[ Artist ]

(this is from a letter we sent to our church in Providence RI.)

I stood at a small gallery in Aoyama a trendy fasion and arts district in the heart of Tokyo. I was disturbed. But it was good they were doing this. Trying to express something, anything. It was like as they played they were themselves searching for content hoping to find some. The sounds were disjointed without rythm. Seemingly random but carefully chosen at each moment. People were walking by half snickering and half stopping to see if they could find something to appreciate. The artists were taking a risk putting there most valued possessions out on the small cloth, on the gound. Vulnerable. Each noise an utterance half coherant. A prayer .

They were leaders, risking and laying bare a vulnerable spirit. It doesn't matter whether I liked the sound experiment. That's not the point. There probably were no carefully calculated results achieved, no money earned, no "progress" made. No clear Gospel message. No resolution. Only part of the big picture. One small group of artists' moment in time. Art is different. It has different purposes. It's expression. honest- sometimes ugly but even ugly exists and needs to be expressed, represented, cried out. I believe God was listening to their moment and is waiting to respond. I appreciate the risk they took and I believe God does as well. He sees the potential in them, their desires, their passions, unrefined just like the rest of us and more importantly he doesn't just see them as useful to His kingdom work, He sees Them. Each one. In the most intimate and loving way only he can. He understands them even when they don't understand themselves. He hears the expression in their art but He hears it refined and perfected.

[ *link ] Renaissance Church