latest art update and some sobering thoughts

G'day, mates. I have new art on my Elfwood page. This includes one new painting (which could use some comments!) and eight other works that I am bringing back to my gallery.

These eight older pieces have been a sore spot in my mind for quite awhile. Without giving too many specifics of who was involved, here's the backstory:

Almost two years ago, one of the Christians in Chemnitz left the church. Her true motivations are another story entirely....but for a few weeks, she named me and my art as the reason for her departure.

This individual believed that my interest in fantasy (i.e. elves, dragons, magic, Lord of the Rings, etc.) was wrong; more to the point, she believed that my fantasy interest was evil. When she finally expressed her opinions to me, it turned out that she had held these opinions about me for several years without telling me. In the last conversation I had with her (during which four other Christians were present), she told me that she believed my fantasy artwork came from demons and that she feared for my soul.

Shocked to the core, I asked her which pieces specifically were offensive to her, because I couldn't imagine what it was I'd painted that might be construed as having demonic influence. She couldn't name any specific pictures that bothered her. (This eventually led to the revelation that my fantasy art was just an "easy target"; her real reasons for leaving the church were related to something else entirely.) I was speechless; my mind just couldn't wrap itself around the concept that someone could consider me to be under the control of demons. (I still can't fathom it, even today.)

In an effort to show good faith, flexibility, willingness to change, and decidedly non-demonic thinking, I went home and immediately removed from our walls any artwork that might remotely be considered offensive to anyone. I sifted through my Elfwood gallery and removed pictures from there, too. This was not an easy task; since she hadn't given me any specifics, I didn't know what I was looking for. I was shocked, hurt, and very angry, but I tried to keep the concepts of Romans 14 and 1. Corinthians 8 in the forefront of my thoughts.

(To be honest, I was almost overwhelmingly furious, so controlling my thoughts in the spirit of those scriptures was monumentally difficult.)

Since then, the sister in question has resisted all efforts of the church to reach out to her; I haven't even had opportunity to speak to her since that final, awful conversation. Considering the passage of time and her seeming attitude toward us....I no longer feel obligated to limit myself or my art or my online gallery based on her opinions. Though there is surely more I could have done, at this point I believe that I did everything I could to heal the breach between her and me. In vain. Now, if she stumbles, I no longer feel any sense of responsibility for it.

There comes a point, I believe, at which a Christian's efforts to keep a brother from stumbling approach the point of ridiculous. There comes a point, I believe, at which that "weaker" brother--and how do I phrase this well?--needs to acquiesce to the workings of the Holy Spirit and submit to the process of growth which God requires of all of us. Please understand, I am not judging or condemning this erstwhile sister who rejected me....but I am saying that she no longer has the right to request that I limit myself, while she herself obeys no limits.

Why am I telling the world of all this? I don't know...perhaps it's therapy, just part of my own need to cleanse my soul. Perhaps it's merely to share with you the thought that no matter how much we as Christians strive to do the right thing--and even when we succeed in doing that right thing--there are still some things that will remain broken. No matter how hard we try, no matter that our hearts are in the right place and we succeed in doing God's will, there are still some relationships that can't be healed.

How very difficult it is to accept that.....and yet, I'm still thankful to God that he is with us in these unhealable relationships. He remains master over it all, offering us shelter in the midst of our pain.

Even if we always do right, we can't banish sin and pain and loss. But he can. And he does. That's where the cleansing of my soul really takes place. And I belong to him eternally because of it.