thought mashups from garret shelsta
Combining thoughts copied from other places
Director of grow students at stuff you can use
Bellingham, Wa
Here is this weeks coloring sheet designed by the very talented Joel Swick. He is a Chicago native and all around awesome. Give him a follow but be warned his adventuring will give you some wanderlust. Super pumped on the sheet he made for this week. Print it out and See you tomorrow!
See you tomorrow!
[If you want to know how and why this devotional came into existence feel free to read this]
What you will need:
I don't make songs for free, I make 'em for freedom
Don't believe in kings, believe in the Kingdom
We are citizens of God’s kingdom. Nothing compares in beauty, scope and glory to the rule and reign of God. God has sculpted us from the dust of the earth, and breathed into us God’s gift giving Spirit. We are children and friends of the most high God. However, this doesn’t come without peril. In the crucifixion, evil tried to over power the King and failed. If death wants to delay its inevitable defeat, it is going to do so by undermining those who bear God’s image.
So, these powers parade as an imitation of the one true king. They attempt to grip our lives with familiar names like greed, lust, violence, and deceit. Even powers with with noble aims and pursuits, like careers, educations, economics, political systems, and even our families, when not put in their proper context can work against God’s kingdom. When we live out of and for these powers, no matter how noble, we are not living form our origin, source and creator, but rather we are living a life in bondage. Jesus tells us that the way out of this bondage is to be born again.
As we are born into this new life, we are freed us from these powers and launched into co-working with God toward the restoration of all things. This is the freedom for which we were created. This is the freedom in which everything we have gone through, no matter how painful, can be restored. This is the freedom where every hurt hurled against ourselves and others, can be forgiven. This is the freedom to live out every passion and gift we have been given with a greater purpose than we could have imagined.
The beauty of what God calls us to be is that it is actually a call for us to discover our origins. When we discover where we came from and what we are called to into, we discover a robust and adventure filled life. To quote Chance, a life of making “songs for freedom” and “believing in the kingdom.”
Here is the thought that I am contemplating today: When I look back at my life when it is reaching it close, what are the stories I want to remember? What is the story that others will tell about me?
Today is the last day of this theme. As you read the Psalm today choose a phrase or a verse and focus on it. As you finish your coloring today, ask the Lord what he wants you to take away from this weeks reflections. At the end of your coloring take a moment to write it down on your sheet or in a journal. If you feel up for it, [ost a picture of your finished coloring sheet with a reflection on what God was revealing to you. Post it with #mycoloringbookforhisgreatness so we can follow along in your journey.
[If you want to know how and why this devotional came into existence feel free to read this]
What you will need:
This is for the kids of the King of all Kings
This is the holiest thing
This is the beat that played under the Word
This is the sheep that ain't like what it herd
I am a nerd. I try to keep up on the hip and trendy but underneath all of that is a deep love for nerdy things. This began with a habit that continue to this day when, I started reading comics. The climb up nerd mountain was aided when one Christmas break I read “The Lord or the Rings.” The dwarves, elves, swords and magic made my prepubescent reality in the suburbs of Denver more than mundane. I have my inner geek to thank for my love of the concept of “Kingdoms.” The idea that there are Kingdoms of “Good” at battle with Kingdoms of “Evil,” has never lost its luster for me. It is why I love Star Wars. It is why I love the X-Men. It is why I love reading and watching “The Return of the King.” And ultimately it is why I love reading about the Kingdom of God in the Gospels of Jesus.
Jesus is crucified as a King of the Jews. However, Jesus had a more expansive vision for his rule and reign. He called it the Kingdom of God. Jesus, however, has a habit of subverting terminology. Unlike the kingdoms of this world, Jesus’ vision for the expansion of his Kingdom does not happen through conquest or force, but rather, as people are impacted by his sacrificial death and powerful resurrection they freely pledge their allegiance to Christ. When we recognize, like Paul does in 1 Timothy, that Jesus is the “Only Ruler, King of Kings” his rule and reign, God’s kingdom, begins to become a reality in our life. The hearts of Christ followers are the epicenter for God’s movement in the World.
And this is why it is important when the scriptures call us to pursue “righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.” This is not simply asking us to align ourselves to an obtuse ancient code of ethics or freedom squashing morality. It is a call to allow the culture of the Kingdom of God, to expand from our hearts and into the very reality we move, live and have our being.
Here is the questions I am contemplating today: What does it mean to say that Jesus is the King of my life?
Read the whole passage through once and pick a phrase that is sticking out to you. As you meditate on that phrase picture God participating in an activity that gives you joy with you. If you are feeling bold,
[If you want to know how and why this devotional came into existence feel free to read this]
What you will need:
A Bible
This Devotional
Some Coloring Utensils
And a print out of this awesome coloring sheet designed by Nic Mansfield (Instagram and twitter)(Here is the week #1 sheet)
I speak to God in public, I speak to God in public
He keep my rhymes in couplets
He think the new $h*t jam, I think we mutual fans
Blessings on @FallonTonight w @tydollasign @Raury @HamiltonAnthony and @BIGBABYDRAM pic.twitter.com/WqaQNWdyBH
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) October 4, 2016
When I was 16 my friend Kara turned me onto Brennan Manning and I am thankful she did. He famously wrote the Jesus was for people like him… wandering ragamuffins. While in college, I went to a prayer retreat Brennan facilitated. That weekend was filled with conversations with the Lord that continue shaping me to this day. One of the most impactful ideas he had us meditate on for the weekend was from his book “The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus.” In it he says:
“If the question were put to you ‘do you honestly believe that God likes you?’ – not loves you, because theologically He must – how would you answer? God loves by necessity of His nature; without eternal, interior generation of love, He would cease to be God. But if you could answer ‘The Father is very fond of me,’ there would come a relaxedness, a serenity and a compassionate attitude toward yourself that is a reflection of God’s own tenderness.”
–Brennan Manning The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus
Jesus tells us we are his friends. This is specific and personal. Often times I deal better in abstractions. The idea that “God Loves Me” is abstract and frequently enough said that, whether because of repetition or lack of specificity, I can personally distance myself from it. The idea that God actually LIKES me, on the other hand, was and is hard to wrap my head around. It speaks of an intimacy that makes me uncomfortable.
I get this picture of Jesus, where he is going to have a beer after a long day of teaching and performing miracles. On the way, he gives me a call to meet him at the microbrewery (obviously Jesus drinks microbrew) so we can decompress a bit and hear about each others day. This is not far from the witness of John 15. Jesus calls us friends to whom he is disclosing everything.
To this day I am still wrestling with the idea that I am a friend of God and he actually likes me. And out of this friendship Jesus has graciously given me gifts to use in public and will hold me together as I speak of the things God has done. The Lord does this not only out of theological obligation but because God is my fan.
Here are the thoughts I am contemplating today: God actually likes me. God and I are mutual fans.
Read the whole passage through once and pick a phrase that is sticking out to you. As you meditate on that phrase picture God participating in an activity that gives you joy with you. If you are feeling bold, share that mediation on social media today with the #mycoloringbookforhisgreatness so we can follow along.
[If you want to know how and why this devotional came into existence feel free to read this]
What you will need:
You are very special
You're special too
Everyone is special
This I know is true
When I look at you
You are very special
You're special too
Everyone is special
This I know is true
When I look at you
This summer I launched an experience at our Church that invited a group of interns to ask the question, “am I called into vocational ministry?” Intuitively, I knew unity was going to be vital in helping their discernment, but, in that this was the first year we ran the experience, I didn’t know how that would come about. In light of today’s passage, it doesn’t surprise me this process began taking place as we started looking at each person’s strengths. We found that as we discovered each person particularity, God’s Spirit unified the team.
Like the interns, God invites us all into the common work of restoring God’s world for the better. And the wonderful news is that no matter where someone comes from, what they have done or what they have gone through, no one is excluded from what God is doing. Out of God’s great love God gives gifts, graciously for everyone to use in God’s mission. 1 Corinthians 12 makes it explicit that these come from God’s Spirit. The same Spirit we read about the past 2 days in Genesis. The Spirt that formed the world out of chaos. The same Spirt that was breathed into our our bodies made of dust.
“Spirit” is how God is identified when God is creating, ordering, leading, directing and restoring. The connection of God’s gifts with God’s Spirit show us what these gifts are supposed to do. To use the language of Genesis, they are our God given tools to aid us in tending God’s garden. Every person’s gifts are particular to them and help accomplish different ends, but the diversity of gifts, doesn’t divide in God’s community. The text says it actually does the opposite… it unites. As we recognize people “specialness,” we recognize the same Spirit at work in us. And as we do this we see another person co-working with God toward the restoration of all things.
So here are the questions I am contemplating today: What in Paul list of gifts do I identify with? How can I use those gifts to help God’s Kingdom advance in the world? Who are the people in my community I need to tell today that they are special?
Read the whole passage through once and pick a phrase that is sticking out to you. As you meditate on that phrase, thank God for the way God has made you. If you are feeling bold, share the mediation on social media today with the #mycoloringbookforhisgreatness so we can follow along.
[If you want to know how and why this devotional came into existence feel free to read this]
What you will need:
I'm gon' praise Him, praise Him 'til I'm gone
I'm gon' praise Him, praise Him 'til I'm gone
When the praises go up, the blessings come down
When the praises go up, the blessings come down
It seems like blessings keep falling in my lap
It seems like blessings keep falling in my lap
I grew up in a musical family. I learned to play guitar and was playing in church by 15. And unlike my art skills, I spent a significant amount of time practicing and even spent some time studying music in College. Worship has been incredibly formative for how I understand the Lord. However, my conception of worship is no longer isolated to music. Due in large part to this passage, I now see worship as more expansive than simply singing songs.
God made men and women in his image. The Hebrew word translated here as “image” is most often translated as “idol.” God has made men and women as God’s “idol’s” in the world. According to Tim Mackie over at the Bible Project, this is part of the reason the Hebrews were forbidden to make images of their God. Humanity was not to make images of God because God has already made images of God’s self… Us.
As God’s idols, our calling goes beyond simply representing the will and desire of what God wants to accomplish in the world. It includes partnering with God to accomplish it. This is the point of Genesis 1:29-27. Adam and Eve are created to partner with God to transform the raw materials given to them in to something beyond “very good.” Humans receive vision from God, work with Him to implement it and God sees this and is pleased. In the Garden, our whole existence was to worship God with our lives.
Chance recaptures this vision for humanity in the refrain of one of my favorite songs on “Coloring Book.” Our lives are a praise song going up to God, and as that occurs, we gracefully receive vision and direction from the one who chiseled us out of stone. We are blessed.
This is the question I am contemplating today: If my life is a praise song to God, what is it saying? What in my life are the blessings the Lord has provided?
Read the whole passage through once and pick a phrase that is sticking out to you. Read that phrase 2-3 times and choose a single word. As you color today, have a conversation with the Lord about what He is speaking to you through that one word.
[If you want to know how and why this devotional came into existence feel free to read this]
What you will need:
“Chisel me into stone, prayer whistle me into song air.”
In my early 20’s, I went through a phase where I thought I was an artist. When this flawed notion joined forces with my stereotypical 20 something angst to question authority, I may have tried my hand at a few “art projects" that lets just say... lacked. I remember wanting to make a “statement” about how "the news is controlled by corporate interests” or whatever I had just read in Adbusters. I made a laughable banksyesque stencil of a local ABC news anchor declaring, with all the poetic tact of a baseball bat, “Bazi Kanani tells you what to think.” While my artistic career was lackluster, I was trying to embody an idea rooted in scripture. Our Heavenly Father is a creator and his kids are created to do likewise.
Genesis 2 tells us God forms humans from dust and breath. The poetry connotes that God is an artist creating a masterpiece. There sentiment is echoed in Jeremiah 18, where the prophet is shown how God’s people are being formed in a similar way that a potter forms clay. In addition, God animates the dust He is forming with His very breath. This is a theme carried over from Genesis 1 where God’s Spirit (the Hebrew word for "Spirit" can also be translated “wind”) progressively, over time, created order out of chaos.
Humanity is God’s sculpture. Humanity is God’s song.
Imagine a song, however, with just one note. Imagine a sculptor showing a fresh slab of stone from the quarry as a masterpiece. Imagine a potter showing a pile of clay and passing it off as a pot. We are not finished products. Everyone of us, and the world we inhabit, are works in progress. This is why, in Genesis 1, God doesn’t call His creation “perfect” but “very good.” Perfection cannot be improved upon but something very good can be. Animated by the Spirit of God, humans are called to make the very good, in us and the world, better.
Here are the questions I am contemplating today: What are the parts of God’s character He has chiseled into me? How am I called to help make this very good world better?
Read the whole passage through once and pick a phrase that is sticking out to you. Read that phrase 2-3 times and choose a single word. As you color today, have a conversation with the Lord about what He is speaking to you through that one word.
Here is the second weeks coloring sheet.
(If you want the first weeks to work on feel free to grab it here)
This is the final week of a coloring sheets done by Nic Mansfied (http://www.nhmansfield.com). He was the first one to tell get excited to design for this project. He was so incredibly gracious with me as I fumbled through trying to communicate the concept for the coloring book pages and he executed them far better than I could have ever described. He is talented at all the art mediums that I wish I was, so please hit him up on social or better yet... hire him. His photo stream is an experiment in the Teleological Argument of God's existence. (Instagram and Twitter).
Get some rest and See you tomorrow.
[If you want to know how and why this devotional came into existence feel free to read this]
What you will need:
Wide eyed kids being kids
Why did you stop?
What did you do to your hair?
Where did you go to end up right back here?
When did you start to forget how to fly?….
Don't you color out
Don't you bleed on out, oh
Stay in the line, stay in the line
Dandelion
My main perception of children is that they are inherently innocent or untainted. Children’s greatest virtue is their naivety. And as they grow up learning about the darkness in the world, it erases their innocence to such a degree that they become a perpetrator of evil. This inevitable downward spiral is the tragedy of growing up. And while this may be true, this is not Jesus’s vision of children. For Jesus, childlikeness is not about innocence but trust.
From Jesus’ time to now, children have no choice but to trust those who care for them. They do not have a way to provide meals, money to pay rent, or wisdom to help them navigate the world’s complexities. Kids must depend on their parents to feed, protect, and give them the resources to navigate everything life has in store. In Jesus’ kingdom it is childish trust, not inherent innocence, which weaves together the cultural fabric of His Kingdom. It is a posture of total reliance on Jesus’ heavenly Father that he is asking his followers to emulate. Things haven’t changed much. Today, as it was in Jesus day, total dependence on anything other than ourselves is considered “lowly. “
Derived from the philosophy of modernity, we are taught from the earliest ages to be autonomous. We must be self-sufficient, self-governing, self-reliant and self-made. To be dependent means to go against the nature of what it means to be human. Autonomy becomes the philosophical “lines” we are encouraged to conform to and must not color out side of. While Jesus wants us to take responsibility for the things he calls us into, he is not saying we do this from the resources of our sheer human ability but rather a posture of trust in him. As we walk into Jesus’ Kingdom with this “childlikeness,” we begin to experience the freedom which is its result.
While our world may continue to try and rob us of our freedom by forcing us to color inside of the lines, Christ is saying it is never to late to trust him. It is never to late to learn what it means to have the child like freedom to fly.
This is the last day of this weeks coloring page. Read the passage. God wants you to turn to him. It brings him and immeasurable amount of Joy. Have a conversation with God about how have not trusted him. Allow him to speak to you so you can re-learn “how to fly.” When you are finished feel free to share your finished page online with one thought you took away from your reflection this week. Tag it with #mycoloringbookforhisgreatness so we can see what the Lord is teaching you.
[If you want to know how and why this devotional came into existence feel free to read this]
What you will need:
“We don't do the same drugs no more.
We don't do the, we don't do the same drugs, do the same drugs no more.”
Chance made it clear that even though “Same Drugs” talks about them, the song is not about “doing drugs.” The song is about a relationship from his youth. And “drugs” (which hold a complicate place in his life) act as a metaphor for all the ways his friend and him connected when they were young. Now, however, they have drifted apart. Youthful relationships are not alone in this phenomena, even committed romantic relationships can drift. When this happens there are two options. The first is to continuing to allow it to diverge and eventually dissipate. If the relationship is important enough, however, one or both of the members decide to fight for it.
Hosea’s relationship with his wife Gomer is complicated. She is a “promiscuous woman” who continues to cheat on him. God told Hosea to marry her as a prophetic symbol showing how God remains faithful to His people even when they wander from Him. Earlier in Hosea, God confronts His people because they are not pursuing Him. They have turned away from the relationship God has been cultivating, and while God has remained committed, His people have not simply drifted but run from him. It wouldn’t be a big of stretch to say that God is facing a “we don’t do the same drugs” problem. At one point they were close, now, however, there is distance between them. But God never waivers from the love he has for his people. This relationship is too important. So, He ensures His people in Hosea 2 that He will always pursues them.
If there is a chasm in my relationship with the Lord, I know it isn’t God who is drifting. It is me. Even if it seems like God is silent, Hosea reminds me that God is simply speaking softly to draw me close, reminding me of His love and care for me.
These are the questions I am contemplating today: How have I wandered or run from God? And how is God speaking softly in order to draw me in and remind me of His love?
Choose a verse or two from the Psalm that sticks out to you. As you color today, have a conversation with the Lord about what He is saying to you through those verses.
[If you want to know how and why this devotional came into existence feel free to read this]
What you will need:
“Don't forget the happy thoughts
All you need is happy thoughts”
A few years back I had a sadness that seemed unescapable. My first daughter had just been born, and I was frustrated my sadness was hindering me from experiencing the joy of being a new dad. I was looking for a way forward, so I sat down with a friend to try and find the root of my sadness. And as he peppered with me with questions, I discovered my sadness had a totalitarian effect on me. While I was in the thick of it, I couldn’t picture life without unhappiness. In a few chapters, when Jesus is crucified and buried, an oppressive sorrow will be the muck and mire through which the disciples are wading. This is why Jesus insisted on contextualizing the suffering on the other side of the horizon's crest.
For Jesus in John 19, this type of circumstantial sadness (this is distinctly different than clinical depression) operates like labor. It is difficult, but the outcome is birthing something new in them. As this newness enters the world, it floods them with a joy that cannot be stolen. Jesus, through his resurrection, is birthing a new and revolutionized world where lasting happiness and joy are continually available. The transformative joy which comes from Jesus’ resurrection roots why I love the connection of happiness and flight in “Hook.”
For Peter Panning, played by Robin Williams, having access to happiness gives him the fuel to fly (fittingly he roots this joy in his son Jack). Initially using happiness or joy to fly seemed to me like an escape mechanism enabling them leave their troubles behind. But this is not how it works in Hook. While flight does lifts them out of the muck and mire of their present situation initially, it brings them to a place where an adventure transforms them. And ultimately, it is joy fueled flight that brings Panning and his family back to their circumstance. However, they now face their life as people transformed by an adventure in Neverland, giving them resources to face their world afresh. “Don’t forget the Happy Thoughts” Chance reminds us because those are what lead to a transformative adventure setting us anew to confront the muck and mire of our present sorrow.
Here are the questions I am contemplating today: What am I sad about? Where did that come from? Where is my joy found, and how can God use that transformative happiness to face my circumstances?
Choose a verse or two from the Psalm that sticks out to you. As you color today, have a conversation with the Lord about what He is saying to you through those verses.
[If you want to know how and why this devotional came into existence feel free to read this]
Feel free to share this out with what God was saying to you today ... #mycoloringbookforhisgreatness
What you will need:
When did you change?
Wendy, you've aged
I thought you'd never grow up
I thought you'd never
Window closed, Wendy got old
I was too late, I was too late
A shadow of what I once was
There is a voice that stops me from encountering what God wants to do in my life. It is my voice speaking out of the past.
For me, the vision of my life began to formulate when I was 16 or 17. And for reasons counselors will be addressing for the rest of my life, the most influential vision for what success looks like was manufactured by me. I did this, however, prior to some of the most important decisions I have made (i.e before I met my wife or had even 1 of my 4 children). 17 year old Garret knew how life was supposed to look and he tells 34 year old Garret about it often. I have not mastered navigating the conversation between the voices in my past and my present. To use Chance’s analogy, the Peter Pan in me is trying to remind the aging Wendy Bird in me about the passions I had when I was devoid of #adulting. And the Wendy Bird in me is trying to convince my inner Peter Pan that the wisdom I have accumulated in the last 20 years is useful.
I think Elijah is experiencing something similar to this in 1 Kings 19. He is longing to hear from God’s Voice. It is the only voice that can help him navigate the complex conversation between his past and present which are, at the moment, hindering him from walking into God’s plan for Him. My mistake is often the same as Elijah’s. I want God to speak in a way that expect, but I would prefer God to speak in a way I can control. God, however, is too wild to be controlled. And I am better for it because the way God speaks is a continuous and wondrous surprise.
The question I am reflecting on today is this: how is God whispering to me right now? I know he is longing to help me navigate the passion of my past with the wisdom of my present. The scripture is showing us, that it is in that wilderness of conversation where God whispered to Elijah (and us) a way forward.
Choose a verse or two from the Psalm that sticks out to you. As you color today, have a conversation with the Lord about what He is saying to you through those verses. Feel free to post your progress. Tag Chance and include the #mycoloringbookforhisgreatness so we all can follow along.
*If there are typos please forgive me. I am often editing this on little sleep and I have notoriously bad grammar:)
It was done by Nic Mansfied (http://www.nhmansfield.com). Hit him up on social or hire him. His photo stream is an experiment in the Teleological Argument of God's existence. (Instagram and Twitter).
Over the last year Chance the Rapper has been my youth pastor (I didn’t come up with that… like most things I think I stole it). Since May 13th, Chance’s “Coloring Book” has been a record that has helped me through a difficult year. Whether it was/is the political tumult, or a year which had profoundly low lows and exceedingly high highs both professionally and personally, Chance’s “Coloring Book” was a record which functioned liked a good youth pastor by helping navigate hard year.
How Chance became my 2016 Youth Pastor was rooted in the incredible aesthetic he put together in "Coloring Book." If the album wasn't a good listen, there is no way I would have made it through more than once or twice. This is not the case. From the fist moment I began playing "Coloring Book" in my office, I fell in love with how it sounds. I am not a music critic but the fact that it made pretty much every 2016 top 10 list at least proves that I am not alone in this. I remember my brain exploding when "How Great" came on the first time. The rhyme structure on the 2nd verse of “Blessings” still throws me for a loop every time I hear it. I can’t listen to “No Problem” with out my head bobbing uncontrollably. And the number of “Hook” illusions in “Same Drugs” makes my inner 12 year old Filipino kid want to dye my hair red and black and scream “BANGARANG!” Being a beautiful record is a feat in of itself but for me the profundity of the record was found beyond how enjoyable it was to listen to.
The record came out in, what would become, one of the most difficult professional years I have had in my last 10 years of ministry. I remember a day last July, while in the thick of some really hard decisions at work, feeling like every option was a failure. I put on the record as I pulled out of my drive way and starting to pray. I recall the sun shinning brightly and by the time Auto-tuned Kanye was singing “Music is all we Got” during the pinnacle of the first track, tears were streaming down my face. I remember God impressing on me that he was holding all of those failures together. And He was going to make it all work out in a way that is as beautiful as the song I happened to be blasting at levels I am going to regret when I am 80. As far as I can see, God has been faithful to His promise. In this moment where I felt lost, “Coloring Book” helped facilitate a space that pointed me to take refuge in the God who gives every blessing. On that sunny day in July, Chance pastored me well.
On a Monday in mid-December, the cultural and political tension seemed to be reaching breaking point levels (little did I know it could get worse). My social media feeds were a war of articles and talking points, tweets and sub-tweets. The profound division that was just below the surface of our countries political culture was erupting onto what seemed like every page of the internet. My staff and I sat in our weekly meeting this particular morning, wresting with how this chasm was upending our faith community. We were at a loss of words and didn’t know how to direct our community to process the cultural maelstrom had been sucked into. As we continued to wallow in our unknowing, my staff member Julie said, “Did you guys see Chance this weekend on SNL?”
I instinctively google “Chance the Rapper SNL,” connected it to the bluetooth speaker, full screened the youtube and blasted it. As the lights come up on Chance wearing the most incredible looking red Mario looking overalls, he began singing “Jesus its your Birthday, Happy birthday Jesus.” I could see the tension all of us were holding begin to melt away. By the time Noname and Chance began singing “And all that was left was his Love,” which transitioned into a Gospel choir singing, “the water may be deeper than its ever been - Never Drown,” I was reminded of something I had forgotten.
In a few days our church would be celebrating Christmas. It is the day we celebrate Jesus, God in flesh, entering the world. I was confronted with a realization that I had placed too much faith in the systems of the world and forgot the Christian confession is that Jesus and Jesus alone is the hope of the world. Chance reminded me, the powers and the principalities, which are trying to drown us, are about to be confronted by the Christ child born in Bethlehem. In the midst of a world that seemed to be turned upside down, his performance reoriented me to focus on the Jesus. He helped me remember that Christmas is the moment where the church celebrates that God, in Christ, started to put it right side up. Like a good pastor, in the midst of cultural turmoil, Chance reminded my staff and me what is true, good, beautiful and real.
After this Christmas experience I started a thought experiment. I began looking at Chance’s "Coloring Book" like it was a devotional. If the album had indirectly created a space for me to encounter the Lord and be reminded what is important, what would happen if I looked at the record as if it was always intentionally attempting this goal? What if “Coloring Book” was a hip-hop version of Oswald Chamber’s “My Upmost for His Highest?” So, for the past couple of months I have been going through, what I can only describe as, an exegesis of the Coloring Book and using it as my daily devotional. I read through all the lyrics and annotations over on genius, pulled out bars I thought intersected with scriptural themes and placed the two side by side. This became my overly spiritualized version of a “Girl Talk” record.
I enjoyed this experience so much that I wanted to do it again. This time, however, I want to invite others to join me. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday which marks the beginning of Lent. For those who don’t come from a liturgical tradition, Lent is the 40 day period preceding Easter Week (called Holy Week in the liturgical calendar). And it is a time that Christians all over the world begin a period of self reflection in order to prepare themselves to celebrate Easter. So starting tomorrow through Easter Sunday, I am going to be blogging a Lenten/Easter devotional inspired by the Coloring Book to help me prepare. And I want to invite anyone and everyone to join me.
So this is how it will work. I have divided the 47 day Lent/Easter season into seven week long themes based around ideas from the record and stories from the scriptures.
Week 1 (3/1-3/5): Nostalgia (Self Reflection)
Week 2 (3/6 - 3/12): Origins
Week 3 (3/13 -19): Promise and Blessing
Week 4 (3/20 - 3/26): Principalities and Witness
Week 5 (3/27-4/2): Binding Wounds
Week 6 (4/3 - 4/9): Longing
Week 7 (4/10 - 4/17): Repentance and Reconciliation
A devotional will come out daily (except for a "Day of Rest" on Sundays) every morning. And each blog is designed to take you no longer than than 30 minutes (But it can be longer if you want). A devotion will consist of 4 parts:
A passage of scripture you will read from your bible.
Some bars from "Coloring Book" I think expand on the passage.
A brief devotional on the intersection of those two texts.
And here is my favorite part, a coloring book page to color while you meditate on another short passage of scripture.
I figured that since this was based on the “Coloring Book," why not use coloring to aid in self reflection. To quote Chance, “I am Getting Artsy Fartsy” and partnering with some graphic design friends who, each week, have designed a coloring sheet based on that weeks lyrics, scripture and theme to print out and use in the devotion. So, starting tomorrow I will post a free coloring sheet to print and color during the meditation portions of the next weeks devotional. I played with idea of releasing a coloring sheet every day. But I realized that I don’t have enough time to color an entire page daily, so I am guessing other people won't have that much time. I decided, however, I could color a few minutes daily and have a fully colored page by the end of each week. So I went with that. I would love as many people as possible to print out the page at the start of every week, stick it in their bible, pack some markers, and post their progress with #mycoloringbookforhisgreatness and tag Chance the Rapper in it.
Feel free to download this picture and share it out to invite other in on the journey.
I am excited about this adventure. So grab some friends, lets do this together and I will see you tomorrow.
