What Charcoal Drawing Can Teach Us

Yesterday, I was working with Asherel on the joys of charcoal drawing. She was not nearly as overjoyed as I was, and after half an hour, decided she was done with the joys of charcoal drawing. However I worked on for another hour because I just love to draw, and charcoal is a very forgiving medium. It is easily erased, and instantly creates interesting tones, shadows, and highlights. The subject matter didn't matter at all...it was just plain fun seeing what I could do with charcoal.

However, I think I am a dismal failure in trying to convey that exploring the possibilities of a medium is more important sometimes than the subject. Asherel had no interest in drawing something that she wasn't particularly excited about drawing, and it didn't matter that the medium itself was amazing and tantalizing.

I heard a snippet from a speech by Martin Luther King a few days ago. I can't quote it verbatim, but essentially, he said that no job should be beneath us. Whatever on earth we are given to do, do it wholeheartedly to the best of our ability. If you are street sweeper, be the best street sweeper you can be. That is sort of what I was trying to teach, however poorly, to Asherel about charcoal.

And I think it has biblical validity as well. In all our hands find to do, we are to do with all our heart as for The Lord, and not for men. Proverbs 31 even tells us that our works praise us! There is intrinsic value in doing our best, no matter what is set before us. I think it is perhaps a mistake to wait for "inspiration" or even inclination. What is set before us is our task, and we should do it with wholehearted abandon. I think perhaps we should spend less time seeking to do only what we love, and more time loving what we do. There is a difference, and I think understanding that holds a key to contentment.

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They solemnly agreed to seek the Lord God of their ancestors with their whole heart and being. (2 Chronicles 15:12 NET)

Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised. Give her the reward of her labor, and let her works praise her at the city gates. (Proverbs 31:30, 31 HCSB)

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