paint your faith

What does your faith mean to you?  Can you physicalize it in words or images on a page? Pulling it from the depths of your being and sharing it with the world is no easy task.  But that is the task at hand, and all we can do is try.

Over the course of this project I have spent a great deal of time thinking about the concept of faith…about the great many things that keep me going, that color my world, make the great and small challenges of life not only bearable, but indispensable.

Yesterday I was talking to someone about hardship, and personal growth.  Speaking as two people who have lived through more than her fair share of hard times, we were discussing the innate predilection towards harboring bitterness, of carrying all your hard times around with you, a constant reminder of the unfairness of life and the ways in which you have been wronged.

Part of what keeps me going is learning to let go.  For years, I nurtured my sadness and anger like William Blake’s Poison Tree.  Watering it with fears and sadness, it grew until I could not see from under its branches.  But unlike the tree in Blake’s poem, the tree whose apple kills the author’s foe, my tree of bitterness and cynicism was harming was harming myself and the people I loved most.  And so I am learning to let it go.

In this regard, I have faith in the idea that all experiences in life– positive and negative – can be turned towards a greater positive end.  Hard times are opportunities for learning, growing, gaining strength and depth, moving forward.  Good times are opportunities for giving thanks, giving back, sharing your good fortune with others.  Always moving forward.  I cannot change what has happened in the past, my own actions or those of others – but I can choose how those things will affect me and my world in the future.

I have faith that the universe works itself out.  That if you put in the hard work on your end, use the hard times to grow and the good times to share – if you truly believe that you can accomplish your dreams and you work towards living those dreams every minute of every day – then you have the ability to create your own reality, to bring your hopes & dreams into fruition, to reach out and seize your day.  I have faith that in doing so, you have the opportunity – and the responsibility – to help those around you find a way to embrace their own.

The universe works itself out, if you are willing to put the work in – but not in the ways that we expect.   Life is a series of questions to be asked.  There are no finite answers –instead, we are faced with a plethora of possible paths, each with its own unique set of hills, valleys, times and places of shadow and sun.  The beauty of existing is in embracing the uncertainties, nurturing the sense of wonder at the universe that we too often lose as we gain in age, knowledge and experience.  I believe that wisdom and faith lies in finding the answers that work for you, at any given moment in time and space, and in moving on to others as your personal path unfurls.

Yes, life is unfair, life is uncertain, life is difficult.  But it is also filled with beauty and mystery and even within the darkness there is light.  And for me, faith is learning from the sadness, letting the fear pass over me and through me and leaving it behind me as I move forward – footsteps dancing, fingertips trailing, spirit filled with the depth and breath of my experience, shining with wonder and love and everpresent light.

“We all start out knowing magic. We are born with whirlwinds, forest fires, and comets inside us. We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand. But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls.” – Robert R. McGammon

so Vancouver should be interesting… ive not been to canada and am keen to find out what its all about… also the theme… ive had very little faith in my life.. and my lack of faith is what inspires most of my work… my wondering what this life is about.. why humans are such destructive creatures… i cant believe in evil and good/ heaven and hell.. its too simple.. i think there are alot of grey areas.. so much unseen and mystery in life.. that is what inspires me … the vast openness of space its unanswerable questions… and that we are all the victim and the perpetrator… and that the first part of knowing… might be acknowledging that you dont know… or something like that… at least… i really dont know… what this life is about… i can only take it day by day and look for ways of understanding in my direct surroundings and experiences…

Originally posted on Sojourners God’s Politics blog.

One of the reasons the St. Francis quip, “Preach the gospel always, if necessary use words,” is so often quoted is because it pokes fun at Christians’ propensity to think sharing our faith is primarily about words. And for good reason. We study the words of the Bible. Our church services are filled with words. Our endless discussions on hot-button issues overflow with words. Even prayer, our most intimate form of communication, is nearly always reduced to mean those prayers we make with words.

But if mere words were enough, perhaps the Word we worship wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of becoming flesh and dwelling among us. Sharing our faith can’t be reduced to rehearsed sound bite, but is something as complex, sensitive, and alive as we are.

In September 2009, The United Church of Canada’s WonderCafe online discussion forum (www.wondercafe.ca) invited four internationally acclaimed aerosol artists to show faith can be much deeper, richer, and more complex than most people think. Their resulting “Paint Your Faith” mural collaboration in Toronto’s downtown core is a unique public display of faith filled with colors, shapes, imagination, and emotion.

The massive 30- by 60-foot wall where the Paint Your Faith mural was created could have been prime commercial advertising space, but Metropolitan United Church instead used it to beautify their community and bring the inner life of the church out into the streets.

Each of the four aerosol artists worked on a quadrant of the wall. The graffiti-like styling of the word “Yahweh” by Toronto’s Mediah provides a foundation for the mural in the bottom left area. At the top left, another Toronto artist, Elicser, offers flowing imagery depicting a family’s complex engagement with faith, religion, and life.

The top right corner of the mural is dominated by San Francisco artist Chor Boogie’s powerful spiritual symbolism and the rainbow of “color therapy” techniques for which his work has become known. In the lower right, Siloette, also of San Francisco, offers her own stunning expression of faith in the form of an angelic woman in prayer. At the center, the four pieces of the mural are brought into harmony by the gentle and innocent image of a child filled with wonder by the surrounding expressions of faith brought to life on the wall.

Of course, public displays of faith are nothing new for the church. Almost from the beginning the church has used its buildings and public spaces as expressions of faith, from the towering architecture of steeples and sanctuaries to the sublime and gentle beauty of gospel stories wrought in stained glass.

Yet, in our post-Christendom era, we lack a shared understanding of religious symbolism that was once assumed. For many, the symbols of faith carry a lot a baggage — both good and bad — and that makes it difficult to use these symbols as a place to start a discussion about the things we consider important in life.

By sidestepping traditional and predictable religious symbols, art like the Paint Your Faith mural raises opportunities for us to share our values, hopes, and dreams about those things we find beautiful. These are issues of faith, and there’s no reason the church shouldn’t raise them in the streets as well as from the pulpit.

Paint Your Faith is a way of praying in color with the world. It is an expression of our spirits that goes beyond words, yet can be shared by all.

Click here to watch a video about the Paint Your Faith. Watch here for more details.

Aaron McCarroll Gallegos is executive producer for The United Church of Canada’s WonderCafe.ca.