As you’re reading and breathing through the first documented coronavirus pandemic in history and the fifth pandemic since the 1918 flu, you might be wondering how you’re going to survive this crisis. Can I propose that art therapy can literally save your life? You're a natural born artist! God has given you innate skills, COVID-19 has provided with you a spectrum of opportune paint, idle time is your canvas- are you making a mess or a masterpiece?
God takes pleasure in making things that are good and beautiful. Beauty and God are inseparable. In reality, He doesn’t need our help to create nor sustain. He willingly created a world that was void. The canvas, the stage, the studio floor, the page, stands empty awaiting the creator’s touch. He was perfectly fulfilled to craft it according to the strokes of His imagination. The Lord showcased his love and diversity by creating you! Life's calamities often set the stage for villains, victims, or victors. Since we're made in God's image, we have the capability to mimic His patterns of filling space with divine purpose.
Now that COVID-19 has the world on pause, what are you doing with your time? I'm in no position to take a righteous stance on this topic. I won’t be the one to do it. Not today, not ever. One thing I know for certain is as I’m walking this hard road to heaven, I’ve managed to sharpen my artistic abilities for good and stained my self-imposed halo pretty badly. I’d love to tell you about how my faith, marriage, career are all aligned and doing well, but that's not always my reality. As a matter of fact, In 2001, I hit rock bottom and became suicidal. My faith in Christ and the art of writing are the reasons I'm alive today. It's a fact that this pandemic has had catastrophic impacts on everyone globally! People are desperately searching for healthy outlets. Psychologist Crystal Park, PhD notes that "regular spiritual practice can improve or protect your spiritual health. Prayer and those kinds of things have physiological effects on the body, such as calming your cardiovascular system and reducing stress."
God is an artist who delights to make things for sheer pleasure. He does remarkably little to address the immediate task at hand, but through his constant artistic activity He is bringing about an entirely new creation. Just like your fingerprints, He has gifted you with a unique set of skills to advance His agenda for humankind. There is at least one thing you absolutely LOVE to do, and would enjoy doing it all day everyday even if you weren't being paid for it. That's the sweet spot you need to find in your life during these hard times. "A connection to a greater power or truth can give you a sense of purpose and meaning beyond the day-to-day," Park says. With all due respect, these scientists and brilliant minds are regurgitating truths that God has etched in the bible and wired in your DNA.
Just as God’s Spirit brought order out of the blank canvas of creation, so we are called to transform the emptiness of COVID-19 to spread a kaleidoscope of hope and truth in living colors. A painting, a poem, a meal, a dance or piece of music is good if it gives pleasure to the gift giver. Ultimately it should have beauty, expression, insight, power to transform state of minds, moods, and emotions to glorify Christ. It may blossom into the business that affords you the financial freedom through and beyond this pandemic storm. Coronavirus shall pass, but the autobiography of your life is a living piece of art that's created to last beyond eternity.