Art class was one of my favorite things about eighth grade. If you’ve ever had an art lesson with my former teacher, you know one of her favorite things to say is “draw what you see—not what you think you see.” This concept permeated every aspect of the class, from our still-life acrylic paintings to landscape watercolors to portrait photography. But more than any of these, it especially impacted our blind contour drawings.
If blind contour is foreign to you, all it means is the artist looks only at the object and never at the paper in front of them. It can be difficult and even frustrating at first, when you finally look down at your work to see that what was supposed to be an elephant has turned into a giraffe-horse with a strangely short neck. But over time, the class slowly learned to draw exactly what we saw in front of us, instead of drawing what we thought the object should look like. You see, we all have an image in our head of what an elephant looks like. That image is more than likely inaccurate, but it exists all the same. And if we try to create art that looks like that image, we may never achieve a true reflection of the real elephant.
We live in a culture that talks incessantly about self-improvement. Self-help reading floods our bookstores, gym memberships are a non-negotiable line item on many people’s budgets, new years resolutions and optimized daily schedules are a given. Are these things bad? When used properly, no—good stewardship affects all areas of our life, not just money. Yet even with all these resources, our culture is still drowning in anxiety, depression, substance abuse, emotional exhaustion, unhealthy lifestyles, dopamine addiction, people-pleasing…you name it. We have searched for ourselves relentlessly, and we have found ourselves. And yet—we have found ourselves to be lacking. We have found there is a hole in our heart that is bigger than we can fill.
While the Christian community has claimed to choose a different path than the world, it sometimes feels like we have just created a Jesus-branded version of the world’s self-help gospel. “Keep focusing on your own growth and staying true to yourself…oh and while you’re at it, do what Jesus would do.” Yes, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but I think it’s time we realized that we can’t expect the world’s philosophy to fulfill us, even if we Christianize it. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” So let’s start acting like it.
To paraphrase something my pastor said once: “When we look to ourselves to discover who God is, we create a fake version of God in our minds…and then we invite others to come and serve this false god we worship.” Just like a blind contour, we can’t continue to look at our own work if we want to improve. And even though it will be hard, and even discouraging, the first time we try to look only at the Object, we will be continually turned in the direction of holiness. It doesn’t matter how well my drawing lines up with the image in my mind, or how good my shading is, or how perfect my proportions, if the outcome doesn’t resemble the real thing. And to make matters worse, if others are looking at my work to discover what the real thing is like, they will be even more significantly misled. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 says, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” Our pursuit is to become like Christ, not to become like our own mental image of who He wants us to be.
And here’s where the grace comes in. We have a compassionate Father, who is pleased by our poor and feeble attempts to become like Him, because He sees the heart posture of humble submission behind the imperfect results. As David prays in Psalm 51, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me…the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” God doesn’t need your perfect schedule and self-discipline and personal goals to do a great work. At their best, those things are useful tools to subdue the flesh so that He may take His rightful place as King and Lord.
One of my very favorite C. S. Lewis quotes speaks beautifully to this concept. He says, “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and doesn’t seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—you thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
He is not done with you yet. That’s why you’re still here. Submit yourself to the process and fix your eyes relentlessly on the hope set before you.
“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).
Steadfast, Immovable, Abounding 
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