of his life, because God keeps him occupied and focused on the joy of his heart [and the tranquility of God indwells him].

I mean come on! What else is there to say? I Timothy 6:17 tells us that God gives us richly all things to enjoy.

The amplified version says God richly and ceaselessly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. I feel safe in saying that "all things" and "everything" would include your creative life.

So your creative life (and all the amazing things that come with that and out of that) is a gift from your Father who loves you that He's given to you, for you to enjoy as you wish. Without repentance. No strings attached. Period. And I'm going to pause for just a moment because I need you to just let that sink in and take root in your heart.

Now I can address the reality that we engage with God in His purpose, that He has purpose for us and for our gifts - what we refer to as being used by Him. We'll really get into this in a couple of weeks but let me briefly address it here lest you misunderstand the point I'm trying to make.

Jill Scott has a song called "Whatever," about how her man put the lovin' on her so good that she woke up trying to think of things she could do for him. It was that good. In part of the song, she says, "Do you want some money baby? How about some chicken wings? Do you want some fish and grits? I'll hurry and go get it." Then she goes into the chorus: Whatever.

And at the end of the song, she sings, "Love last night, never knew passion could taste so sweet, alright. I made a vow to you. Everything I do for you is a joy and gift. You got my whole life lifted. Whatever....

So in this song, we listen to this woman who was so affected by how this man loved on her that she was looking for ways to reciprocate. You know we sing about this kind of love in church. You're a good, good Father. We sing and weep about the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God that chases us down and fights until we're found. A love so intense that God says there's no shadow I won't light up, no mountain I won't climb up coming after you.

What is the response to that kind of love? That's what Jill Scott is showing us? Whatever, whatever. God the way love me, and show me your love with this extravagant creative gift, how can I say Thank you? How can I even begin to try to love you back the same way. Do you want my life? Take it? You want this gift? If you do, it's yours. You can use it however you want to. Whatever, whatever. 

And that's the heart, the heart of worship, the response to God's overwhelming love. And out of that heart, you join Him in purpose, linking the direction of your life with His and making what you have available to Him to be put to use as you partner with Him in purpose.

Because artist, you are not God's Cinderella. Your creativity is a broom. You are the apple of His eye, one that He loves so much that He gave. And part of that giving is that extraordinary gift of creativity. Your art, and all it entails, is a gift from your Father who loves you that He's given to you, for you to enjoy as you wish. 

Without repentance. 
No strings attached. 

Period.

Hello and welcome to the Kingdom Art Life podcast where we are exploring how to walk in wholeness, move in freedom, and work in harmony as we build a life in art in collaboration with God.

I am so excited to resume this podcast. Our last episode was in 2018 and boy has a lot of life happened since then. This podcast sparked a book called Defying Discord: Ending the divide between your faith and secular art career which came out in 2019. And a course also called the Kingdom Art Life which came out in 2020. Lots of other amazing things have happened along the way, the biggest being I graduated with my MFA in choreography from Belhaven University on May 1st 2021. Whoo lordy, that was a 3-year adventure of many dimensions but it was a tremendous gift of the Lord's faithfulness in my art life.

I have shared in previous episodes that the Lord told me to put my choreography practice down—like stop everything—in 2016 and develop the Kingdom Artist Initiative (now Institute). And as time went on, I began to think that dance was just something I used to do. 

O but no. 

In a single completely unexpected email, I was invited to move to Jackson, Mississippi to resume my creative practice and discover who I was as a dance maker in this season. 

It was rough. 
I was embarassingly rusty. 

But it was so worth it.

Anyway, a lot has happened since 2018. This work has deepened and expanded so much since then. So as we reconnect and continue walking together in this faith and art experience, I want to share a couple of things to set the tone for us moving forward in this season of this work.

And I want to start with me by sharing four things about my back story in this faith, art, and career journey.

I didn't realize, until recently, that my entrance into this experience has so much to do with the way I think, move, and walk in it. I never paid attention to this because I always thought of the beginning of this journey as the time when I started to create a structure and frame around these ideas. And the only thing to tell about that beginning was that the Lord told me to begin. So I did.

But in the last couple of months, as I've stumbled and struggled to find the right words to explain this work I do with artists of faith, the spirit of God led me to revisit my own personal beginning into this experience, which has shaped everything I've done in it.

The first thing I realized was that the first time I ever remember hearing the Lord speak to me, it was about art. 

And He said “Go watch.”

I was 15 years old and there was this dance ministry that was about to minister. They were called The Hush Company, led by Stacy and La Quin Meadows. 

Now I had no desire to watch this dance ministry. I had no interest in art. I mean, it was cool and all, but if I wasn't around it, I didn't miss it. 

I wanted to be a psychologist. 

So when I heard this voice tell me to go watch this dance group, I resisted. But the voice was persistent so I finally relented and went to watch. And as I watched, my destinial lights were punched out. Let's just say I was at my first rehearsal 3 days later.

So #1, my first encounter with God's voice, at least that I can remember, was about art.

The next thing I realized is that it was in the context of dancing that I learned God, who this voice was that told me to go watch. I learned how He works. I began to learn how to walk this life of faith through practicing it and my day-to-day life in dance. Dance was the laboratory where I experimented with all the things I was learning in church. My learning how to stand in faith and walk by faith all happened within my art life. 

So #2, my life in dance was, and still is, a laboratory for me to learn about who God is, how he works, and how to practically walk out this life of faith.

The third thing I realized is that every creative endeavor since that “Go Watch” encounter has been directed or affirmed by the Lord. 

Remember, I didn't want to be an artist so I had no creative ambitions. 

I didn't know what I was doing. 

I just followed what I heard, from joining the dance ministry to leaving that dance ministry to go to school for dance, to presenting my work primarily in secular culture. The transition from ministry in local churches to building an art career in secular culture was God directed. And all the creative projects that have come to me since then—which have nothing to do with evangelism—have been God-inspired.

#3 All of my creative activity has been influenced, if not directed, by Him.

And lastly, I grew up in a church where I was taught that I was supposed to be in secular culture, that I was supposed to take space and engage there as a Kingdom representative by using my gifts, doing what the Lord gifted and graced me to do.

And it is these four parts of my experience that have enabled me to walk in wholeness, move in freedom, and allow the faith, artistic, and entrepreneurial parts of myself to work together in harmony. And it is from this place that I speak to you.

Now at first, I thought my back story was irrelevant, even a liability because I never struggled with God's acceptance of my art expression in any form or context. Nor did I ever struggle with the interaction between my faith and art practice. So I worried that I had no right to speak to people who did struggle in those things. 

The thing is I didn't struggle with those things but I did struggle with accepting them, with learning how to believe them and move about like I believed them when others thought I was delusional.

And yet it is from my experience that I come to encourage you to walk in the wholeness Christ gave you, where you're not wasting time doing redundant work trying to integrate something that hasn't been separate sense Christ redeemed every part of you at salvation, and since there is no part of you that lies outside of that redemption.

It is from that experience that I encourage you to move in freedom, where you are unapologetic about being the artist you feel led to be—

no matter what kind of art you make, where you make it, who you make it with, or what you make it for—

because you are confident that the Lord is present and at work in your creative heart.

And it is from that experience that I encourage you to allow your faith, art, and career to work and grow together—

because you understand that they were designed to coexist and neither needs to be sacrificed or diminished for the other to thrive;

That in fact they each get stronger through their interaction with one another.

As we embark on the next chapter of our journey together, then, these are the things we'll be unpacking, and so much more. Thank you for allowing me to share my heart as we move forward.

I also want to say welcome to those who have just found this podcast and a huge thank you to those of you who have stuck with me as I figure out how to steward this thing.

Be blessed! 

Hello, hello, and welcome to Episode 31 of the Kingdom Art Life podcast. I am Marlita Hill, here to help you flourish in faith, art, and career.

Today, we delve into our final mindset to help us build without compromising. When we got saved, we didn't just go through a spiritual transformation. We also went through a transformation in method.

When we received Christ, we went through a process of justification. And the as those who have gone through justification, we are now members of the community of the just. And the Bible says that the just, whom we are now a part of, shall live by faith. Part of our experience as artists in Christ, as artists on the other side of a yes, is learning how we work our creative experience in this life of faith. It's understanding how we build our creative life by faith.

I was thinking about Narnia in The lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. If you've never heard or read the story, it's basically about a group of siblings who find this secret door in their closet. And when they go through that secret door, they enter this magical land called Narnia. The interesting thing about Narnia is that all of the elements are still the same. The sky is still the sky. The ground is still the ground. A tree is still a tree. The snow is still the snow. Beavers are still beavers. Things are the same, except for some magical beings like Mr. Tumnus. Basically, though the elements are still the same in Narnia as they are on the other side of the closet door.

But even though those elements look the same, in Narnia, they operate by different principles, different mechanics. There are different possibilities there that don't exist on the other side of the closet door. Beavers talk in Narnia. They don't talk on the other side of the door.

And this is a picture of our life as artists working our faith in our creative life. As Christians, the elements of our art life are still the same. A G major scale is still A G major scale. A cello is still a cello. The audition is still the audition. Head shots are still head shots. All of those elements are still the same, but the way we manage and handle those elements as artists who've said yes is different than those who haven't said yes. The procedures, the steps, the path, the possibilities, the mindsets are different for us here in faith land.

You're going to build your art career using the same elements as everyone else. You're still going to build your career by auditioning for artists or companies, submitting to festivals, by composing using chords and scales, by going to ballet class, by meeting with gallerists. All that's the same. But when you engage and manage those elements by faith, the sequence of how you do things is different. The timing is different, the order is reversed, steps are skipped, limits don't apply to your life like they do to those on the other side, access to things and people is gained differently, connections are made differently, progress is made differently.

For example let's say you're a visual artist and it has entered your heart to exhibit your work at the Denk gallery in downtown LA. So you pray Lord, I ask you for divine connections. I ask you for favor to help me get into the Denk gallery. I ask you for instruction on what I need to do to connect with the people who organize the exhibits. You pray that, receive it in Jesus name, and go on about your business.

Then about 3 days later, you're flipping through the LA weekly and you see this book reading that's happening at a bookstore in Santa Monica. Now if you don't live in LA, downtown and Santa Monica are quite a distance apart. So, you're flipping through the LA weekly and you see this event in Santa Monica and you feel in your heart that you need to go.

But, this is not an author that you've heard of. You're not even really interested in their work, but you still feel led to go, so you go. You show up to the book reading, still not really sure why you're there. And you've kind of forgotten what you prayed a few days ago. But you're there.

The event goes on. The author speaks and it actually ends being really interesting. Ok, but you still don't understand why you felt the press to go. The event ends and you go over to the refreshment table. As you're pouring your tea, someone walks up next to you and the Holy Spirit says, "ask them how they're doing." So you look over and ask them and a conversation rolls from there. You guys are having small talk getting to know each other and then they ask you what you do. You tell them you're a visual artist and you share the kind of art you make. You tell them you're in the process of trying to get your work into galleries, etc. As they're listening to you, they ask to see your work. And because you have your stuff prepared for such an occasion, you whip out your phone where your portfolio is digitally loaded and you show them your work. As they look through it,, they're telling you they like your work, they're asking you questions about it. It's a hoot.

As they continue looking, they say, "You know, it's funny...I'm the curator at the Denk gallery in downtown LA. Have you ever heard of it?" You casually say yeah as you giddily shuffle your internal feet. And you say yes yes I have. Are you really?

They go on to say, "We are about to transition our exhibit and your work would really fit in the direction we're about to go. I'll tell you what, can you come see me at the gallery next Wednesday?" Yes you surely, most certainly can!!

This is building your art career by faith, versus having to call the gallery, hoping that the administrative assistant will remember to give your message to the Curator. If they do give your message to them, you hope that they have time to call you. And even if they do call you, you have to wait several days, weeks, sometimes even months to get an appointment with them because they don't know you. They have no investment in you. Artists are calling all the time. And let's hope that something doesn't come up where they have to reschedule.

Versus…

You pray and three days later God tells you to go to a random book reading where you happen to be pouring your tea next to the curator who's pouring their coffee and you guys strike up a conversation where they invite you to come meet with them. This is how you build your career by faith by seeking and following the leading of the Holy Spirit in how to go after the things He showing you to pursue in your art career. And if you trust the fact that God responds when He sees faith, you won't feel the need to compromise to get where you're going.

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Have you ever has this kind of divine connection experience? What was it like when you experienced God moving you directly where you needed to be, past a lot of steps?

Hello, hello, and welcome to Episode 30 of the Kingdom Art Life podcast. I am Marlita Hill, here to help you flourish in faith, art, and career.

We are getting into our last two mindsets to help us build our art career without compromising our faith.

In each of our individual career walks, we need to decide who has the final say about our art career. Each of us have to decide that.

In an interview I was basically asked what advice I had to help people be in secular culture without compromising. In order to answer that question, I responded, there's another question that needs to be answered first. And the answer to this first question will determine what the answer to the original question will be.

And here's the first question: Who has ultimate say over your career, over how far it goes, where it goes, how long it lasts, what it experiences, etc?

As I said each of us has to answer that question for our individual career life. And our answer is a determination for whether we'll fall into compromise or not. Does the agent, the casting director, the curator, that critic, that artistic director, that conductor, that producer, that artist - do they have final say and ultimate authority over what happens to your career? Or does God?
Again, you make that choice.
But here's where that decision plays into whether we compromise or not;

If you decide that they, whoever they is, if they have ultimate say over your ability to have the career that you're pursuing, then you have to do what they say, whatever that is, whether it compromises you or not, or else you can't have the career. And if they have the final say then the eventual compromise becomes necessary for you to keep the career. So if that director or curator is the gateway to the rest of your career, then you're going to have to do what they say or else you can't have the career.

But, if you decide to recognize that God has the final say over your career, over the career vision He gave you, using the gifts He gave you, then all you have to do is follow Him. Then there's no need for compromise.

And, I know, some people say it's not that simple, Marlita. That's not how it works, Marlita. Don't make it so spiritual, Marlita. And to that I say, first of all, this is a spiritual matter. In fact you have the option to compromise or not do so because of your spiritual relationship.

Also, it is that simple. It may not be easy, but it is simple. You may have to muster up a lot of courage to say no to those industry Goliaths. You may have to confront some fears about what if I go against this industry giant, what if I go against this person and it turns out bad. You might have to muster up some courage to believe that if you turn down this project at God's leading, that He will still be able to get you where you need to go. So, I understand that it's not necessarily easy in the moment. And it may not be easy to stand in that decision strong in that decision once you make it. But it is simple.
Do you believe God or not?

And to the idea that this is not how this works, it's not how they work. But you belong to a different system and you operate by different processes and principles. So that may not be how they work but you serve the living God, so it's how you work.

Again, we each have to decide who holds our careers in their hands. If it's the proverbial they, you're going to have to do what they say to keep your career whether you have to compromise your faith or not. But if it's God that holds the final say, then all you have to do is follow Him. And if you're following Him, how can you be compromising?

And to those who worry that following God will compromise the integrity of your art, don't. In fact, it will liberate it, freeing you to take chances and find your true voice because you are only beholden to your Creator, and He has the final say over your career.

TALK TO ME

What came up for you as you thought about who has the final say over your career?

Hello, hello, and welcome to Episode 29 of the Kingdom Art Life podcast. I am Marlita Hill, here to help you flourish in faith, art, and career.

We are continuing to explore mindsets that help us overcome our anxiety about compromising our faith in our career pursuits.

Another way of mind that helps us is to keep our identity rooted in the right foundation. It's important that we keep watch on what we're permitting to inform and shape our identity. Does your art form define you? Does your career?
Or are you rooted in your identity in Christ?
And what does this have to do with building our art career without compromising our faith?

I was thinking about a part of my book, Defying Discord, where I look at Mark 10. In this account, Jesus has this exchange with this man who comes asking what he has to do to enter the Kingdom. Jesus tells him what to do. The man says he did that already and asks what else he must do. So Jesus tells him to sell everything he has and give it to the poor, take up his cross, and basically follow Him. And it says the man was very sorrowful because he was very rich.

So here's this man who wants to follow God, who wants to do what God is leading him to do; but he can't because it would mean giving away or separating himself from the things that define him.

What's really interesting is that later in that passage Jesus tells His disciples that it's very hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. I looked at that language and it was really interesting because He said it's hard for a rich man to enter, not that it's hard for a man who has riches to enter the Kingdom of God.

For this man who had this exchange with Jesus, it was his riches that defined him. In his mind, him having riches, and all of the access and status they afforded him, those were the things that defined him and brought all the good in his life. So he was unwilling to separate himself from those things even though he really wanted to walk with God.

How does this factor into our conversation?

If your career is what defines you, or if your career being at a certain status or you being active in your art form is what defines you, then you put yourself in a vulnerable position for compromise because you are more willing to do whatever it takes to maintain those things upon which your identity is formed.

One of the things I hear a lot is I'm an artist who just happens to be Christian. But you're not. And don't get me wrong, I totally understand what you mean when you say that; and I know what you're trying to delineate and define. You're not a person who makes Christian art and you're trying to remove that expectation off of you so you can do you. I get it, but still, you are not an artist who just happens to be Christian. You are a child of the Kingdom who engages in this world and in their relationship with their God through their art. See the shift. Art is what you do it's not who you are. It's a vehicle that you use to give expression to who you are. And who you are doesn't change based on what's going on with your art career or your art form. Your identity is that you are a child of the Kingdom. Art is one of the ways you take space in your identity.

If you want to build a serious, compelling, high-level, noteworthy art career without compromising your faith, make sure you watch where your identity is rooted and how it's defined.

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How have you navigated this tension between identifying as an artist or as a Christian. What struggles have you run into while trying to do it? I want to know.

Hello, hello, and welcome to Episode 28 of the Kingdom Art Life podcast. I am Marlita Hill, here to help you flourish in faith, art, and career.

We're in the middle of presenting mindsets to help us overcome our anxiety about compromising our faith in our career pursuits.

The third mindset is to keep in mind that you are an artist on the other side of a yes. And on the other side of your yes, it's important to remember that God is for your career, and He's with you in your career, but He's after more for you, in you, with you, and through you then just your career.

Your art career is a vital part of this exquisite tapestry that's being woven together by your life. But it's only part of that tapestry. And as that tapestry is made to be put on display, it doesn't just matter that you get the career, in fact it matters so much more how you get it.

So does the way the you build your career honor the maturity and fruitfulness that God wants to develop in you?
Does the way you build it honor the relationship and the life He wants to build with you?
Does it honor the fullness of the gifts He gave you and the opportunities, the dreams, the desires, and the doors those gifts were supposed to open and make happen for you?

And does the way you build your career honor the healing, the correction, the legacy, the footprint, the reconciliation that is ordained to come through you?

Because here's the thing, you are an artist absolutely, and you're absolutely building a noteworthy art career. But you're an artist on the other side of a yes, building an art career that is accountable to that yes. And the accountability that comes with that yes is acknowledging that while God is for you in your art career, and with you in it, there is something greater at work in you building and occupying it. When you bring that recognition into your career building, it will help hold you accountable for the way you build it. And if you know that you're building it for something bigger than just having it, you won't make compromising decisions.

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I've talked a lot about being an artist on the other side of a yes. What comes up for you when you hear that?

Hello, hello, and welcome to Episode 27 of the Kingdom Art Life podcast. I am Marlita Hill, here to help you flourish in faith, art, and career.

In our last episode, we began tackling this idea that we wrestle with about our art career compromising our faith. And we began presenting mindsets to help us overcome this struggle.

The second mindset I want to share is understanding that this creative part of you has been given to you for your life, not just for your Christian service.

It's something that God has given to you to use to participate, respond to, and take space in this life. It's something that He's given you to engage with Him in relationship.

We've talked about how we fall prey to wonky thinking about the relationship between our faith and art career. One aspect of that wonkyness is falling into thinking that our creativity, and our creative life are only interesting to God, are only worthy of being brought up to Him, and are only worthy of bothering him with, if they're useful to Him.

But here is wonderful news: God is not in relationship with you because you're useful to him. And He's not in relationship with you because your gifts are useful to Him. God is in relationship with you because He loves you. And He has gifted you as an expression of that love.

And within this loving relationship, the two of you engage in these gifts for the things that He wants to do for you, for the things He wants to do with you, for the things that He wants to work and develop in you, and for those things that He wants to work, accomplish and manifest through you.

Within this relationship the two of you put these gifts to use in ways that serve Him, and you, and others around you.

Why are these mindsets so important? Well, when you recognize that your creativity put to use in your "secular" art career is a valid, God-honoring way to participate in Kingdom citizenship and community, and when you understand that this creativity has been given to you for your life, not just your Christian service, then you feel safe to let God into that space, into the space where your creativity lives with it's hopes, it's dreams, it's fears, its desires, it's ambitions, and it's pursuits. You feel safe enough to let Him into that space.

The thing that makes us vulnerable to making compromising decisions in our career is that we keep God out of that space. Some of it is for fear of what He might take away from us, or what he might prevent us from doing. But sometimes, we keep Him out of that space because we genuinely don't want to be disrespectful or displeasing to Him. It's like if there's something you know your mother doesn't like. It's not that you don't do it, you just don't tell her about it, and you don't do it around her. You don't talk to her about it because you know that it makes her upset. And sometimes that's what we do with God when it comes to our careers. We keep him out of that space. We don't talk to Him about it. We don't do it around Him.

But, if we understand that it's been given to us by Him for all parts of our life, and all parts of our relationship with Him, and if we understand that it is honoring to Him when we take space as Kingdom children in secular culture through our art careers, then we feel safe to let Him into that space. And we feel safe to talk to Him in that space. And, if we feel safe to let Him in there, and we feel safe talking to Him about our creative life and career ambitions there, eventually, we will come to find that it's safe to let Him lead us in our career ambitions from there.

And if He's leading you, how can you possibly compromise?

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Have you had any struggles with not feeling useful to God or in your church? How did that make you feel? How does knowing God is not after your usefulness change that for you?

Hello, hello, and welcome to Episode 26 of the Kingdom Art Life podcast. I am Marlita Hill, here to help you flourish in faith, art, and career.

In our last episode, we talked about two things that hinder our ability to walk unapologetically as artists in Christ working in secular culture. Those two things were our inability to answer how our kind of career serves God, and our mindset about the relationship between our faith, art, and career.

In this episode I want to tackle a specific mindset that tends to stifle us and hold us back from soaring ahead in building the career God has planted in our hearts.

How do I build this art career without compromising my faith?

This really plagues us. For some reason, we are really hesitant to believe that we have permission to go forward and enjoy building a career with our creativity. We are even more hesitant to believe that that enjoyment could coexist with living a committed life for God. So we're always checking for land mines. Always pulling ourselves back when it feels too good, or flows too smoothly.

Ok, I'm about to use a terribly crude example. But it's almost like when we have to go to the bathroom in our dream. In our dream, we want to let go and let it flow so badly. And if we ever do, it feels amazing...but that's how we know we've messed up- because it feels so good and the feeling triggers us to snap to, and wake up!

And that's kind of how we treat our art careers sometimes as Christians. When it feels too good, it triggers a suspicion that something doesn't feel right, and breaks the flow.

So let's spend some time on that. How do we build a serious art career without compromising our faith?
How far can we go?
How high can we reach with our artistry without forsaking the way of life that we've committed to, without dropping the ball on the responsibility to this way of life, and without dishonoring the one to whom we've committed?

How do we do it?

The most simplistic answer to this question is mindset. Mindset is the way that you build your art career without compromising your faith. The things you believe about what it takes to build a successful career, and about where your faith fits in that, is going to be the determining factor for whether you make compromising decisions to move your art career forward or not.

So, over the next few episodes, I'm going to give you several mindsets, ways of thinking that will help you trample that struggle.

The first mindset that I want to share with you today is understanding that your creativity, your artistry that you put to use in your career are valid, God-honoring ways that you participate in Kingdom citizenship and Christian community. They are God-honoring ways that you fulfill your Christian responsibility to worship God, to live for him, to honor him, to glorify him, to make Him known. They are valid, God-honoring ways that you participate in communicating the gospel.

Now you might say Marlita, wait a minute, how is that even possible? You know the kind of art I make. You know where my art lives. You know what it does and doesn't talk about, and you know who I make it with. So, how is that even possible that my kind of art life could do this?

Well, its because you have a life in art, not just a message in art. And your life in art communicates the gospel, participates in building the Kingdom, glorifies God, and makes Him known even when the content of your art is not talking about God directly. It does these things even when the purpose for you creating art is not focused on evangelism. So we're gonna look at how.

This life in art consists of 3 P's: Person, Process, and Product.

Person is who you are. This is how you participate in Kingdom citizenship even when the art you create is not talking about faith or is not living inside the church walls. The Bible says that you are the light of the world. You are the salt of the Earth. You are the way that God diffuses His fragrance throughout the Earth. And you are an exhibitor and dispenser of His love. That's who you are. It's not what you do, it's who you are. Before you ever do anything, and regardless of what your art talks about, this is who you are. This is how you come into the room . This is how you show up in whatever space you enter, including your career. You are the representative and ambassador of the living God and of His Kingdom in the Earth. You don't have to do anything to accomplish that. You are already that.

The second part of this art life is process. Process is how you do things: how you go about creating your art, how you make career decisions, and how you interact with the larger art world and the people around you. Your process is about the how. You honor God and make Him known, and demonstrate the gospel at work by the way you go about making these decisions, by your disposition in embodying these decisions, and by what leads and influences you in making those decisions.

And the last part of this art life is product. Product is the actual art work. And again, you may say Marlita, Wait a minute, I don't make art about faith.

And to that I say that it doesn't matter so much what you talk about. It's the perspective that you present on what you talk about, because you and I as Kingdom citizens in the world are contributing the Kingdom perspective to cultural dialogue. Even though we're Christians, we're still sexual beings, we still have feelings, we still deal with loss and grief, we still have awe, we still fall in love, we still make mistakes, we still engage in the human experience. So, what does that human experience look like from a Kingdom perspective? How do you address, confront, and look at being human and living in this earth in all its messiness from the Kingdom perspective?

Regardless of what you make art about, you're still letting people know how the gospel informs your perspective on the human experience.

Through your art life, you communicate the gospel through your embodiment, even though it's not through your conversation. You show what the gospel looks like put to work, what it looks like lived out. You show the gospel expressed, demonstrated, and applied in every day life. You show what the impact and the effect of that gospel on a life looks like, which is the responsibility of every Christian.

Amen!

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What did today's episode release for you, or release you from, as you heard more about how you honor God with your kind of career life?

Hello, hello, and welcome to Episode 25 of the Kingdom Art Life podcast. I am Marlita Hill, here to help you flourish in faith, art, and career.

In episode 24, we looked at the second pillar of a healthy relationship between our faith, art, and career; which is liberty.

In this episode, I want to talk about things that hinder that liberty.

And what are they?

What are those things that hinder and interfere with our ability to be unapologetic as artists in Christ working in secular culture?

What are those things that put us back, or keep us in a space of feeling like we have to apologize, or diminish, or downplay any part of our make up?

What are those things that lead us to think we're compromising in our kind of art life?

The first hindrance is an unanswered question; or really the inability to answer a question.
What unanswered question is this?

Let's read 1 Peter 3:15.
”But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you.”

Be ready to give a defense for the hope that is in you.

This career that you and I are pursuing, this dream that we have of being career artists, is a hope that we're carrying within us. And we need to be able to give an answer for it. And there's a specific question about that hope that we need to be able to answer. Here it is:

How do you serve God, build the Kingdom, make Christ known, participate in Kingdom citizenship, fulfill your Christian responsibility, how do you do all that working out there, making that kind of art with those people?

Listen family, until you're able to answer that question, you will not be able to stand unapologetically as an artist in Christ working in secular culture. And here's why: because you are not just an artist. You are an artist on the other side of a yes. You said yes to Christ. You said yes to serving him with your life. You said yes to doing your part in building His Kingdom. You said yes to making your life available to make Christ known.

In order for you to stand unapologetically about what you're doing in your career life as an artist on the other side of a yes, you need to be able to answer for how the things you're doing in your career are honoring that yes. For your own conscience, you need to be able to answer this.

Now, the great news is that your "secular" art career does serve God, and it does build his Kingdom, and it does make Christ known. But you'll never be able to own that, to wear it, to stand confidently in it like God desires you to until you're able to answer and articulate how your career activity is honoring the yes that you made.

And any occasions of confidence you do experience will be unstable, wavering and vulnerable.

The second thing that hinders and interferes with this liberty is our mindset. These are the things we've been taught, things we've heard, things we've experienced. But they're even things that we've concluded, assumed, and simply resigned ourselves to; things we've just accepted about faith, art, and career living and existing in the same space together.

So we have to address these mindsets. We have to address the ways we think about the relationship between these three, no matter how that thinking got there.

Because here's the thing about mindset. The mindset that we have about the relationship between our faith, art, and career, the way we think about those three, shapes our choices, actions, and methods. We do certain things and make certain choices because of what we believe about them living in the same space. And because of what we believe about them being able to thrive simultaneously in that same space.

A major part of renewing that mindset is understanding how our career activity both honors our faith and honors our art.

It is easy to fall prey to unfruitful beliefs about this relationship: from believing that our art career in secular culture fails to fulfill our Christian responsibility or that our kind of career taints God's pure and holy gifts, to the other side where we think that bringing our faith into our career life compromises the integrity of our art or puts a cap on how far we're able to go in our career.

And none of those are true.
But we believe them, and worse, we make decisions and interact with these parts of ourselves based on these beliefs, and that can hinder our liberty.

So we need to renew the way we think about the relationship between our faith, art, and career; and we need to be able to answer how we serve God working out there, making our kind of art with those people.

We will continue to unpack this question from various angles in this podcast. But if you want an in-depth understanding of this, I would encourage you to read my book, “Defying Discord,” which is all about answering that question.

Alright, I want to hear from you!

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What are some mindsets that you know are problematic to having a healthy relationship between your faith, art, and career? What do you think about the impact of that unanswered question I talked about?

Hello, hello, and welcome to Episode 24 of the Kingdom Art Life podcast. I am Marlita Hill, here to help you flourish in faith, art, and career.

Over these first few episodes of season 2, I am spending some time to introduce the three pillars of a healthy relationship between faith, art, and career. In episode 22 and 23, we looked at the first pillar, which is wholeness, embracing all parts of who you are as an artist in Christ working, or pursuing a career, in secular culture.

The next pillar of a healthy relationship is liberty.

In this pillar, I use another word. That word is unapologetic, by which I mean being free from the need to apologize for, justify, alter, diminish, choose between, or feel guilty about any part of your experience as an artist in Christ working in secular culture, from the kind of art you make, to where it lives, to who you make it with.

It's being free to love God, live your faith out loud, create your art, build your career, and intertwine them all. To be all of them at the same time, all the time, in the same space, without having to apologize for it.

Now, this unapologeticness has two sides. The first side is being unapologetic about being a serious, committed Christian who works in secular culture, who doesn't make art about faith, doesn't make art for evangelism, and who works intimately with people who are not Christians. It's being able to put your heels down, straighten your back, and lift your head and say this is how I participate in building the Kingdom, in representing Christ and making Him known. This is how I engage in Kingdom community.

Now, I understand this could be difficult if you struggle with answering how it's possible that such an art life could build the Kingdom and make Christ known. I would venture to propose that this is the root of some of your current struggles. But I have good news. Such an art life does build the Kingdom and it does make Christ known. Such an art life is an honorable way to serve God, even your kind of art life; and we'll get into how in later episodes. 

The other side of being unapologetic is not apologizing for being a serious artist, who is serious about their craft and industry, and whose creative, business, and relational decisions are led and guided by the Spirit of God. It's not apologizing for the fact that honoring Him takes precedence over everything.

Now, I could see how this could make some of you uneasy. For some, imagining God dealing with complicated industry negotiations and issues is like imagining your cute old grandmother trying to do it. We might not want to admit that, but we're just not used to imagining God in that space, being able to effectively lead us there. I know this because when I've talked to some artists of faith, I ask, "What did God say?" - to which they annoyedly reply, "Don't get spiritual on me." Or, "It's not that simple."

And I get it. It's honest. It's wrong; but it's honest. And hopefully, our journey together will help you begin to see Him as powerful and capable in that space.

Another hesitation is anxiety about what He might make us do, that whatever He leads us to do will have us looking straight stupid among our peers and industry. But guys, though God is supernatural, He's not weird. He guides us in very wise and practical ways. Supernatural and practical are not mutually exclusive. His direction might not make logical sense at the moment. It might not seem like that instruction He gave you will actually get you where you're trying to go but that's the supernatural part because He's leading you from His eye, from beyond what you can naturally see in front of you.

And the other thing I think we're a little nervous about is how to talk about decisions God has led us to with people who don't serve Him. We're unsure how to communicate what we know we should or shouldn't do spiritually in those industry conversations. But we shouldn't be. Just say what God told you to say. You don't have to go into details about how you got it. You don't have to quote your Source. You just have to communicate your decision. And if there's anything more that needs to be said, God will lead you in how to say it.

So that's liberty.

When you're in the church community, you don't back away from the kind of art you make, who you make it with, or where it lives. And when you're out in secular culture working your career, you don't back away from the fact that following the Spirit of God is the way you navigate your career. You don't have to beat people over the head with your faith. You just don't apologize for it being the way you make career decisions.

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Are you already flat-footed in this liberty? If so, how did you get there? Or, is this something that you're working on? And if you're still working on it, let us know how it's going.

Hello, hello, and welcome to Episode 23 of the Kingdom Art Life podcast. I am Marlita Hill, here to help you flourish in faith, art, and career.

In episode 22, we started painting a picture of wholeness, unpacking what it looks like to embrace all three parts of who you are as an artist in Christ, being Christian, creative, and cultural participant. The first part of that picture was bringing your whole self, all three of those parts, into your faith walk. Today, we're going to dive into the other two facets of that picture.

The second part of that picture is bringing your whole self to your creative practice.

What does that look like?

Well, for one, it means acknowledging that this creative gift has a Source, and it's Source has intentions for His gift.

It also means bringing your creative practice and process to the the other side of your yes. What does that mean? Well, you are an artist on the other side of a yes. You have said yes to God. And as one who has said yes to God, you have agreed to live for Him by honoring His intentions for the gift in your life. So the way you use your creativity should honor the yes you made to Him; and that looks different for each of us.

Bringing your whole self to your creative practice means allowing faith to have its place as the guiding force in your creative process, from ideation to execution. Basically, that simply means inviting the Spirit of God into your creative space and allowing Him to lead you fully into the things He has for you.

It means acknowledging that the creative space in your life is somewhere God wants to meet with you, spend time with you, dream with you, fill you, mature you, and support you.

It means committing to present the Kingdom perspective in your work. That doesn't mean that you have to talk about faith. Rather, it means that whatever topic you explore, whatever subject, whatever medium, it's explored through a lens informed by faith.

Our relationship with God, the things that He teaches us, the ways we're transformed in our faith practice - should be reflected in the way we live, in our thought process, in the conclusions we draw, and the lens through which we see and respond to the world. It should also be shaping the way we practice our art, converse through our art, and take space as artists. That's bringing your whole self into your creative practice.


The last part of this picture of wholeness is bringing your whole self to your career life and management.

And what does that look like?

Well, one of the things it means is embracing your creativity as a valid path for your career. Instead of doubting that it's possible, it's finding out how it's possible. If God has put that on your heart, it's doable. Now, it may not match your assumptions or even hopes of what your art career will look like, but a fulfilling, sustainable career in art is totally doable, especially when God is leading you in it.

It means bringing your career to the other side of your yes. Again, as one who has said yes to God, that yes should be honored in the way you navigate your career, and in the kind of career you're building. And that simply means seeking God in creative, business, and relational decisions and choosing to trust His leading and follow His guidance.

It means allowing God into the vulnerable place of your career ambitions, desires, hopes and fears. Those are things He desires to process and pursue with us. They are not something we have to hide from Him.

For my die hards out there, it means submitting your art career to God, getting His vision for it, and committing to pursue that. This becomes possible when you are fully convinced that God is for your art, that He's for you as an artist, and that He is for you having a career in art that fulfills and sustains you. He's after more than just you having the career, but He's totally for the career.

So those are the three parts of this picture of wholeness:
As a Christian, Creative, and Cultural Participant it's bringing all three of those part to your faith walk, to your creative practice, and to your career management.

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What resonated with you in either of these two parts? Also, is there anything you would add to either of them, in terms of what it means to bring your whole self to your creative practice and career management?

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to season 2 of the Kingdom Art Life Podcast. My name is Marlita Hill and I am excited to help you flourish in faith, art, and career.

Our last podcast was March of 2017. Wow!!! What a year and some change that's been. I only meant to take a short break but God and life had other plans, which I'll definitely be sharing more about over our time together this season. But, the big news that I want to share with you is that I published my third book in January. The title is Defying Discord: Ending the divide between your faith and "secular" art career. If you enjoy this podcast, you'll love the book, which you can purchase on my site at marlitahill.com.

Alright, enough of that.

So over this past year and a half, the Spirit of God has really refined KAI'S place in this conversation about faith and art. Again, KAI stands for Kingdom Artist Initiative, and it's the program I developed through which I support artists in Christ working in secular culture, like yourself. I do that through workshops, mentoring, this podcast, my books, retreats, courses, and other things.

And the mission that has really settled in my heart in working with artists of faith is to minister into two relationships in their lives: the first is the relationship between their faith, art, and career, and the second is the relationship between them, as artists, and God.

This is why I'm so excited to connect with you!!

Because my desire is for these relationships in your life to be healed and healthy, reciprocal, thriving and deepening. But to have that, there are some things we need to be freed from, things we need to shift our mind about, things that we need to peel off, and things we need to be reacquainted with.

Now there are three pillars to these healthy relationships.
The first is wholeness. This is about you being able to fully embrace all parts of who you are as an artist in Christ.

The second is liberty. This is about you being able to stand unapologetically in the kind of art life God has led and positioned you to build.

And the third pillar is harmony. This is about faith, art, and career being allowed to thrive alongside one another, at the same time in the same space, as they work together in your life.

Season 2 will be about digging into these three pillars, understanding what blocks them, what empowers them, and how to receive and walk in them so that you can flourish in a healthy, undivided relationship between your art and faith life.

So, let's get to it!!

What does wholeness look like for artists in Christ working, or pursuing a career in secular culture? What does it look like for you to fully embrace all parts of who you are in this station?

I looked up the word whole and there were two definitions that really stood out for me. The first one is an organization of parts fitting and working together as one, which we'll get more into in our harmony conversation. The second definition is not leaving any part out.

Not leaving any part out.
What does that look like?

Well, as artists in Christ working in secular culture, we're essentially made up of three parts.

There's the Christian part of us. We are believers, followers of Christ.

There's the creative part of us. We make art or work in the artistic sector.

And, there's the part of us that is a cultural participant. We participate in secular culture through our art making and career.

Okay...

So what, then, does it look like for all three of those parts to be brought into every aspect of our experience as an artist in Christ working in secular culture, in every context that we occupy as such? I have 3 pictures of this wholeness that I want to share with you; one in this episode and two in the next.

The first picture of this wholeness is bringing your whole self (that's all three parts) to your faith walk. This means not denying that you are an artist, that you are a creative person. It means not diminishing, or putting away, or only relegating your creative self to the fringes of your life - but embracing this as a vital part of the way God has designed you. It means embracing this part of you as essential to the fabric of your life and essential to the fabric of your relationship with God. And if its essential to the fabric, then it has an important place in your life and it has an important place in your relationship with God. And that means that your creative life should not be treated as any less than important in either place, and should have an active role in both places.

Bringing your whole self to your faith walk also means embracing your creative self, your creative lens as a way that God has gifted you to experience and engage in this world, and as a way to process, embody, express, and participate in your faith.

It also means embracing your career in secular culture as the place that God, Himself, who is the author and finisher of your faith, has planted you in to put that creative gift to work. That your participation in your faith walk includes your career life...yes, even your kind of career. It means accepting that as you engage as an artist in secular culture, making the kind of art you make , God is in you, He is with you, He is for you, and is also working through you to make Himself known and to build his Kingdom.

It means accepting that you, as the kind of artist you are, contribute to building the Kingdom and you are a needed member of the Kingdom community.

It means embracing yourself as a person of faith who is creative and takes space in secular culture.

And it means your artistry and career are an important way you participate in faith, and engage in the larger faith community.

So that's what it looks like to bring your whole self to your faith walk.

Before you go, please join our discussion below.
And until next time, be whole, walk free, live harmoniously!

One of the most frustrating things about being an artist in Christ is the journey of attaining this visceral, tangible vision He's given you of your career life. Inside of you, it is so vivid that you feel like you can reach out and touch it.

Then there are thoughts that come to your mind, things that God leads you to do, instructions that come with such a sense of immediacy, and such urgency that you believe the floodgates are going to burst open as soon as you do it.

So you do it ... and crickets.

Then the next instruction comes, and it comes with that same immediacy and urgency. So you think maybe I was wrong on the last one but this one is going to be it.

So you do it ... and crickets.

And you do this again and again until you get to the place where you start to doubt the next instruction. You start to doubt very seriously whether you're actually hearing God talk to you.  And in this doubt, you start to get confused about what to do next, and agitated because that fricking visceral vision won't go away.

So you feel stuck. I know this place. I know this place very well. I have been on this journey for 20 years and am only now beginning to see notable momentum. I remember the times when God would tell me to host a workshop and no one would show up. Then the very next weekend He would tell me to do it again and no one would show up. He would tell me to write this book and I did it, thinking my obedience was going to change the situations in my life. And I had several copies sold. I'm grateful for those but it was nothing like what I sensed was going to happen. Then He led me to write the next book and I thought that was going to be the one to shift everything. So I wrote it and it did even worse than the first one. I remember all of the videos that He told me to record and post that it seemed like no one cared about. I thought once people saw what I had to offer that they would invite me to their workshop and they would invite me to teach. None of that happened.

But then a funny thing started happening. It was me following instructions to record a dance to an excerpt of one of the books that I wrote (one of the ones that didn’t really sell) and email it to someone that brought me into the season that I'm in now and introduced me to the people that I know now. That one act of obedience ended me up in Spain and connected to whole new world of people. It was my diligence to continue making those videos that it seemed like nobody cared to watch that got me noticed by a young lady from the Salvation Army.

I work with her now and that relationship has opened a tremendous door and allowed me to connect what God has given me to so many artists. It was my diligence to sit down and keep writing the next book that gave me this KAI curriculum which I am receiving more and more opportunity to now take to more and more artists.

It was my persistence to keep doing the next thing God told me to do. And this wasn't on account of any virtue of mine. A lot of times I just felt like I had invested too much time to turn around and I just I had no choice now but to see it through. Some of it was because I just didn't know what else to do. If this didn't pan out, I was screwed. So, it wasn't that I was always virtuous and trusting of God.

I was talking to a young man last night about this very same issue. He was at the point of giving up because everything that he did to attain this vision he carried was not working, and he didn't know what else to do. He began to doubt if he was even on the right track, if he was even hearing God at all. The Lord brought this verse to me for him and I want to share it with you.

Ecclesiastes 11:4-6 Amplified version:

He who observes the wind [and waits for all conditions to be favorable] will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. As you know not what is the way of the wind, or how the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a pregnant woman, even so you know not the work of God, Who does all. In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening withhold not your hands, for you know not which shall prosper, whether this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

One of the conversations we are having in our KAI workshops is how do we pursue a career in a way that honors faith? To say it another way, how do we pursue a career in a way that honors the process and working of faith? Here in Ecclesiastes, we get a key to what the process and the working of Faith looks like. And here's what it looks like: there are times when God will lead you to do something and it will not produce the results you think it will produce. And it will not produce in the timing you expect it to produce, yet He expects you to continue doing the next instruction and not be impacted by your disappointment in the lack of results. This is because the bottom line is that there will be results but the way those results are attained are different than what you expect. They are different in timing, they are different in method, and they are different in form.

As we are pursuing our career, we have to accept that, as a person of faith, as a person cooperating with faith, this is a part of what comes with faith. We have to accept that there are times where God will lead us to do something where it doesn't produce an immediate result.

I want to encourage you today to keep sowing your seed. Keep taking the next step. Keep sending that next email. Keep writing that next book, that next song. Keep making that next dance because you do not know which one will be the one to break it all open.

Years ago, I got a chance to speak to a woman named Dr. Ann Stevenson, who wrote a book called Restoring the Dance. She encouraged me so much when she told me that her book was published for 10 years before it ever gained any notice or momentum. I was speaking to a man who told me about Tommy Tenney and his story. He told me that Tommy Tenney’s book, God Chasers, which is so ubiquitous to us now, was printed for 5 years before anybody ever cared about anybody named Tommy Tenney. He had written the book and it wasn’t really selling when a friend, who was supposed to speak at this large convention, got sick and asked Tommy to take his place. Tommy took his place and guess what he taught at that large convention: God Chasers. And he sold 20000 copies of his book in one day.

Malcolm Gladwell calls it the tipping point. And the key is you have to stay in it until you get to your tipping point, because you do have a tipping point. Viola Davis was an established actress for 30 years before she ever got an Oscar. And despite all that she accomplished, she attributes her role in one movie, The Help, that shifted the trajectory of her career. Tyler Perry wrote 18 plays, many of them were nobody showed up, before his work ever took flight. And there is story after story after story of people with the same experience.

I know you've been doing it for a long time. I know that you've done things and it hasn't worked. But I need you to get out of the conversation of whether your career is going to become what you see in your spirit. That needs to be a done deal. The whole reason you see it is because it already exists. You are just doing the work of bringing it from where it is to where you are. So I hope this encourages you today. I need you to keep sowing the seed because you don't know which seed is going to be your tipping point. You don't know which instruction, which act of obedience is going to blow the whole thing open for you. And I would be devastated for you to be one instruction shy of your tipping point, to have put so much work into this and never reach where you're trying to reach -- because you just stopped.

This past Saturday morning, I was taking a break from writing to cook myself some soup; and the Lord said to me, Every promise has a process.

Then yesterday, I went to church with a dear sister and her pastor was talking about a vision the Lord gave him. Part of the vision was two images of buildings. The first image was of 3 and 4-story buildings. When he saw that image, he said the Lord told him This is not what I intended. Then the Lord told him, This is what I actually intended, and showed him a second image of buildings; but these buildings were skyscrapers.

This led me to research how foundations are laid for skyscrapers and I came across the story about the Wilshire Grand Hotel here in Los Angeles, which is slated to be the tallest building west of Chicago. I learned about all of the massive work that has to be done in the foundation before the part that we see from the street can ever be built.

The construction of the Wilshire Grand Hotel has been a massive feat, having broken several records throughout the construction process. After demolishing the original structure, they had to dig a foundation site that was five stories deep and the size of a city block. Then they had to create an infrastructure within the foundation with various systems to facilitate the pouring of 84 million pounds of concrete that had to be brought in by 2,120 trucks. Even before they were able to do that, they had to spend 6 months removing almost 250 truckloads of dirt every day.

And before that could happen, there was massive research done to test the fitness of the soil on the site to handle such a structure. There was massive research in engineering and architectural planning to make sure that the design of the skyscraper could support its own weight and the weight of all the people and furniture that would go into it. They also had to make sure it would be able to deal with regional weather issues, which in Los Angeles are strong Santa Ana winds and earthquakes.

It is interesting that Mr. Cho, the owner of the Wilshire Grand, had the desire to demolish and rebuild this site back in 1990. In reading about its process, it was a huge feat just to get to the point of laying the foundation.

The pastor yesterday talked about the discouragement some of us encounter when foundation laying is happening in our promise. During this part of our process, it feels like things are going the opposite way; and they are. Here’s why: because, to lay a foundation for a skyscraper you have to start the project by going down. When you look at a skyscraper from street level, there is no indication of anything existing below what you see. At street level, we see the building going from the street up. And if we don’t know anything about construction, we could miss why there is any necessity for any movement down, when the building goes up.

The Lord said every promise has a process. I once heard someone say that it takes a minimum of 10 years to create an overnight success. I think about my own journey and the amount of time it has taken for my foundation to be laid, which has been about 20 years. The reason I am able to talk so fluidly now about creating a harmonious relationship between faith, art, and career is because I this is what I’ve lived and this is how I live. I stayed in it, allowing time for the foundation to be laid so that I could walk in what God has given me to do. I am only now realizing that is what was happening. I just knew stay in it, don’t stop (no matter how hard it gets), and keep doing the next thing the Lord tells me to do.

Every promise of God has an external and internal process to the full manifestation of that promise. In episode 13, we talked about the external process which was the fact that there are things that have to occur, come together things, and fall in place before that which you asked for can be delivered or manifested. But today we are talking about the internal, formative process.

James 1:4 Amplified says but let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be people perfectly and fully developed with no defects, lacking nothing.

The formation process is necessary so that when your skyscraper is constructed, when your promise matures, it doesn't collapse on itself, it doesn't topple, it doesn't destroy you - because you have been tested, formed and equipped to handle the weight and responsibilities of it. The only thing that makes it difficult for us to weather this process is our own impatience; but it’s deeper than that. There is also a lot of fear in thinking that we will miss our window. If we don't move now, or if it doesn't happen for us now, we fear that age or the shifting of trends and taste will take away our moment of opportunity. But that is not true. What God has for you is for you.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says “to everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” The scripture says there is a time. That's a declaration; not a question, and not a suggestion.

Some of you may think: what if I miss my time? If you are following the Lord, and He is ordering your steps, there is no way you can miss it. But, let’s play and say that you do miss an opportunity. Isn’t He the God who redeems the time and makes crooked roads straight. If you allow Him to lead you, He’ll get you right back on track.

If you pair that with Phil 1:6, where we’re assured that God is faithful to complete the good work He began in you, you can rest assured that no matter how long your process takes, there is a season and a time for your promise. Oh, and one more thing: save yourself some anxiety in your process by not comparing yourself to others. We all have processes of varying lengths and experiences. Give yourself permission to walk your walk.

I just came back from a beautiful weekend in the Santa Cruz mountains where I spent several days attending the Creative Arts Retreat with the Salvation Army. While there, I got to facilitate two KAI sessions. In the first one, I met this really cool break dancer. After our session, on the walk over to breakfast, he started to share with me how the session resonated with him because sometimes, when he’s taking class or performing, he struggles with making sure he gives God the glory. He feels bad because sometimes he forgets to give God the glory. I spoke to him about it but the Holy Spirit kept talking to me about it and now I want to talk to you about it.

Talking to this young man made me remember several similar conversations I’ve had with artists who, it seems like, almost feel bad for enjoying their art too much. I find this very interesting. On a side note, one of the by-products of this KAI work that I’m doing with artists is helping them experience and embrace the liberty and the life found in relationship with God. We have reduced relationship with Him to service only, and doing that robs us, and Him, of such deep, joyous, intimate connection that we both desire to have with one another.

So what did the Holy Spirit teach me about this matter? We are artists. As artists, we have artistic and creative gifts. Here’s what He told me: those gifts have been given to us for service, and communion, and enjoyment.

Family, the gifts are for service, communion, and enjoyment. Why are we so reticent, so hesitant, so afraid to simply enjoy God’s goodness to us? You know I like to use real examples, so, to me, it’s like sex. Many times, in the church, we have problems simply enjoying sex, or talking about sex as something that can be simply enjoyed. It is a gift from God. Yes, it is used for service: to procreate. But it’s also for communion, for a man and wife to spend time together and get closer to one another. But, y’all let’s live a little… it’s also for fun. Sex is fun! Why are we so afraid to admit that and embrace itt? We can’t we just admit that it feels so good and we have an amazing time doing it, like God, Himself, didn’t build our anatomy to capture and experience the amazing sensations sex provides?

And like sex, our artistry and our creativity are gifts that, in addition to service, are also meant to simply be enjoyed.

So, let’s dig into this some more.

As Christians, we get ourselves all in knots about this honor and glorifying thing. Yes, honoring and glorifying God are important. We are commanded to do so. It is only right for us to do so. But let me ask you a questions about that:

How much more can a creator be honored than when the thing they created does what it was created to do, and thrives at doing it? It’s like God looks at His dancers and says I created you to dance. When you dance, I’m over the moon because I see my intention, I see my purpose, I see the capacity I put in you materialize before Me. I get joy out of seeing you do what I put in you to do.

I mean, how excited did Belle’s father get in Beauty and the Beast when his machine finally chopped the log and threw it I the pile like He intended, when it finally did what He designed it to do? Why wouldn’t God also get pleasure out of watching His creation do the same? How much more honor could I possibly give my Creator than to participate in His intention for me?

And here’s another question: how happy does it make you to give someone a gift and see them really enjoy the gift you gave them? Like building a jungle gym for your kids. You don’t build that jungle gym for them to complete service. You build it for them to play, and laugh, and have fun in life. You don’t want anything from them in giving it to them. You just knew it would make them happy. And how happy does it make you to watch them flail themselves in sheer bliss all over that jungle gym, without any other care in the world? What good parent who loves their children doesn’t want to see them have things with which they can just be silly sometimes?

Think about that.

Now, let’s talk about these three areas because they are important. But first, let’s make it clear: God invited you to a life together. He did not invite you to a purpose. He did not invite you to a job. He did not reach out to you because He had work for you to do. He did not reach out to you because of your usefulness. And your value to Him has little to nothing to do with your usefulness. He paid the ultimate price just for the opportunity to be with you because He loved you so much, and He did this before you were even cognizant of Him, before you had ever done one, single, solitary thing for Him.

So His love for you has nothing to do with your usefulness or your capacity to be used. He invited you to be His companion in life. And as companions living life together, there will be purposes that need to be stewarded, where you, as companions will tend to that purpose together. And as companions living life together, there will be times that call for you to put to use the gifts and graces and abilities God has equipped you with, and as companions you will dispense those gifts together. And as companions living life together, there will be things in life that God says this is for you. I don’t want anything from you. I just want to give this to you because I love you and I want to see you happy. And in the exchange of a loving, reciprocal relationship, you will return the affection and say God, I give this to you. I don’t want anything from you. I just want you to have this because I love you and I want to be pleasing to you.

That is the environment in which we serve God: within a loving, reciprocal relationship where we make ourselves available to each other because we love and appreciate one another. Your gifts are to serve God, but they are not His mop. You are not His tool. You were created for companionship. And anything that you do for God is to be done within companionship. I imagine a father who buys His son a fishing pole so they can spend time together. And, in the course of them spending time together at the lake, they put the fishing poles to use to catch some fish for dinner.

So you have your art for service. You have your art for companionship. Sometimes, your art is just the way you spend time with God. Whether you’re saying anything or not, just the act of engaging with something He gave you makes you feel His presence and feel so close to Him.

For me, it’s interesting and you may find this applies to you, too. I am a dancer, but dance is not how I spend time with Him. For some people, whatever their art form is, that’s how they spend time with God. Some dancers talk about dancing with God around their house. I don’t do that to spend time with God. Dance is how I serve Him. I spend time Him with this mind He gave me, through conversation, writing, and pontificating. That’s when I feel most alive in communion. In service, it’s dance. In communion, it’s writing and conversation.

Then there is art for enjoyment. Yes, God gave you your gifts to be enjoyed as well. 1 Tim 6:17 talks about God as being one who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Interesting that it didn’t say He gives us all things to use to serve Him, but all things for us to enjoy.

God gave you art and creativity because He also wants you to experience the joy that comes from experiencing and making and sharing art. Jesus said He came to give us life more abundantly, and life more abundantly has to be more than just life for service. Like, think about marriage. If marriage was nothing else, literally nothing else, but cleaning up after someone else, who would want to do it? Like if literally you got no enjoyment, you got no emotional or relational feeding from it, if it was just nothing but duty and service, why would anyone do that … willingly? Even in a marriage, there is time for enjoyment. And think about what happens when that very important element is neglected.

I am convinced that even God participates in sheer, purposeless pleasure. What purpose does the duckbill platypus have? They are not like the honey bee that is necessary for vegetation to continue. It’s just cool to look at. Or the silky chicken. Oh my God…how much joy do I get out of looking at a silky chicken? Y’all ever seen a silky chicken? It’s my new favorite animal. Look it up. They are the coolest bird and they just make my heart so happy. So, God gets joy out of His creation. Not everything in His creation serves Him in the way we think about service. Some of His creation just exists in His goodness, and they live off the goodness He put there to sustain them.

If you’re walking around thinking about your artistry and career life, and all you can think about is how you’re not serving God, you are missing out on the beauty of being in relationship with Him.

I also dance for enjoyment. When I’m taking class, or dancing salsa, or making a new dance, I feel so alive. And I don’t worry one bit about whether I’m glorifying God in it or not. My whole life is oriented to glorify Him. He knows that, even if I don’t itemize every situation in my life to Him every single time I engage in it. That is condemnation in a works mentality. That’s not God.

So from this day forward, I want you to give yourself permission to not feel bad when you just enjoy the sheer, purposeless, pleasure of creating art and being an artist. When I’m taking class, or dancing salsa, I’m not worried about all the other stuff. That time is just about sweat, just raw dancing. It’s God’s gift to me to just sweat it out on that floor. And funny, enough, I do think about God because it feels so good to feel the air pass my skin, sweat dripping off my face, I’m breathing all hard, I got this hard combination, and as a technician, this is just amazing. And in that moment when I feel like my chest is about to burst because of how happy I feel, I can’t help but think about God. And not necessarily as a worshipper (in the confined sense we picture it). Yes, I am a worshipper. My life is a worship to God. Even when I’m just enjoying His awesome gifts, His goodness to me. I don’t feel bad that I don’t do the mantra every time I get to the other side of the dance floor. He knows that I appreciate Him. I have oriented my life towards Him. Everything I do is positioned to honor Him so, again, I don’t have to point that out all the time. I don’t have to itemize when the whole lot has already been given to Him.

Just like I feel super close to God in worship, I feel super close to Him in joy. Because is He not joy? If it gives you life, if it feeds you, if it nourishes you, if it builds you up, if you walk out of that session, that studio, if you step away from that canvas, put that camera down and you feel alive, God is life, what do you mean He wasn’t there just because you didn’t say Lord I give you the Honor. You are honoring Him by doing it, that’s why you feel alive; because you have tapped into life.

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Why do you think we’re so afraid to just enjoy life in God? What will that experience be life for you? Will it be easy? Is it something you’ll have to remind yourself of, like take deeper breaths? Let me know.

In episode 17, we started a conversation about patience, about what being a career artist looks like inside of the faith process. We talked about patience being a necessary part of faith, and time being a necessary part of patience.

We ended that conversation exploring how we could be, and remain patient. Last week our tool was remembrance. In this episode, I want to explore the tool of perspective.

As you are walking out God's promise to you for your career life, it’s important for you to check yourself at each juncture about how you’re seeing what you see.

In numbers 13 we read the account of a group of men who were challenged in this very area. In this account, the Lord tells Moses to send some men to spy out the land God promised to the Children of Israel, land He said was theirs and, at the time of directing Moses, was in the process of bringing them into it.

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.” In verses 3 through 16 we get an account of all of the men who went. Verse 17 continues, saying, Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up this way into the South, and go up to the mountains, and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many; whether the land they dwell in is good or bad; whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds; whether the land is rich or poor; and whether there are forests there or not. Be of good courage. And bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.”

Verses 21 through 24 tell us that the men go out. They spy out the land and they collect fruit from the land. Verse 25 picks up saying “And they returned from spying out the land after forty days.
Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless, the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.”
Basically, ain't no way we getting in this land.

Now, this is interesting because perspective is not just about what you see. It’s about how you see what you see. Remember, they’re in the process of being brought into their land of promise and this step of seeing what’s there is part of bringing them into the land. They were not sent to find out IF they could get in; that was already settled. They were only sent to find out what was there. But they lost sight of that and instead spoke about the situation and made conclusions about it from the wrong way of seeing it. They reported from the wrong perspective.

It wasn’t the fact that they reported these difficulties. The difficulties were there and they were real. It was that they lost sight of why they were sent there, and of what to do with the difficulties they saw. They didn’t come back and say here’s what’s going on. Let’s seek God about how to deal with this. No, they didn’t say that because that’s not how they saw the situation. And if you’re going to get all the way into what God showed you, you have to check yourself on how you see what you see, so that you don’t talk yourself out of God’s promise because of what you see.

“Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “[No we’re not!] We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.”

I just think this is so funny because these men are like no, y’all didn't hear what I said. I said the Canaanites are here the Jebusites are there, these people are here, you got these giants over here. We can't do this! And there are times when you’re walking out God's promise that it feels like all around you, no matter where you look or how you look at it, there is no possible way you're going to be able to do this. I remember driving home one time after the Lord had told me to leave my job and I just felt like my chest was going to cave in. The pressure of feeling like I had no possible way of making it through this and getting into what God told me to leave my job to do felt like I had on a corset that was too tight.

The story goes on with verse 32. “And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies, (now stop for a moment, because again, this was the land that God said I'm giving you; it's yours. This is the land they were in process of inhabiting. This is the land they’re talking about).

“And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight,” which is not true because no one even knew they were there.

“So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!”

And I'm laughing because this is the insane talk that happens, that truly happens at some point when you step out to believe God. Now let's remember what was happening in Egypt. They were getting their behind whooped. They were enslaved. They had no freedom. The Egyptians treated them so horribly because they were afraid of the Israelites multiplying too fast. So their life in Egypt was horrible. And the whole reason God tapped Moses on the shoulder was because they cried out to Him about how horrible Egypt was and how they were being so mistreated. They were in the position that they're in in Numbers 13 because God answered their cry. That's important to remember. Sometimes, in the midst of God answering us, we forget. Our perspective goes awry, and we lose sight of what we should be looking at. You are in the position you’re in now because of God’s faithfulness to you. Remember how miserable you were behind that desk job? Remember how much you prayed that God would make a way for you to leave Kansas and get to New York? Remember how hollow and depressed you were not being able to do anything with your art?

Instead of looking at their current situation remembering they were there because God was faithful to answer and was in the middle of fulfilling His promise to them, instead of seeing that as the next step into promise, they saw the situation as God bring them out there to die, and Him being in the process of trying to convince them to take on a mission in which they were guaranteed to, not just fail, but die.

In verse 3 of chapter 14, they continue their moaning and complaining.

“Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt, (to the place of our oppression, to the place furthest away from our promise)?”

“So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.”

This is another place we get it wrong because in the process of patience, without the proper perspective, time makes us start to have crazy conversations where we start to devise steps and solutions of our own making. And they are always stupid ideas that make the situation much worse if we actually go through with them. I’m dealing with one of those of my own right now.

The story continues with Moses and Aaron falling on their face before the assembly, Joshua and Caleb step up and say bump that! The Lord promised us this land; and He's going to bring us in. I don't care what y’all saw over there. God told us this was ours. Let's go get it. Then the children of Israel say oh yeah, and then they they conspire to stone Joshua and Caleb.

Then the Lord flips His wig. He goes off… until Moses says now Lord, if you kill them what will people say about You? If you let them die people will say you brought them out of Egypt and then you killed them because You couldn't fulfill Your promise to them. So the Lord decides not to kill them, but He vows they will not enter His promise.

This episode came out of a recent experience I had that really taught me a lot about following God. More so, it taught me about my responsibility in following Him which is to be careful how I see what I see. I quit my job in June 2016 at the word of the Lord. I went to Spain over the summer, which was an amazing experience. Then I came home to begin the next season. The Lord was continuing to introduce me to new people, unpack my curriculum for the kingdom artist initiative. But financially, I was struggling the whole time. And I am still walking through that season.

Back from the amazingness of Europe, back from the high of making the great escape from the 9-5, I was spending a lot of time at home and things were dead quiet. I went from 7 years of being busy, of knowing where I was going everyday, of having lots of phone calls to field and emails to answer and projects to do… to silence. And I’m a person who usually does really well in silence, who’s is able to deal with long periods of solitude and silence and find a lot of peace and enjoyment in that. But in this particular season, which was just a couple months ago, the silence was deafening and was really hard to deal with. I felt really anxious and it was hard to sit still and the overwhelming presence of inactivity was very hard. Not only was I broke, but I was broke and inactive. My phone wasn't ringing, no emails were coming in. I just felt stuck in limbo. It felt like no progress was being made. At least if I was doing stuff, I could feel like things were moving forward even if the money was not yet flowing like I wanted. And then one day while I was cleaning the house, the Lord checked me and he checked me hard, lovingly but hard, because this was also the period where He told me to start writing the next book. And I struggled to write because all I was focusing on was the fact that I was broke and nobody was calling me and it felt like I wasn't moving forward at all. All I could think about was the gnawing feeling that I left my job for nothing.

When the Lord snatched my behind, he reminded me of the previous four years. Over those four years I was working full-time and I would get up early in the morning to write, or I would stay up late at night to write. I would write on my lunch breaks. I would take my stuff with me everywhere I went so that any available time I had I would squeeze in time to write these books that he told me to write. And because I was faithful when it was difficult, he had brought me into a time where all I had to do now was write, a time where I had the freedom to do nothing else but write. He had brought me into a time of blessing, a time where he was rewarding me and honoring me because I was faithful in the little time that I had to do what he was leading me to do. And his reward was to bring me into a season where I didn't have to juggle my life to follow him anymore, a time where now, I was just free to follow him. but I didn't see it like that at first.

But after he showed me that, and I realized how wrong I was seeing my current situation, I Repented and I said thank you and I continually thank him for giving me the opportunity to do nothing but focus on writing my next book and continuing to flesh out Kai.

I've had conversations like the children of Israel, where I missed the time where I didn't have to worry about how I was going to pay my rent. It was definitely time for me to leave my job. The grace has absolutely lifted. There is no doubt about that. It was time to go. And every time I substitute and try to stick my toe in to go back, I remember very quickly how much it was time for me to go. But there was the temptation, the very real temptation of at least I didn't have to worry about this or at least I had that.

And in those “at least” times, when the day-to-day-ness of walking this out seems overwhelming, when the bill collectors are the people who check on me the most, I remember God's faithfulness to the children of Israel even in the Manna season. Yes they were in a season of Mana where every day was about just having enough, about wondering if you were going to have enough, and feeling like your whole existence was about having to believe God just to get enough. But I remember God's faithfulness to them. 40 years they spent in that wilderness with no jobs and the Bible says they lacked nothing. Their clothes never wore out, their shoes never wore out, their feet didn't even swell. They always had enough to eat. Was it what they wanted? No. Was it what they needed in that season? Absolutely. And I can see that same faithfulness in my own life. Yes, I am in a very, very slim financial season. But my rent is paid every month, I’ve never gone hungry, my lights don’t get turned off, and when I get my eyes on the right things, I can see God beautifully bringing me into the very thing He promised me. I can see His hand at work all around me. So I challenge you to take some time and assess how you're seeing what you see, right here in the moment you’re in. I challenge you to see God who has been faithful to take care of you and I challenge you to acknowledge all the signs of forward progress He has allowed you to see and experience along the way.

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Where are some places you’ve lost perspective? What was it like for you when you got it right, again?