Take a little break these days in December and re-center yourself with these devotions from the Sunday| Mag contributors.
I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)
I?ve been designing art for the Church for close to six years. One of the first things I was told when I started was to avoid making things ?too feminine?.?So right or wrong, for six years, I?ve designed with ?manly? in the back of my mind.
Imagine my dilemma when a church came to me asking me to rebrand their women?s ministry.
To make it even more interesting, the pastor didn?t have a solid direction for me. We?d worked together on a few projects before so he gave me free reign to design whatever I wanted.
When I started the project, I searched the Internet for inspiration. I spent hours?trying?to find anything to help me create a nice, modern, feminine logo.
But everything I created sucked.
You might think I?m being harsh on myself, but everything was really, really bad.
After close to ten horrible drafts, I was frustrated and discouraged. As I sat at my computer, I started to think about ways I could get the project off my plate. At one point I even considered hiring?someone on Fiverr just to get the project finished. Don?t judge me.
While those were all things I could?ve done, I knew they were things that I shouldn?t do.
No one would?ve known if I took the easy way out. I could?ve passed it off as my own work, cashed the check, and moved on to the next project.
But God calls us to more than that. He calls us to righteousness and integrity.
One of my favorite verses in the entire Bible comes in John 16:33. Jesus had?been telling the disciples how things were about to be hard.?But then he?finishes his message with the promise above.
I might be?stretching this verse because it?s my favorite promise from Jesus? But when he?tells us to have peace in him even in the midst of trials and sorrows, I think he?s telling us we can place our hope in him to get us through things?when life and work and ministry get hard. We don?t have to sacrifice our integrity, because he?s faithful. Sure, there may be frustration and really, really bad women?s ministry logo designs. But at the end of the day, he?s faithful to meet us in the midst of our crisis.[quote]We don?t have to sacrifice our integrity, because he?s faithful.[/quote]
At the height of my frustration with this project, I e-mailed the pastor to tell him I was struggling with a concept. I asked if he?d be okay if I tabled it for a week and came back to it with fresh eyes. He agreed to that.
A week later I opened up Illustrator, said a quick prayer, and started designing.
Jesus was faithful.
He?ll be faithful to you too.
