Halfway Marks the Spot

Apr 17

Written By Stacey

Are we there yet?

I’ve expressed before how daily devotionals have eluded me in the past and I never really stuck to them. But, I’m a little past the halfway mark on this bible lettering challenge! That’s 16 days in (yay me)! While every day is a challenge of its own to complete, it has actually gone by pretty fast.

The key for me right now is just to get a decent sketch. I’m not trying to make these final insomuch that they could be immediately hung on a wall. I just get them to a point where I feel I’ve addressed each word and the space, if there’s time. Someone once said you should have a hundred starts anyway…I can at least start a sketch and see where it takes me.

If it looks like a sketch I want to take further, that’s a separate process altogether.

But, as far as this being a devotional or meditative process while I’m drawing these scriptures…I had doubts about that. I just wasn’t sure about retaining anything about the scriptures from this process in the long run.

I wondered if it worked differently for others. Maybe they actually pore over the verse for an hour before drawing? Or do they engage in prayer and then draw it?

How did they make it part of themselves?

I found an interview where the originator of this challenge sat down with Jordan Raynor, author of Called to Create, and expressed what he gets out of the scripture from his lettering practice. It comes in around the 33 minute mark where he says to draw it takes a bit of creative contemplation (my words, not his) as to which parts to emphasize in a verse to show the meaning visually. But he goes on to say, after a while, the drawing process takes over.

I get that.

Although I am not usually able to allow myself as much time as I’d like to determine which parts to emphasize or how I want to express the meaning it has for me, I try to discern what it is saying to me at the time and then do my best to draw it that way. It’s just that I usually only have 5-10 minutes to do that. Is that enough?

Actually…yes.

One day, when I was having a particularly hard day, I found myself speaking some of these scriptural lettering quotes in response to my situation. It’s like the verses have become an accumulation of thoughts and affirmations over time that are really helpful when I’m experiencing personal bouts with doubt or a crisis.

The Lord will never forget me.
The Lord fights for me.
His love endures forever.
The joy of the Lord is my strength.

I like that there’s almost an instant stream of scripture-based confessions I can rely on to bubble up to the surface of my conscious when the need arises.

And I thought about that…How did that happen in the few minutes I can give to it before I draw it?

I once heard a pastor say that what God wanted was for us to be in the Word until the Word got into us…But, kind of like how you listen to songs on the radio while you’re driving or piddling around the house…and before you know it, you’re standing at the sink washing dishes, but you’re subconsciously tapping your feet to the rhythm…Or whistling to the tune while you’re setting the table or putting your kid to bed.

In other words, it’s so much a natural part of your daily life that is only just as natural that you begin to live according to the Word.

Take in a scripture here…breathe it out in your behavior there.

I definitely think there’s value in just joy-reading scripture. But I can see the added value of connecting it to my creativity too.