Thursday brings us back to art. This painting is best viewed on a large screen (so if you’re on your phone, be sure to come back later on a larger screen). Meditation and reflection on images has long been a method of contemplation and prayer. So, start there. Do the colors and tones of this abstract piece draw you into a particular prayer? Are there people, places, or things that demand your contemplation today?
The Painter’s Note
The field of white in Surrender stands in stark contrast to the intensity of pain represented below. Once you decide to pursue wholeness, you must also decide to let go of the pain.
By Drie Chapek
Questions & Actions
- Where do you find wholeness? Inside yourself, or somewhere beyond? Share your thoughts below.
- To enter into prayer and contemplation is often an act of surrender, a slow process of letting go of the burdens we carry. What do you carry with you today?
- Jesus offers these words of consolation to those who would seek after him, “My yolk is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). Or, as Eugene Peterson paraphrases it in The Message, “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Have you had moments like this in your life? Ones that are ‘free and light’? Share your thoughts below.
- It’s easy to imagine when faced with the realities of climate change and ecological degradation that the first step is to fix it. Today, consider what it might look like if the first step was actually to surrender. Not to the way things are, but to the hope of things to come, the possibility that is Christ, the burden that is lighter than air.
