SLEEPERS ‘WAKE CHAPTER SEVEN Psalm 16:11

April 2024

1) Click here to read chapter one 2) Click here to read chapter two

3) Click here to read chapter three 4) Click here to read chapter four

5) Click here to read chapter five 6) Click here to read chapter six

You make known to me the path of life;
    in your presence there is fullness of joy;
    at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Psalm 16:11

May 2024

An artist friend of mine, named Kelly Kruse, runs a gallery in Kansas City called Four Chapter Gallery. She invited me to submit work for her summer exhibition focusing on the Fruits of the Spirit called Not As the World Gives. I had already been guided into a new focus on joy, so it seemed very applicable for me to continue down this focus, within my Sleepers ‘Wake series, and submit those pieces to her show. Here is the description of the exhibit:

Four Chapter Gallery is pleased to announce its upcoming exhibition, “Not as the World Gives” – cultivating the fruit of the Spirit in an age of anxious outrage.

Throughout his teachings, Jesus highlights the many ways that his followers should be distinct from the world around them. In John 14, Jesus encourages them to rely on the supernatural power of God’s Advocate, the Holy Spirit. Reliance on the Spirit allows Christ to shine brightly through the lives of his followers despite any persecution and strife they might encounter. That Christians would bear the fruit of the Spirit in the midst of harsh persecution was one of the most compelling aspects of Christian witness in the early church. Such fruitfulness is still available to modern Christians in the face of difficult circumstances. 

In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he acknowledges the freedom provided to Christians by the saving grace of Jesus, but he encourages them to use that freedom to keep God’s greatest

commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself. He goes on to list behaviors including outrage, jealousy, strife, envy, and hatred as harmful misuses of freedom. He encourages Christians to instead bear the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Our fast-paced cultural moment seems to demand our immediate response to each and every situation. The pressures of modern life can fill us with anxiety: social change, political tensions, the pervasive noise of technology and social media, and the rise of a dopamine-addicted culture of distraction. At Four Chapter Gallery, we are interested in seeing how artists think about these fruits of the Spirit and the role that they have in Christian life and witness in such a challenging climate. 

Art, by its very nature, requires attention, loving care, and patience to produce. It has the power to slow down both the maker and the viewer. It is capable of facilitating conversations on subjects that may be difficult to address in other ways. It is our hope that the collection of artworks assembled in this exhibition will prompt viewers to reassess and reconsider what it means to have a non-anxious, Spirit-filled Christian witness in an increasingly hostile world.

I submitted an artist statement, and four pieces. *Spoiler* they got in. The exhibit will be up from June 7 - September 1, 2024. Regardless of when you’re reading this, if you’re near Kansas City, you may really enjoy a trip to this gallery : )

Here is my artist statement, and the four Sleepers ‘Wakes meditating on Psalm 16:11 : 

Welcome to my ongoing series; Sleepers ‘Wake. Here, I work through what God is trying to tell me, through scripture, about staying awake. I believe it means loving God above all things, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. So I make these works to stay awake. 

I carry small-scale watercolor pads with me, just about everywhere I go. I work on them during times of listening, using primarily watercolor pencils. Sometimes, during my morning devotions, I memorize bible verses as I work on certain chapters of the series.

These four pieces are in my new joy-focused chapter, memorizing Psalm 16:11; “You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” 

Let’s backtrack for one moment, please. My Sleepers ‘Wakes all follow the same visual equation. Look at these for a moment, as you read. The bottom of the piece is always fairly simple. Then it goes up, at least once. There is a break. And then it starts over again at the top, and is more elaborate than on the bottom. So these are the four components that make a Sleepers ‘Wake; 1) Simple bottom 2) Bottom goes up 3) Break between top and bottom 4) Top is more elaborate than bottom.

Okay but why...? 

I’ve been working on explaining this. Hopefully I’m getting better.

Essentially, the bottom part symbolizes a person who is asleep (busy/ignorant/selfish/proud/etc). The break is where the person wakes up. The top symbolizes the person now awake (loving/listening/stopping to be with people/reaping + sowing the fruits of the spirit/etc). There are a lot of layers to these, and many ways to interpret. So go ahead and do that. I often also see the bottom as the world, and the top as eternity/the new creation. So there’s one additional interpretation from me.

Now. This Psalm 16:11 chapter has new added symbolism. The two circles + half circle on the top left portion of the piece symbolize The Trinity. The half circle is The Holy Spirit, half with us here, in the world, bestowing on us His fruits, half with God in eternity. The circle above The Holy Spirit is Jesus. The one on top is The Father. To the right of The Trinity there is a section that seems to explode, or rise, from The Holy Spirit. That section symbolizes “the right hand of The Father.” There, you can see a circle that looks like one from The Trinity. It symbolizes Jesus. The exploding and rising section represents “the pleasures forevermore” from our Psalm 16 verse. 

This bible verse redirected my path at a really beautiful time. I’ve been processing the grief of two recent miscarriages. Grief has been very present and real in my life. It’s been hard to see anything else. But God has placed joy in my life recently, in multiple ways I was not expecting.

I tend to focus on the fruits of the spirit kind of a lot. Not to brag, but probably more than most people. For my wedding, instead of flowers, my bridesmaids all held small moving installation pieces, each symbolizing a different fruit of the spirit. The “flower girls” actually were “snowflake girls” tossing small paper snowflakes up the aisle, as they celebrated our winter wedding. They represented “joy” for the day. My husband loves snow because it reminds of him when Isaiah 1:18 says “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” This cleansing is what gives us the freedom that Paul talks about in his letter to the Galatians. The freedom to bear the fruits of the spirit, including joy.

Now that I’ve bragged about how amazing I am at thinking about the fruits of the spirit, I need to be honest about how embarrassing it is that I’ve actually barely thought about joy, throughout the course of my life. I think I’ve mostly skipped over that one. I could write a lot more about why, but there isn’t room here. So for now I will just say; God has put Psalm 16:11 in my path. I didn’t seek it out. A friend brought it to me. I’m also accidentally currently curating an exhibit, focusing on joy. My initial focus was grief. But God directed me onto a path of joy instead. And I have a sneaky suspicion it may also be the path of life.

So let me share something I’ve found on this path so far; joy is grotesquely underrated. Children reap and sow the gift of joy with grace and ease. But it seems, perhaps, a little too below us lofty adults. I imagine if we “change and become like children” we will enter the kingdom of heaven “where there is fullness of joy!”

To be continued : ) Further up and further in.