Leveraging Fear
Size: 40” x 40”
Date: 2/13/2022
Scripture:
“[Father,] You live fully in me, and now I live fully in them.” [John 17:23--The Passion Translation]
Doug Glynn, a pastor at Hope Covenant Church, which had just been hit with major and sudden stress-inducing change, talked about the storms of life and how when they come we reflexively panic, zone out, or try to control. But this leads us to feeling lost and disconnected from our heart.
The theme of leveraging stress has been on my mind a lot lately. Studies show that our mindset about stress determines whether stress will be toxic to us, or motivating. In fact, despite the real negative impact of any stressor, stress itself is not inherently bad, and when leveraged generates the focus and drive to overcome that stressor. But how do we do this?
Doug talked about first acknowledging the emotion—sadness, anger, anxiety, etc.— then widening our focus to include both Jesus and our pain. Faith is believing that Jesus is always with us in the midst of every storm, feeling what we feel—one with us at all times—even if we can’t feel his presence. Even when the storm continues way longer than we want. He talked about the Rembrandt painting showing Jesus in the storm with his disciples [Mark 4:35-41]; he was literally sleeping on the boat as he leaned restfully into the Father.
The image for the painting came to me after 30 minutes of resting at the beginning of the service and then upon hearing the song “Oceans” I saw a man leaping off a cliff to save a friend caught in a violent wave. Then, several people at Hope told me the figure looked like a boat; “coincidentally” during the sermon, Doug talked about Rita, who several days prior saw a vision of the people of Hope being rescued from a raging river with big boulders by Jesus who was pulling them into a boat! My daughter, Isabella, suggested adding a shadow on the water to give the painting depth and so the figure would appear high above the water. Later, based on a symbol I got from a friend Dr. Jason Buck, I added a golden tether to represent our constant oneness with God. Doug joked that the figure looked like The Hulk, which actually makes sense when it's anger I'm leveraging. So, when storms hit, we can leverage our stress and hurt by leaning restfully into Jesus, such that God can masterfully make our lives into beautiful works of art.