Your Life is A Work of Art Part 2

The Curse of the Checklist

As adults there is a tendency to see life as a checklist of things “Adults are supposed to do”. Like get jobs to pay bills, buy homes to live in, if you have children, feed them, raise them, take them to school, teach them values, make sure they are safe.

The list of “suppose to” is endless.

The problem with checklists is that they are black and white. You either accomplish the set of tasks you have on your list or you don’t. Life however, is so much more than a checklist. Life is vibrant, spontaneous, mysterious, beautiful, and unpredictable. If a checklist is black in white, then life is filled with color.

The world needs more people to live life in color.

How to Live Life in Color

To live in color, is to understand that life is filled with immense wonder, inexplicable mystery, blissful love and inexhaustible abundance.

To live in color means:

To live with intention, actively determining the course of your days.
To live generously, sharing of your resources and also of yourself.
To be a blessing, not a curse.
To choose forgiveness over resentment.
To live your life as a work of art.

You Are an Artist

The way of the artist is more than just creating works of beauty. It is about living in such a way that connects to the deeper things of life. Seth Godin writes, “Art isn’t something sold in a gallery or performed on a stage. Art is the unique work of a human being, work that touches another.” (The Icarus Deception by Seth Godin)

You are a living and breathing work of art.

We have all experienced a song, a movie, a concert, a book, a piece of art that makes us feel some kind of way. If the art someone produces can illicit in us such feelings of joy, happiness, and bliss, then, if you are an artist and your life is a work of art, your actions, your encounters, your soul vibes can also move feelings of deep joy in others.

You’ve probably never thought of yourself as an artist. Perhaps you’ve only thought of yourself as:

A cashier.
A realtor.
A janitor.
An accountant.
A doctor.
A carpenter.
A teacher.
A bartender.
A student.
A wife.
A husband.

Yet, you are more than the title that describes the job you do. You are a living, breathing, loving, interacting being. In the ancient story of Creation, from the book of Genesis, God sees humanity as artists. God gave Adam a paradise and says, it’s yours. Cultivate it, work it, keep it, and help it to flourish. (Genesis 2v15)

Artists are people who take what they have at their disposal and use those tools to create something meaningful.  Sometimes the only tool at your disposal is yourself, your personality, your character, your energy. Art is when you live in such a way that touches others. That moves people. Art is when you are most fully yourself.

So, you are an artist.
Your life is the canvas of your art.

Create Art.
Live art.
Be art.