lets go sailing...

[I wrote this awhile ago...]

Okay so I finished my first ever painting late last week. I painted this photograph that I took of the ocean. So I guess that means I can say it is completely an original (or so Aubrey tells me).







The day that photograph was taken was a beautiful day…it was a blue day. Everything about that day was blue, the ocean was more blue than I had ever seen it before. But it wasn’t just one shade of blue, there must have been hundreds of different shades of blue. The Sky was no different, there was not a cloud to be seen. There was this baby blue tint that filled the backdrop that was the sky. The sky looked like it was made to compliment the ocean that day. In the middle of all this blue was this white sailboat. It moved from right to left along the horizon with such grace. And so I did what anyone would do with a camera...I captured it.

So my friend Aubrey, she taught me how to paint…you could say I was her disciple through this painting process. She was a great teacher. She began with showing me how to hold the paintbrush. Then she helped me mix all the different color blues, which by the way she said that I must have had over 200 different shades of blue in my created ocean. Then she said something that I still think about today, she told me that I would get angry at some point during this painting process (she cautioned me). She said that I would want to give up. But she said I couldn’t. She said that it was just the sign of a great painting coming to life. You know what? She was right. I hated that painting half way through the night. One thing you should know about painting is that it freezes time. Four hours in a studio feels like twenty minutes. But when you get angry those twenty minutes in a studio feels like four hours. It took me two nights to finish that painting. Two nights of Norah Jones, Madeleine Peyroux, Depeche Mode, Paul Simon, and Fat Tire…I am excited to start again.

I think a lot about that painting nevertheless. I think about being a Christian, and how often I just want to give up. Or better yet I think about being a Christian leader and how often I think about all the reason to just walk away. Do you have paintings in your life? I do. But what if I cautioned you. I told you that at some point you would want to give up. But you can’t. Rather this is only a sign of a great painting coming to life.

I want to be apart of that painting process.

heart.soul.mind
kyle diroberts

I was reading an article this morning about Billy Graham’s wife Ruth. It was informing the world about how Ruth is in a coma, and is close to death.

There is something about Billy Graham that I can’t explain…I personally have never seen (with my own eyes) one man set apart for such human greatness for the cause of Christ.

Just looking at his picture in the article this morning, makes me think of what it must have been like to look at Peter, John, Paul, etc...yeah, those guys.

As I was reading this article there was one section…it read, “Graham was in Charlotte last month for the opening of the $27 million, 40,000-square-foot museum and evangelistic library. He looked frail, was brought to the site by golf cart and needed Franklin's help to reach his seat.

The emotional ceremony had such an air of finality that Graham quipped, "I feel like I've been attending my own funeral."

He told a crowd that included three former U.S. presidents - Clinton, Carter, and George H.W. Bush - that he was embarrassed by the attention and said there was "too much Billy Graham " in the exhibits.

"This building behind me is just a building," he said then. "It's an instrument, a tool for the Gospel. The primary thing is the Gospel of Christ."

After I read these words I got chills…it made me think of my favorite descriptions on the Apostle John in his final days. It reads, “The aged apostle John was so frail in his final days at Ephesus that he had to be carried into the church. One phrase was constantly on his lips: “My little children, love one another.” Asked why he always said this, he replied, “it is the Lord’s command, and if this alone be done, it is enough.”

I think that the chills came from the similarity of these men….I know their words were different…but their hearts just feel the same.

heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts

I believe in grace.

I have a cousin named Amanda. She is a Pilates instructor, and really good one I might add.

Amanda was teaching a class at the gym I work out at, so I went. And I can tell you a day removed that I hurt.

Yesterday before the class I was shooting some baskets and I lost track of time (side note: I love it when that happens). So I rushed into the classroom where Amanda was teaching and I grabbed a mat and I found an empty area and began my workout.

It wasn’t but two stretches into the workout that Amanda had us doing some form of what I think was a sit-up only to hear the lady right behind me pretty much fart as loud as I have ever heard a woman fart before.

I immediately looked down and by the grace of God I didn’t laugh.

It didn’t hit me till the next morning when I work up that 1. I was left with scars for life, and that 2. That was only the second time I have ever heard a woman fart….it was so loud I can’t get over it.

heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts