“when we trust in God, when we give our lives completely over to Him, we are freed from that worldly anxiety and stress.”

The Faith of the Christian 

“Hey Dad! Catch me!”

The father turned around to see his son jumping from a rock and hurtling straight toward him. They were out in the country climbing some rocks and cliffs and the son had jumped first, then called out to his father.

Dad scrambled and managed to catch his son but they both fell to the ground and Dad got the wind knocked out him. When he finally caught his breath he gasped in exasperation. “Why would you do that? How could you know that I would be able to catch you in time?”

The son looked puzzled at the question and finally said, “Well...because you're my Dad!” This is the faith of a child, so assured in the trustworthiness of his Father, that he was not afraid to live life to the fullest.

This is the type of faith we should have as Christians, a faith that is sadly all too often lacking.

Do You Trust in God?

This is nothing new. Many of us are familiar with the story of Adam and Eve but how many of us understand the truth that is behind the story?

God created the entire cosmos for the man and woman, our first parents. He set aside a special place in creation, a garden where the man and woman can live free of want and walk with Him side by side. He asked only one thing of them in return, their trust.

You know the story. The serpent tempted the woman into eating the fruit that God had forbidden them. She in turn offered it to the man to eat. It is not the fruit that is the issue. The fruit is a symbol of mistrust. Only when both had demonstrated their unwillingness to trust in God did they experience the consequences of their disobedience.

Throughout the history of our salvation, from Adam and Eve, to the present, God has always asked us the same question. Do we trust in Him or in ourselves? It has been said that man has only ever had one problem; he wants to be like God. And because of that we have been plagued by stress and anxiety from the very beginning.

Stress and anxiety will always be with us, they have become part of our fallen nature. But as Christians we should know how to deal with them.

There is a difference between stress and struggle. Everyone in life has to struggle at times - this is because earth is not heaven; we live in a fallen world, so problems will always accompany us.

Stress, the continual plague of modern, post-Christian society, is what happens when we are forced to face and overcome struggles without having a reason to do so.

The Struggling Artist

The struggling artist is something of a stereotype, but that doesn't make it any less true. Choosing a career in the arts is pretty much equivalent to choosing a career full of stress, struggle, and anxiety.

This stress is the result of conflict. For the artist it is the conflict between the traditional view of the arts and the disordered modern view. For thousands of years the traditional view of art was to create Beauty. Pope Saint John Paul II famously said, “the vocation of the artist is Beauty.”

But with the beginning of the so-called age of enlightenment, the arts have become less concerned with Beauty and more concerned with the artist's ego. The modern view of art centers around whatever the artist says it is.

This has created conflict. Every person, sharing the divine spark of creativity, has a yearning deep in their souls to create Beauty. But this yearning is at odds with the modern world.

Tracey Emin, according to her entry on Wikipedia, is an English artist known for her autobiographical and confessional artwork. In 1998 she exhibited a “work of art” titled “My Bed.” The work consisted of an actual rumpled bed surrounded by the detritus of modern life in all of its ugliness and disorder. When asked in an interview what makes it art, her response was, “Well the first thing that makes it art is because that I say it is.”

This modern interpretation of art has given us everything except Beauty.

Think of it this way, there are two ships on a stormy sea.

One ship has a clear destination, a good map, sturdy sails, and a strong rudder. The storm comes up, and the crew has to work hard and suffer to keep the ship on course, but they can do it, because they have the necessary vision and tools.

The second ship has no destination, no sails, no rudder - it's just drifting along enjoying life day by day as best it can. When the storm comes up, this second ship is completely at the mercy of the wind and the waves. Its passengers are helpless and hopeless.

When we are seeking Christ's Kingdom first, and for the artist that is to say when we seek Beauty; we are like the first ship. We struggle, but with the inner peace that comes from knowing life's true purpose. When we don't seek Christ's Kingdom first, we too become helpless and hopeless amid the inevitable storms of life.

But the modern view of art is like the second ship. It has no direction, no purpose, and when storms rise, it shifts with every new wind or tide.

Seek First The Kingdom

The treadmill of stress steals our inner peace and strength.

But when we trust in God, when we give our lives completely over to Him, we are freed from that worldly anxiety and stress. We trust that He will give us all we need because he has promised us "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides." It has been said that God will not allow us to get into anything He cannot get us out of. When we are so thoroughly assured of the trustworthiness of the Father, we need not fear living life to its fullest.

Trusting completely in God, seeking the Kingdom, by obeying God's commandments, getting to know God better through prayer, and by bringing others closer to Christ, this is how we will find true, lasting happiness.

Pax vobiscum

Pontifex University is an online university offering a Master’s Degree in Sacred Arts. For more information visit the website at www.pontifex.university

Lawrence Klimecki, MSA, is a deacon in the Diocese of Sacramento. He is a public speaker, writer, and artist, reflecting on the intersection of art and faith and the spiritual “hero’s journey” that is part of every person’s life. He maintains a blog at www.DeaconLawrence.org and can be reached at Lawrence@deaconlawrence.com